The moment I heard Janice say the surgical equipment would cost a hundred thousand dollars, I knew they'd come looking for me.

I just never imagined they'd come all the way to my company.

I'd barely stepped down into the ground-floor lobby before they were on me, demanding the hundred thousand.

"Loretta, your sister's still short a hundred thousand for the surgical equipment. Just front her the money to tide her over."

When I only stood there stone-faced, giving them nothing, their faces twisted with displeasure. My mother went further, plopping straight down onto the floor and breaking into loud, wailing sobs.

"What a wretched life I have! Raised an ungrateful daughter who lives high on the hog and couldn't care less whether her own sister lives or dies!"

My father stood beside her, sobbing his story out to the crowd of people leaving work around us.

"Everyone, be the judge! Her sister's working on an international research project, wanted to borrow a little money for an experiment, and this so-called older sister won't part with a single cent. She's trying to ruin her sister's whole future!"

The people around us murmured among themselves, but every look was scornful.

Money that working people earned through sweat and toil, who'd want to just hand it over to a stranger?

Seeing that no one was taking her side, my mother threw all restraint aside, shot to her feet, and jabbed a finger in my face.

"Hand over your paycheck card! Your sister needs that money now. If you hold up her big project, can you afford to make it right?"

I only told her calmly,

"Mom, this month's pay hasn't come in yet. Last month's, half went to rent, half went to paying off installments. There's six hundred dollars left on the card."

"Six hundred?" My mother's eyes went wide. "Who do you think you're fooling? You've been working almost ten years, forty-five hundred a month. Where's the money?"

"I gave it to you," I said, laying out the plain facts.

"Three thousand transferred to you every month, to fund Janice's studies abroad. Four years of it. Nearly a hundred and fifty thousand."

For a moment, everything went quiet.

"And there was that fifty thousand in dowry money." I pulled my phone from my pocket and brought up the acknowledgment. "Aunt Daphne transferred it to Janice yesterday at noon, as research funding. Mom, I've been flat broke for a long time now."

My mother choked on her words.

My father's face went ugly with shame. He came over and yanked at her. "That's enough, let's go home first——"

Being dragged off by him, she still turned back at the last moment to warn me,

"This time I'll find a way to cover this money for Janice myself. But from now on, your paycheck card goes to me, until you've paid back the full hundred thousand!"

I watched her retreating back, the pressure in my chest almost unbearable.

This woman who gave birth to me, who raised me, could be this cruel to me for the sake of her other daughter.

After work, I got on the bus back to my rental, wanting to see how Janice's experiment was coming along.

The second I opened the recording app, Janice's impatient voice came through my earbuds.

"What are you so scared of? It's a minor procedure, just cutting away some excess tissue. Girls in South Africa get it done at three years old. You're young and strong, what's there to be afraid of?"

So my mother really had moved fast. In half a day she'd gotten Janice the equipment.

A timid girl's voice.

"But... but I'm scared of the pain... won't it be dangerous?"

"How could it be dangerous?" Janice's tone shifted. Maybe she was afraid the girls would back out. "Tell you what. I'll do a run-through on my own sister first, so you can watch. If this experiment were dangerous, would I use my own flesh-and-blood sister? You see my point, right?"

"Then... how are you going to get your sister here? Didn't she move away?"

Janice laughed.

"My sister's got a bad temper. She'd never go along with it, so I'll have to trouble you girls to bring her to me tied up. I'll throw in some extra cash for you then."

Through the earbuds, I heard the delinquent girls agreeing, happy about it.

Watching the cars stream by on the street, I felt cold all over, even though it was the height of summer.

Since Janice refused to ever let me go, she had no one to blame but herself.

I opened my phone, sent a single text, and got off the bus, walking step by step back down that same road to death from my past life.

The alley looked exactly the same.

In my past life, this was the very spot where they'd cornered me tonight.

Footsteps closed in from every direction.

Three of them, their bleached-blonde hair jarring under the dim streetlight.

Leading the pack was the same heavyset blonde chewing gum. She spat it out and grabbed a fistful of my collar.

"Sis, make it easy on yourself. It's just an experiment."

Another one, tall and thin, circled behind me and cut off any way out.

I didn't struggle.

"Let's go." My voice came out strangely calm.

The heavyset blonde blinked, then sneered. "Well, aren't you cooperative."

They marched me back to the Simmons house.

The living room blazed with light.

My parents stood by the sofa. When they saw me hauled in by three blondes, something flickered across their faces for an instant.

"Janice, this... there really isn't any danger, is there?"

The door to the master bedroom stood wide open. Janice was already at the surgical table, arranging the instruments on the tray.

"Mom." Janice didn't even look up, still sterilizing her tools.

"It's a legitimate scientific experiment. What danger could there be? Besides, I'll run a trial on my sister first. Once I've got the technique down, I'll do the three of them. Higher success rate that way."

My father frowned and glanced at me.

His gaze settled on me, his lips moving.

I thought he was worried about my life.

But the words that came next killed off every last feeling I had for this family.

"Don't ruin her body. When she gets married, we've still got a dowry to collect."

My mother nodded at once.

"Right, right, Janice, be careful. She's plain, sure, but an intact body is still worth something."

I stood in the middle of the living room, hands bound with rope, listening to my own parents debate the market price of my body in the marriage game.

I wanted to laugh.

But I couldn't.

"What are you all standing around for?" Janice snapped, out of patience. "Get her onto the table."

The bedroom door swung shut, and I was strapped down to that cold surgical table.

The overhead surgical lamp clicked on, so bright I squinted.

Janice pulled on a mask, leaving only a pair of narrow, upturned eyes exactly like mine.

There wasn't a trace of hesitation or unease in them.

Only eager, twitching excitement.

Janice lifted the scalpel from the tray and studied it under the lamp.

I stared at that blade, my palms starting to sweat.

I'd braced myself for all of it, but lying there for real, feeling the restraints press into me, I still couldn't stop shaking.

It was the body's own instinct.

Janice noticed me trembling, and above the mask her eyes crinkled.

"Don't be scared, sis." Her voice was light and soft, the way you'd soothe a child. "I don't have a license, but I've dissected a dozen rabbits. My hands are very steady."

"And besides, sis, a middle-school dropout like you, getting to contribute to academic research? You should feel honored."

With that, the blade started toward my lower belly, and I clenched my back teeth hard.

The instant the edge broke my skin, I stopped her. "Janice."

I looked into her startled eyes and said it one word at a time.

"You bring that knife down, and your life is the one that's finished."