I didn't want to eat in the cafeteria. I didn't want to see anyone from my floor.

So I took the T to Chinatown, to the little hot pot place on Beach Street where the owner still remembered my order.

"Sophie! Alone tonight?" Mrs. Tran slid a menu across the table. "Where's the tall boy?"

"Gone."

She clicked her tongue. "Good. He never finished his vegetables."

I laughed for the first time all day. "Spicy and mushroom split broth, please. Extra lamb."

"Extra lamb for a broken heart. Smart girl."

She bustled off. I picked up my phone to check the time.

A voice message sat at the top of my screen.

*Grace.*

My shoulders loosened a little. For seven years, Grace Miller had sent me updates like clockwork. A test score. A science fair ribbon. A photo of a library book she loved.

She'd never met me. She only knew that someone from the Hayes family paid for her school, her rent, and her groceries. She called me *Sis* in every message.

I pressed play and held the phone to my ear.

"Sis, hiii." The voice was sugary and drawn out. "I'm having *such* a bad week. My roommate is so poor and so ugly, like, you'd feel sorry for her if she wasn't so mean. And guess what? She scratched up my designer bag. On purpose. Out of jealousy."

My grip on the phone tightened.

"I mean, I'm not *asking* asking," the voice went on, giggling. "But if you could send a little extra this month, I could replace it? Only if it's okay. Love you, Sis!"

The message ended.

I didn't move.

That giggle. That soft, wet little lift at the end of every sentence.

I had heard it at six-forty this morning, through my bed curtain.

*No.* I set the phone face down on the table. *Plenty of girls talk like that. Half of Boston talks like that.*

It buzzed against the wood.

I flipped it back over. A text this time.

*Also I'm in college in Boston now!! Everyone here has nice stuff and I feel so out of place.* 🥺 *Could you maybe get me a Hermès? Just a small one? I'd take SUCH good care of it.*

A photo followed. A tan Birkin, pulled from some website, a price tag I didn't need to read.

My thumb hovered over the keyboard. Then I typed.

*Which school?*

The answer came in under ten seconds.

My school. My campus. The name spelled out in her cute little lowercase letters, with a heart after it.

I closed my eyes.

There was still one way out. One chance that I was wrong.

*Can you send me a video of your dorm? I want to make sure you're living somewhere safe.*

*Omg you're so sweet!! One sec!!*

Mrs. Tran set a basket of napkins down. "You okay, honey? You look pale."

"I'm fine," I said. Too fast.

The video arrived.

I tapped it.

The camera opened on a door. A dented brass number plate. Room 412.

My room.

"Okay, so this is the entrance," Grace chirped off-screen. "It's kind of small, but it's cute, right? That's Brianna's bed. She's super nice. And that's Chloe's, she's obsessed with skincare."

The camera swung toward the window. A cream cardigan draped over the chair.

"This is my spot. Best view in the room, obviously."

My spot. My name on the assignment card, still taped to the frame. I could see the corner of it in the shot.

Then the camera panned left. A gray curtain, half drawn. A stack of Statistics notes. The blue mug my mother gave me.

Her voice dropped, flat and bored.

"And that's *her* bed. The poor, ugly one who ruined my bag. Don't even look at it, Sis, it's depressing."

The video froze on my pillow.

My fingers had gone cold. I pressed them against my lips, and they felt like ice.

Somewhere along the way, Grace Miller had started calling herself Vivian Reed.

And I'd been paying for every step of it.

"Here we go!" Mrs. Tran lowered the steaming pot onto the burner. Red oil on one side, pale mushroom broth on the other. "Careful, it's hot."

"Thank you."

She lingered. "You're not even hungry, are you?"

I shook my head.

She patted my shoulder and left me alone with the steam.

---

Seven years ago, it had been cold like this too.

My father and I had driven three hours north for a Foundation supply drive. A warehouse in a town whose mill had closed a decade before. Folding tables. Boxes of winter coats.

I was thirteen, and bored, and I'd wandered toward the back.

That's where I saw her.

A skinny girl with chapped hands, crouched behind a stack of pallets. She was watching the line but wouldn't step into it.

"Hey," I'd said. "You can get a coat. They're free."

She shrank back. "My aunt says I'm not allowed. She says we already got ours."

"Got what?"

"The money." Her voice was barely a whisper. "From the program. For me. Since my dad died."

I'd gone and found my father. "Dad, there's a girl back there. Her aunt's taking her money."

He'd crouched beside her, gentle as I'd ever seen him. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Grace."

"Where's your mom, Grace?"

She stared at the floor. "She left. After the funeral."

My father's face had gone very still. Twenty minutes later, a woman in a stained parka was shouting at him by the loading dock.

"That money's for the household! I feed her, don't I?"

"You feed her," my father said quietly, "with what's left after your cigarettes."

I'd tugged his sleeve. "Can we just take care of her ourselves? All of it? School and a real place to live?"

He looked down at me for a long moment. "That's a big promise, Sophie."

"I'll keep it."

And I did.

A week later, Grace called me for the first time, using our house manager's phone. She cried so hard she couldn't finish a sentence.

"Thank you, I—thank you, Sis, I'll—I promise I'll—"

"You don't have to promise anything," I'd told her. "Just go to school. Just be okay."

For seven years, I made sure she was. Tuition. Housing. Every textbook. When the Foundation's monthly allowance felt too small, I sent her part of mine. I skipped trips. I wore my old boots another winter.

I never wanted her to lose a single chance because she was poor.

---

The broth was boiling now. Bubbles broke against the divider.

I picked up my phone again.

Grace had sent three more messages while I sat there.

*Did you like the video??*

*Sis??*

*No pressure about the bag!! Just thought I'd ask* 🥺💕

I looked at the Birkin photo for a long time.

Then I thought about the bag in the evidence sleeve. The scratch I made with my own car key. Her voice saying, *I'm the victim here.*

The girl behind the pallets would never have said that.

Or maybe she always would have, and I'd just never been close enough to hear.

I typed slowly.

*Sure. Come by my place in a couple of days. You can pick one out.*

The reply exploded across my screen.

*OMG!!!!*

*SIS!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU* 😭😭😭💖💖💖

*You're literally the best person in the whole world!!! I can't wait to finally meet you!!!*

Hearts. Crying faces. A gif of a cartoon cat spinning in circles.

She had no idea.

I set the phone down beside the plate of raw lamb. Steam rolled up and blurred my glasses, and for a second the restaurant disappeared.

Mrs. Tran called from the counter. "Sophie, eat before it gets cold!"

"Okay," I said.

I dropped a slice of lamb into the red broth and watched it curl.

My phone lit up one last time.

*Should I bring my boyfriend? He's DYING to meet the Hayes family.* 😘

I stared at the screen.

Then I smiled, and typed back one word.

*Please.*