I decided to go abroad with my childhood sweetheart, and it caught everyone off guard.

Because ever since I was little, I'd set my heart on the Ivy League.

When it came time to fill out the study-abroad applications, he handed my spot to my adopted sister instead.

"You're so dead set on coming abroad with me. It's because you didn't get into the Ivy League at all, isn't it?"

"You're a pampered young lady born into money. Worst case, you go to some no-name college and come home to inherit the family business. But this is Kathleen Gilbert's one and only chance to change her fate. Are you really going to take that from her too?"

"Can you stop being so willful? We may have a verbal engagement, but that's no reason for you to control me!"

The sister I'd always doted on didn't say a single word in my defense.

That day, I stood frozen for a long, long time.

And that very night, I tore the study-abroad papers to shreds and let them fall across the floor.

This verbal engagement could end right here.

——

Once I decided not to go abroad, I dialed the Ivy Honors admissions office.

"Ms. Finch, I'll take my place in the Ivy Honors Program!"

On the other end, she was so thrilled she said the same word three times over.

"I'll arrange your acceptance letter right away!"

After I hung up, I meant to tell my parents the news.

But they pulled me aside to look at hotel venues.

"Trudy Gilbert, where would you like to hold your celebration banquet? Your father and I will throw the biggest one yet for you and Kathleen together! We'll settle your engagement to Elliot Delgado at the same time."

Thinking of how tight the family company's finances were, with Kathleen's study abroad still to fund, every dollar saved counted.

So I refused outright.

"Mom, there's nothing between him and me anymore. There's no need for a celebration banquet either—"

Before I could finish, Elliot, who'd just brought Kathleen home, cut me off.

"Why not have one? Are you afraid everyone will find out Kathleen scored better than you and gets to study abroad?"

"Uncle, Auntie, Kathleen really outdid herself on the SATs this time. She cleared the top-tier cutoff. Could you let her go abroad with me?"

"As for the banquet, I think she deserves a proper celebration!"

I turned my head and saw that Elliot felt not the slightest relief that I'd turned down the engagement.

His eyes held nothing but a stubborn insistence that my parents send Kathleen abroad and throw her a grand banquet.

So it turned out clearing the top-tier cutoff was worth a proper celebration?

Then with my perfect SAT score, didn't that mean... I could put him in his place quite nicely?

"Mom, actually, I scored a seven—"

"You're not about to claim you scored over seven hundred, are you? I heard you didn't even clear the second-tier cutoff!"

Elliot cut me off again.

The look in his eyes was full of contempt.

I had no idea where he'd heard that rumor. I simply lost all desire to speak.

Once the acceptance letter came, the rumor would fall apart on its own.

My phone buzzed all at once.

A private message from Ms. Finch.

【Trudy, in three days I'll be coming to Harbor City to deliver your acceptance letter.】

【At the same time, I'll be hosting all your school's teachers at the Skyview Hotel, the grandest in Harbor City. I'll thank them with you for all their hard work, and interview them on how they raised a student as outstanding as you.】

【Give your parents a heads-up. They'll be interviewed as well.】

By past tradition, an event like this always drew plenty of reporters, complete with a feature column afterward.

This would bring my parents far more honor than any celebration banquet!

Smiling, I wrote back to Ms. Finch.

But my mother thought I was forcing the smile, and she grabbed my hand to comfort me.

"Oh, sweetheart, you can still have a celebration banquet even if you didn't do well. Once you're abroad—"

"Mom, I'm not going abroad. Send Kathleen instead! And the banquet, just hold it for her alone!"

"But three days from now, you'll need to come have dinner with me at the Skyview Hotel. All the teachers from school will be there too."

To my surprise, the moment Kathleen heard this, her eyes went red.

As if she'd just steeled herself for some great sacrifice, she looked at Elliot with the most reluctant expression:

"Elliot, I've decided not to go abroad with you after all. Our family company's been struggling lately, and we can only afford to send one person overseas. My sister didn't test well, so she needs this chance to polish her credentials more than I do..."

"And about the celebration banquet, if my sister doesn't want one, then I won't have one either. Every little bit we save helps the family!"

Her thoughtfulness and consideration earned her instant looks of approval from Elliot and my parents.

Only in Elliot's eyes there was also obvious heartache.

"Then why isn't she the one cutting costs? She's the one booking the best hotel to treat the entire faculty to dinner! I'd bet it's all to snatch the spot abroad away from you!"

He grabbed Kathleen's hand and marched up to me, demanding:

"You're always targeting Kathleen like this. Doesn't your conscience hurt?"

The word always baffled me:

"Didn't I just say I'd let her go abroad? I even told Mom and Dad to throw her a separate banquet. What more do you want?"

Elliot stared at me for a long moment before saying coldly:

"Thanks to you, everyone now knows Kathleen is the Gilberts' adopted daughter. If we only throw a banquet for her and not for you, isn't that just another way to make people laugh at her?"

My parents quickly asked me what was going on.

After all, we'd always told outsiders that Kathleen was my real sister.

I shook my head, completely at a loss:

"How would I know why?"

Right then Kathleen plopped down on the couch, buried her face between her knees, and burst into loud sobs.

"Dad, Mom, if my sister isn't having one, then I won't either!"

Elliot's heart ached for her, and he rushed to soothe her in a gentle voice.

When nothing he said could calm her, he turned and demanded coldly of me:

"Trudy, why do you always use your status as the precious Gilbert heiress to bully your own adopted sister?"

Kathleen hurriedly tugged at his arm:

"Elliot, you promised me you wouldn't say anything about my sister!"

Elliot forced himself silent.

For all the world like someone who'd been bullied by me but didn't dare say so.

My parents had always doted on Kathleen, and they immediately ordered him to explain what had happened.

But he only left one parting line as he pulled Kathleen away.

"Kathleen won't let me say it, so I won't! Anyway, as long as Kathleen comes abroad with me, no one will be able to bully her!"

It was an exquisitely crafted line.

It left far too much room for people's imagination.

My father pulled a long face and interrogated me.

"Trudy, why did you tell people Kathleen was the adopted daughter? Why did you bully her?"

"Dad, I didn't..."

My father slammed the table, his voice cold as ice:

"Elliot always sides with what's right, not with who's family. If you hadn't gone too far, he never would have said something that harsh!"

"You'd better come clean yourself!"

A bitter laugh escaped me, and with it, tears.

Ever since junior year, when Elliot fell through the ice and I pulled him out, he'd grown noticeably distant from me.

Instead, the way he looked at Kathleen, who'd fallen into the water that same time, had changed entirely.

I'd just assumed the two of them shared a bond from the shared ordeal, and thought nothing of it.

Later, one morning Kathleen was dragging her feet too long, and I was in a hurry to get to school, so I had the driver take me first.

Somehow a rumor sprang up that I'd deliberately refused to let the driver give Kathleen a ride.

From then on Elliot took up the role of her devoted protector, picking her up and dropping her off morning and night.

When I asked him why he was suddenly so good to Kathleen, why he'd stopped picking me up, his explanation at the time was:

"Trudy, Kathleen is your adopted sister after all. If outsiders found out you two don't get along, it's the Gilbert name that gets dragged through the mud."

"Me helping you look after her is for your own good."

Kathleen had just transferred to his school, and since they were on the same route, going together worked out nicely. It saved him the detour of picking me up.

Naive as I'd always been, busy throwing everything I had into the Ivy Honors Program, I still hadn't paid it any mind.

I'd even thought he was being considerate toward me.

It wasn't until today, filling out the study-abroad application form, that I finally understood.

Somewhere along the way, without my noticing, his every thought, his every glance, had become only Kathleen.

"Dad, he likes Kathleen, and he wants to call off our engagement."

When he realized it was all a misunderstanding, my father gave me a long, searching look.

"Trudy, if Elliot really likes Kathleen more now, would you truly be willing to step aside and let them be?"

"Yes!"

I nodded without a second's hesitation.

Kathleen might have been our adopted sister, but ever since she came to our family at eight years old, I'd always treated her like my own blood.

To me, family meant more than any man.

I didn't want the two of us turning on each other over some boy.

And I didn't want a childhood bond, the one we'd grown up with, to end in something ugly.

My father took me to the Delgado home.

The moment Kathleen saw me and my father, she turned and went straight to the kitchen to make tea.

She slid open the cabinet with practiced ease, pulled out the cups and the tea leaves. One look told you this wasn't her first time here.

For some reason, I read it in the way she moved, like she was staking her claim as the lady of the house.

I pushed the thought down and spoke to Elliot plainly, of my own accord.

"If you like Kathleen, you can just say so to my face. There's no need to go in circles, pulling tricks to make me back out. After all, I scored a perfect SAT—"

The Ivy League was the better choice for me.

The roar of a car engine outside swallowed that last sentence whole.

"Elliot, come out and help carry the luggage!"

It was Elliot's parents, back from their trip.

He and my father stood and went out to greet them.

I got up to go too, but Kathleen blocked me with the tea tray in her hands.

"Sis, I shouldn't have thrown a fit and gotten difficult earlier. Don't hold it against me, okay?"

I looked at the scalding tea, steam still curling off it, and had no intention of taking it.

But Kathleen insisted on pressing it into my hands.

I only stepped back, just one step, and she went stumbling backward too.

A whole cup of boiling tea spilled across the back of her hand.

"Ah!"

"Sis, why did you push me?"

When Elliot and my father came in carrying the suitcases, this was the scene they walked into.

Elliot dropped the luggage on the spot and rushed in, his eyes gone red.

He cradled the reddened back of Kathleen's hand with such care, his voice trembling.

"Kathleen, does it hurt? I'll take you to the hospital!"

Kathleen spoke up for me through her tears.

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt. I didn't hold it steady myself... it's not Sis's fault..."

Elliot's face went dark as he shouted at me.

"Trudy! Will this ever end? Why would you push her on purpose?"

"I didn't!"

The denial came out of me on instinct.

But he didn't believe it.

He only looked at me, deeply disappointed.

"Kathleen's the one who can't stand pain. How could she possibly pour tea that hot all over her own hand?"

"And besides, your father and I both heard her apologize to you with our own ears, and saw you push her with our own eyes!"

I turned to my father, at a loss, only to find his face even darker than Elliot's.

Clearly, he too believed he hadn't seen wrong.

Kathleen cried harder, but in the eyes she fixed on me there was, beneath the fear, a flicker of triumph.

It was only in that moment that I knew for certain. Elliot's sudden turn against me, all of it, was Kathleen's doing!

I pointed at the security camera and said flatly,

"Then check the footage and see whether I pushed her or not!"

But Elliot let out a scornful laugh.

"Kathleen's hurt this badly and you still have it in you to go checking cameras? If you ask me, you're just stalling on purpose, dragging it out so she suffers, so she ends up sick worse than last time!"

My father froze.

"What last time?"