Kathleen sobbed and begged Elliot not to speak, so he truly fell silent.

But all at once I remembered the last time Elliot had fallen through the ice and ended up in the hospital. Back then, she'd also been hospitalized with pneumonia after falling into the water.

Could it be that everything was connected to that?

Before I could think it through, my mother heard the commotion and came over.

The moment she saw the blisters already rising on the back of Kathleen's hand, she wanted to rush her to the hospital.

Elliot, though, scooped Kathleen up sideways into his arms and hurried out.

My mother, not knowing the whole story, pulled me along into Elliot's car too.

On the way, her face was tight as she asked me,

“Trudy, what happened to Kathleen's hand?”

Elliot's hands clenched around the steering wheel, his voice ice-cold.

“She was jealous that I like Kathleen, jealous that Kathleen scored better than her and gets to go abroad with me, so she dumped a whole cup of hot tea over Kathleen's hand!”

My mother froze on the spot.

“That can't be……”

The next second, a sharp slap landed across my face.

My father shook out his stinging hand and looked at me, his eyes full of disappointment.

“Trudy Gilbert, this is what you meant by not bullying your sister!”

“If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd never have known how vicious you are!”

“Stealing a man, and stooping to something this low to do it!”

I swallowed the mouthful of rust and wanted to defend myself, but my mother jabbed me in the side and murmured under her breath,

“Trudy, your father's furious right now. Don't dig in your heels against him!”

Tears welled in my eyes. I didn't want to dig in either.

But then I caught the smug little glance Kathleen shot my way, and the wronged feeling broke free, past holding back.

“She spilled the tea on her own hand! If you don't believe me, go back and check the surveillance!”

Elliot suddenly slammed on the brakes and whipped around to glare at me.

“Are you only this brazen because you knew that camera at my place is broken?”

I froze in an instant.

The car drove on.

Inside, not one person spoke.

The pressure had dropped to its lowest point.

All that remained was Kathleen's desperately stifled crying.

“Sister, I'm sorry. If you want to go abroad with Elliot, then go. Someone has to stay home to keep Mom and Dad company……”

She wept as she accused me of being cruel.

And the whole car believed her.

By the time we reached the hospital, several large blisters had risen on the back of Kathleen's hand.

Even the doctor couldn't help scolding.

“How did it get this bad? It might even scar……”

My parents and Elliot were red around the eyes with heartache.

The way they looked at me was cold as frost.

“Trudy, you've let your parents down too much!”

“Forget about going abroad! We'll be sending Kathleen instead!”

“And apologize to your sister!”

I nodded in silence.

But I refused to apologize.

My parents, beyond disappointed, turned to Elliot and pressed him for confirmation.

“Elliot, do you truly love Kathleen?”

Elliot took Kathleen's unhurt left hand, lacing his fingers tight through hers.

“Yes, sir, ma'am. I know I was foolish before and made a verbal betrothal with Trudy, but that was all childish ignorance. I'm an adult now, and I know perfectly well that the one I truly love is Kathleen!”

My parents still didn't look at me. Instead they turned to Elliot's parents, who had just arrived, and got down to the real business.

“Mr. Delgado, three days from now I'd like to hold a college celebration banquet for Kathleen and Elliot together. It'll be their engagement party as well.”

This was my parents' way of punishing me, deliberately setting the celebration banquet and engagement party for three days out.

Tears kept welling up with the unfairness of it, but I stubbornly refused to let them fall.

It was the first time Elliot had seen me like this, and he couldn't help softening.

“As long as you don't cause a scene that day, I don't mind the three of us holding the celebration banquet together.”

I sniffed and turned him down flat.

Only then did Elliot's parents catch on. Their son had switched the woman he was engaging.:

“Elliot, weren't you supposed to get engaged to Trudy?”

Rejected, Elliot's face twisted, ugly with humiliation.

He pulled in a deep breath and said, loud enough for everyone to hear,:

“How could I ever marry a woman as vicious as her?”

“Kathleen risked her life. She jumped into that ice hole and saved me, and after she passed out, this woman deliberately dragged her off to some hidden corner, and that's why Kathleen ended up hospitalized, gravely ill!”

“Afterward, she was afraid Kathleen would expose what she'd done, so she threw her heiress weight around, went after Kathleen at every turn, told everyone Kathleen was only the adopted daughter, and made sure she was frozen out!”

“Kathleen had no choice. She gave up a spot at the best school, Harbor Prep, and came to ours instead!”

“It wasn't enough that this one's a lazy nothing. She couldn't stand for Kathleen to score higher than her, so any time Kathleen did well, she had people scream that Kathleen cheated and copied, and got even more of them to bully her!”

“But Kathleen is kind. She kept begging me not to bring any of this up, so for the sake of what we'd been, I covered for her too, and did everything I could to protect Kathleen.”

“What I never imagined was that today, right under my nose, she'd scald Kathleen!”

Every word, every line, dripping like blood.

Even I listened and felt like a monster.

But not one of those vicious things had I ever done.

If there was anything at all, it was this. Someone once asked me why my parents only went to my sister's parent-teacher conferences and never came to mine.

Naive as I was, I took Kathleen's hand and said,:

“Because she's my little sister. She needs Mom and Dad's love more.”

And once, someone said Kathleen didn't look like my parents.

She lowered her head and said in a timid little voice,:

“Because I'm the Gilberts' adopted daughter.”

If her saying with her own mouth that she was adopted counts as me being cruel, then fine, I'll own it.

But my parents and Elliot heard me out, and their eyes only went colder.:

“This circle bows to the powerful and tramples the weak, judges you by what you can do for them. You know that better than anyone, don't you?”

“You forced Kathleen to call herself an adopted daughter. Wasn't that just telling everyone she doesn't belong in this circle, that she's fair game?”

For a moment I had nothing. In the end I said, flat,:

“I was busy pushing for a spot in the Ivy Honors Program. Every bit of my energy went into studying. I really didn't have the mind for these petty little games.”

My parents blinked.:

“What program? We've never heard of it. If you're going to make something up, at least make it convincing.”

I could only put it another way.:

“I got a perfect score on the SATs……”

“And one more thing, Elliot. The one who saved you was me. Not her.”

His answer was a hard shove.:

“Trudy, you scored 305. You really think I don't know that?”

“And now you've got the nerve to fight Kathleen for the credit of saving someone!”

The shock that had been on my parents' faces a moment before curdled instantly into disappointment.

A wave of helplessness rose up in me.

Let them think whatever they wanted. I was past caring.

Back home, my father called me into the study.:

“Why did you bully Kathleen? All because Elliot likes her?”

I stiffened my neck and refused to explain.

When all anyone had to do was ask at my school to learn the truth.

I didn't understand. Why was it that not a single one of them believed me?

I wanted to go to my room and get my phone to clear my name, but my father thought I was throwing a tantrum.

He pulled out the ruler right then and went at me.

My mother threw her arms around him by force, and that alone spared me a few strokes.

But there were already several purple welts across my arms and back, the pain boring straight through me.

Tears streamed down my mother's face.:

“Trudy, he's just a man. Is he really worth all this?”

“You'd have no trouble getting into a good college if you just tried a little harder, so how could you……”

So it turned out my mother hadn't cried because she felt for me. She'd cried because I'd let her down.

And the reason she and my father never showed up to my parent-teacher conferences wasn't because they trusted me to handle things.

It was favoritism.

Numb, I pushed her away and went back to my room alone.

For the next two days, my father ordered that I be given no food, so I could sit and reflect on my mistakes.

That beating had left me burning with fever, and I didn't have the strength to fight any of it.

On the third day, they swept off to the Skyview Hotel to throw their banquet, and not one of them spared me a thought.

The packed reception hall was crowded with the guests my parents had invited.

My mother and father raised their glasses to the room:

"Thank you all for coming to celebrate my daughter's college admission and her engagement!"

The very next second, my principal, who'd been waiting in vain for me, passed by the hall and recognized my parents at a glance.

He immediately waved to the teachers behind him, along with the staff from the Ivy admissions office:

"Quick! No wonder Trudy never showed. She's right here!"

Principal Lambert led the way, cameras and microphones trailing behind him, and the whole crowd surged toward my parents.

"Congratulations, congratulations! Your daughter got into the Ivy League. It's the strongest record in our school's history!"

My parents froze for a moment, and then, noticing the cameras and microphones all around them, couldn't wait to shove Kathleen forward:

"Kathleen, sweetheart, why would you hide something like this? Getting into the Ivy League and not even telling your mom and dad!"

Kathleen steeled herself and smiled blankly into the lenses.

But Principal Lambert and Ms. Finch from the Ivy admissions office exchanged a glance, then said in unison:

"We mean your real daughter—Trudy Gilbert!"