He raised his hand, letting the shredded paper drift to the floor like snow. Watching the confetti fall, Lily finally stopped crying. A smile broke through her tears, triumphant and cruel.
Memories of the injustice clawed at me.
I remembered the college entrance exams vividly. I had outperformed Lily by a significant margin, and Grandma and Grandpa had rewarded me with a thick red envelope. When Lily found out, she flew into a rage, threatening to run away if the "imbalance" wasn't corrected.
To pacify her, Mom and Dad hiked her monthly allowance to $450. Meanwhile, studying in Los Angeles, I scraped by on $120.
"Grandpa and Grandma are playing favorites," Dad had justified. "We have to make it up to Lily. Keep the bowl of water level."
"I earned that reward because I did well on the exam!" I had screamed, tears streaming down my face. "If you won't match it, fine. But why is my allowance a fraction of hers? How is that fair?"
Dad didn't answer with words. He answered with a boot to my chest.
Pain exploded in my ribs. I collapsed, gasping, unable to stand. He didn't even glance at me. Instead, he cradled Lily in his arms, pointing a shaking finger at my crumpled form.
"You know your sister has been frail since birth, yet you haggle over every cent? We're family. Can't you just yield to her?"
That kick severed the last thread of my affection for them.
From that moment on, I swore to become financially independent. When my allowance ran dry, I worked. At my peak, I juggled classes and three part-time jobs in a single day. Days before my postgraduate entrance exam, I was still pulling shifts at a fast-food joint. Exhaustion caught up with me; I got caught in the rain, developed a high fever, and bombed the exam.
When Mom and Dad found out, they didn't offer comfort. Only ridicule.
Dad sipped his tea, voice flat. "I don't know what you do all day. Four years of university, and you can't even get into a graduate program. Look at your sister—she calls us every day, and she breezed into an overseas university."
"On a full scholarship," Mom added, beaming. "Won't cost us a cent."
Their words made me feel small. Worthless.
I had been confused then. Lily had never taken a book seriously in her life. How had she suddenly pulled it together? Now I knew. Her "scholarship" was a lie. She had climbed her way to New York on a ladder built of our parents' blood and sweat—and my sacrifice. They had whitewashed the bribery to save face.
And me?
I had missed the cutoff for my dream school by a few points. I begged them for a $10,000 loan to retake the exam, offering to sign an IOU.
They refused. Coldly.
"Business is tight," Dad said, waving me off. "You need to start working and support the family."
Mom scoffed. "What if you fail again? Even if you get in, you'll be an old maid by graduation. Who'll want to marry you then?"
Under their pressure, I surrendered. I found a job near our hometown paying $1,200 a month. I kept $450 for survival and handed the rest to my parents for "safekeeping."
That money, I realized now, had flowed directly to Lily—funding her tuition and her lavish lifestyle abroad.
During the two years she spent "earning her master's":
While I pulled all-nighters in a cramped rental revising proposals, she was sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty.
While I shivered on an electric scooter commuting through winter storms, she sipped lattes in warm campus cafés.
While I worked unpaid overtime on weekends, she traveled the globe, posting pretentious captions like, "The world is a book, and I've turned another page."
We lived in different universes, and my parents watched it happen without a shred of guilt.
The most ridiculous part? Back then, I had actually felt proud of my sacrifice.
