2: 2

2

"What? No?"

Rita blinked, then smiled at me. "My sweet little sister, playing stubborn with me again. Every time you say no, and every time you end up going along with it anyway."

Joseph Gilbert, my brother-in-law, chimed in with a grin.

"Exactly. Come on, don't make a fuss. It's settled. Over the holiday, the whole family rides in your motorhome and we all go on a trip together."

Maureen, his mother, was busy stuffing the cherries into her bag as she said cheerfully,

"That's right. We're one family, no need to talk like strangers. Traveling together is lively. Going all by yourself would be so lonely."

Denys nodded along too.

"And don't forget to bring that Romanée-Conti you've got tucked away. We'll all drink it together."

The Romanée-Conti.

That was the bottle I'd been saving for some important moment down the road.

This Denys really didn't hold back.

Looking at this shameless family in front of me.

I felt like I was watching a pack of demons prancing around before my eyes.

I half wished I could pull a magic staff out of my ear and smash them all dead with one swing.

Choking down my anger, I said,

"I told you. No means no!"

Rita and her whole family went quiet for a moment.

Then Rita gave a cold, contemptuous little laugh and asked,

"Little sister, what's gotten into you today?"

"I'm your older sister!"

Thinking of everything from my past life, especially that exact same look in her eyes while I was in prison.

I clenched my fists.

"Every time we travel, I'm the one who pays. Why on earth would I agree to go anywhere with you?"

Rita said, put out,

"Little sister, what kind of talk is that? We're family. How can you be so calculating?"

Joseph shook his head.

"Right, come on. Talking about money makes it awkward, doesn't it? We're family. What's there to talk about money for? We're not outsiders!"

I looked at them.

"Not talk about money? Then what should we talk about? You treat me like your wallet? On top of that I'm supposed to play nanny to your two kids, and then thank you for the privilege?"

Joseph's face went cold.

"That's an ugly thing to say."

"When we go out to have fun, you don't expect to pay? You want to freeload off our family?"

I said furiously,

"When did I ever freeload? Which time wasn't I the one paying?"

Joseph kept his face cold.

"The way you talk, you'd think you paid for everything. Did I not pay anything? Last time we traveled, didn't I treat you to breakfast?"

He nearly stopped my heart with that one.

I asked,

"That trip was three days, nine meals. I paid for eight of them, plus every hotel room. I spent over twenty thousand. That one meal you treated us to cost a few bucks, a bowl of wonton soup and one donut each. How do you have the nerve to bring it up?"

Joseph's expression flickered, and he said guiltily,

"A few bucks is still treating you. Whose fault is it you didn't eat more? If you'd eaten ten bowls of wonton soup, would I not have treated you? I'd still have paid. You can't put it away and that's my fault?"

His twisted logic nearly broke me. I shot back,

"Fine. Let's leave the food and the rooms out of it."

"Then let me ask you. Last time we went traveling, you said there was a problem with your bank card and asked me to front the airfare, said you'd pay it back the next day."

"It's been half a year now. Have you paid it back?"

Joseph frowned, and his mother, Maureen, burst out,

"Girl, now you're being unreasonable. What's the harm in covering the airfare?"

"Family, and now you're keeping score?"

"Besides, after that trip, didn't I bring you a cake and some bananas?"

"Think about it carefully!"

I was so angry I laughed.

She had brought over a cake and some bananas.

But that cake had been sitting in their house for days before the trip, unfinished, and she handed it off to me to eat. It gave me diarrhea for three days.

As for the bananas, they'd been sitting who knows how long, all of them rotten, with tiny black gnats crawling over them.

3: 3

3

I'd finally seen just how shameless this whole family was.

I couldn't be bothered to keep arguing with them.

"I'm not agreeing to any of it. Now get out!"

My sister's face went cold.

"Bess, what's that supposed to mean? I'm your sister. You'd treat me like this?"

In the past, every time she said those words, I couldn't bring myself to refuse her again.

Back then I still believed family came before everything.

But I'd been reborn. I would never be that stupid again.

I looked her dead in the eyes, colder than she was.

"You want to come along in my motorhome? Fine."

"But first, you pay back every cent you've owed me all these years."

"Second, if your family wants to use my motorhome, it's two thousand a day. Not a penny less."

Rita exploded.

"You've turned into a money-grubbing miser! We're leaving!"

She stormed off, dragging the whole family with her.

"Hold it right there!"

I called after them.

Rita sneered.

"I knew it, you'd—"

"You're at it again!"

I scooped up her younger son and pulled the phone he'd stolen out of his pocket.

"Now you can go!"

"Waaah—" The second the phone left his hands, the little boy burst into tears. "Aunt Bess is mean, Aunt Bess is a bad guy, I'm never talking to Aunt Bess again!"

The moment he started bawling, the whole family melted with pity.

Every one of them stared at me like I was some kind of villain.

I said coldly, "The kid's been sneaking and stealing since he could walk, and he's got the nerve to cry?"

I couldn't be bothered to waste another word on them, so I just shut the door.

From outside came a stream of cursing.

"That sister of yours, Bess, gets more out of line every day. What does a little kid know? So he took her phone. How can you call a child a thief?"

"Exactly. Young as she is and already this bitter and mean. No wonder she's still single. She deserves to stay alone her whole life!"

Listening to it, I couldn't stop myself from opening the door again.

"So stealing a phone is nothing, is it? How about I call the police and let the cops sort out who's right?"

That shut them up. They rolled their eyes and finally left, dragging their feet the whole way.

I knew perfectly well they wouldn't drop it.

So I ordered some surveillance and listening devices online and spent the whole next day installing them.

The following evening, Rita and her husband Joseph showed up again. This time they weren't empty-handed. They'd even brought some fruit.

Rita was unusually pleasant, smiling.

"Bess, we were in the wrong last time. We bought some fruit specially to apologize."

Joseph smiled along with her.

"That's right, Bess. We thought it over, and we'll pay that money back as soon as we can."

I knew exactly what this was. A weasel wishing the chickens a happy new year. There was nothing good behind it.

Still, I invited them in and let them sit.

As we talked, Rita suddenly turned all secretive and said she needed to speak to me about something, just the two of us, outside.

I didn't think much of it and followed her out.

When we came back, Joseph was lounging comfortably against the sofa.

"All done chatting?"

"You two sisters, honestly. What secret's so important you had to take it outside?"

Rita smiled.

"Nothing to do with you. Come on, we're going home for dinner."

After they left, I checked the apartment right away.

Just as I'd expected, the motorhome keys were gone.

But I'd bugged the place long before.

I opened the app on my phone.

The recording played back.

"That damn Bess, she gets more clueless by the day."

"Old Lambert upstairs has been wanting to find himself a wife for ages, hasn't he? I say we push this through fast and marry her off to old Lambert. He'll even put up three hundred eighty thousand in bride price. When that comes, we collect it on her behalf. Once it's in our pockets, it's ours!"

"Yeah, we should get on it quick. But leave it until after the trip."

"She'll never guess we swiped the car keys, ha. By the time she figures it out tomorrow, we'll be long gone with the car."

I finished listening and saved the recording.

But I didn't call the police right away.

After all, they hadn't actually driven off yet. It didn't fully add up to grand theft of something worth hundreds of thousands.

Tomorrow, when they made off with my car, that was the moment they'd have no one but themselves to blame.

4: 4

4

Early the next morning, I opened the window.

Sure enough, my motorhome was gone from the lot below.

I picked up the phone and dialed.

"I want to report a theft. The motorhome I bought is worth five hundred and eighty thousand dollars, and it disappeared this morning. Please open a case and investigate right away."

After I hung up, I stretched out lazily on the bed.

Then it hit me, there was still one thing I hadn't done.

I got up, washed and dressed, and went straight out to take care of it.

By the time I came back, two officers were already waiting at my door.

"You're the one who reported a stolen motorhome?"

I nodded.

"Have you noticed anyone suspicious lately?"

"Or is there anyone you suspect?"

I thought for a second.

"My car keys went missing too, so I think it was someone I know. First they took my keys, then drove the motorhome off."

The two officers exchanged a glance.

One of them asked.

"Who do you suspect? Any proof? Does the vehicle have GPS?"

"It does. Not just GPS. I installed a camera inside too."

I opened the surveillance feed on my phone.

The inside of the vehicle was there in full view.

Joseph was driving.

Rita had her younger son with her, while her older boy was scribbling all over the inside of the motorhome with a pen.

Her mother-in-law, Maureen, was scolding him.

"Stop scribbling. If you wreck it, that little tramp will make us pay for the damage for sure."

My sister Rita said with a smile.

"Mom, we hardly ever get out like this. If the kid likes drawing, let him draw."

Maureen asked.

"And if that little tramp makes us pay?"

Rita gave a scornful little laugh.

"She wouldn't dare! I'll be doing her a favor if I don't come after her for the thousand-plus in gas!"

Maureen's face soured at once.

"That little tramp Bess Henson, going out without filling the tank first? Made us waste all that extra money for nothing."

Denys, sitting beside them, grumbled.

"You two really don't know how to handle things. Should've waited till she filled the tank, then taken it, no?"

"And another thing, when you swiped the keys, you should've grabbed that bottle of Romanée-Conti of hers while you were at it. That wine's worth tens of thousands. Leaving it in her hands is a flat-out waste!"

The officer had seen enough by then.

He said, grave now.

"Make us a backup copy of that surveillance video right away."

"Also, you know all these people, don't you?"

I nodded.

"Rita Henson. She's my sister."

The officer paused.

"Blood sister, or a cousin?"

I said.

"Blood sister."

The officer hesitated, then asked.

"You still want to press charges? You're not withdrawing?"

I asked back.

"So it's not a crime if my own sister steals from me?"

"No, that's not it…" the officer said with a frown. "Since you're not withdrawing, and it's not a complicated case, we'll open it right now, then?"

"Of course."

With my go-ahead, the officer left.

I kept watching the footage on the feed.

The motorhome passed through a toll booth.

Rita's family started complaining again.

"That tramp Bess Henson, forcing us to steal her motorhome. Now she won't travel with us, so we have to pay for everything ourselves, on top of the highway tolls."

Rita laughed.

"Mom, you just don't get it. The highways are free over the holiday."

"Oh. Still a loss, though." Maureen said, unsatisfied. "We put over a thousand of gas in her car!"

"And there's still meals, tea, every last thing coming up that costs money!"

"If she were here, we wouldn't have to spend nearly this much."

Rita said.

"Mom, didn't you say you'd set her up with old Lambert, and old Lambert would pay a three-hundred-eighty-thousand bride price?"

"Once we're back, we'll make it happen right away, get every cent back with interest!"

Maureen frowned.

"That's all well and good, but will your sister agree to it?"

"She doesn't need to agree." Rita said, cold and low.

"Once we're back, we'll use stealing her motorhome as the excuse, go over to apologize, invite her out to a meal to make it up to her."

"Get her drunk, then drop her straight into old Lambert's bed."

"Then take photos. By then, she won't be able to deny a thing!"

Maureen's eyes lit up at once.

"Now that's a good idea. And afterward we can use those photos to threaten her, make her buy them back at ten thousand a shot, or we release them! She wouldn't dare risk it. She'll pay up nice and obedient to get the photos back!"

Rita burst out laughing.

"Mom, that's why it's you. How did I not think of that?"

Maureen roared with laughter. "Ha, we'll snap away, take a few hundred, make her our family's slave for life, ha."

Listening to this family carry on, I gritted my teeth in fury.

But it wasn't long before they stopped laughing.

Rita's phone rang. She answered, and the officer's voice came through.

"Is this Rita?"

Rita asked.

"Who's this?"

The officer's tone was grave.

"This is the South End case unit. Someone has filed a report saying you stole her motorhome."

"The motorhome is worth five hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Under the law, that qualifies as an especially large sum, which already constitutes a major crime."

"Turn around now and come to the South End case unit to turn yourselves in. Cooperate, and it may go easier on you. Otherwise the charges will only be heavier."

The family that had just been laughing and scheming against me fell into a dead silence.