3: 3

The living room was buried under my books and belongings.

Mom was in my room with a tape measure, taking measurements.

A bad feeling rose up in me.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

Her hands didn't stop.

"Harper has so many clothes. We're clearing out your room to make her a walk-in closet."

"You won't be living here much longer anyway."

I was still wondering how she knew I was leaving when she went on.

"My friend Maggie Finch happens to be short on hands at her factory. Assembly-line work, three thousand a month, room and board included. You go work there, help out with the household."

Marvin stood in the doorway, confused.

"Mrs. Fox, Mia and I already agreed. If she's not going to college, she'll reapply."

"School's about to start. Is it even too late for her to take a summer job?"

"Reapply? Who said anything about reapplying?" Mom let out a cold laugh.

"Marvin, the private school Harper's in now costs over two hundred thousand a year in tuition alone. I can't put two children through school on my own."

"I raised her to eighteen. I've done my duty as a parent."

So it wasn't that she knew I was leaving. She was planning to throw me out.

She couldn't even wait a few days before clearing out my room.

Something roared in my head.

More than ten years of swallowed hurt broke loose all at once.

"Enough!"

"What gives you the right to run my life? I got into a good university and you wouldn't let me go, and now you want to take away my chance to reapply too?"

I screamed it at her, eyes burning red. It was the first time in my life I'd ever lost my temper with her.

Mom froze. She clearly hadn't expected me to talk back, but she quickly slipped back into that lofty air of hers.

"You've got no degree. What can you do besides the factory? This is a way out I pulled every string I had to find for you!"

"And you don't just fail to appreciate it, you lose your temper at me."

"What kind of daughter acts like this?"

Marvin stepped in fast to smooth things over.

"Mrs. Fox, Mia's grades are so good. It'd be a shame for her not to study."

"If she goes off to study, there's less left for Harper. Harper's been the apple of my eye her whole life. If she gets to Chicago and people look down on her, will you take responsibility for that?"

Marvin faltered, his eyes shifting between Harper and Mom.

After only a moment, he turned to me.

"Mia, Mrs. Fox has a point."

"Go take the job for now. I'm planning to come back after I graduate anyway. I'll take care of you then."

It was like being dropped into ice.

I'd known better than to count on him, and still it gave my heart a sharp twist.

I didn't say another word. I went back into my ransacked room and slammed the door shut with a bang.

From outside came Harper's startled shriek.

Then Mom and Marvin soothing her. No one spared a thought for me, one door away.

I leaned against the door. My phone screen lit up, and a message from Kayla James popped up at just that moment.

"When can you leave?"

"Anytime." Calmly I typed the one word and hit send.

The door flew open. Marvin's eyes swept across my phone screen.

He frowned. "What do you mean, anytime? Who are you talking to?"

4: 4

I flipped my phone facedown and said it lightly.

"Just about the tutoring."

Marvin's eyes were complicated, and then the very first thing out of his mouth was a scolding.

"Mia, can't you stop throwing tantrums? Harper's grown up sheltered, she's never seen anything like this. You slamming that door just now scared her to death."

I looked at this boy I'd liked for six years, and all I felt was that he was a stranger.

"Marvin, is it that every single time something involves Harper, I'm the one who has to back down?"

"My mom does it. And so do you."

Guilt flickered across Marvin's face. He opened his mouth to explain.

Just then Harper stepped out from behind the door, tears rolling down in fat drops.

"It's all my fault... if it weren't for me, my sister wouldn't have to suffer like this. Marvin, don't blame her."

The guilt in Marvin's eyes gave way to tenderness for her, and then hardened into anger.

"Mia, can't you cut it out? Look, you've made Harper cry!"

His gaze swept across the desk and locked onto that bright red acceptance letter from the state university.

That letter was countless nights I'd stayed up, countless practice sets I'd ground through,

the one and only report card I had to show for more than ten years of study.

But in the next second, Marvin ripped it to shreds.

"Mia, I knew it. You've been picking fights lately because you still haven't given up on going to college."

"As long as that thing exists, no one's going to be happy."

"Now you don't have to think about it anymore, and we don't have to fight anymore."

"We can go back to how we used to be!"

A dull ache spread through my chest.

Before, every time I got hurt by my mom or Harper, he would say,

once I got into college, we'd leave this city and build a home of our own.

But now, he had no intention of taking me anywhere. Even my hope of leaving, he'd torn up like it was nothing.

Harper forgot to cry. My mother came running in too.

Seeing the scraps all over the floor, she let out a long breath.

"Just as well it's torn. She wasn't going to study anyway, so now she can put it out of her head."

"I already talked to Maggie Finch. Her son's driving over right now to take you to start at the factory, before you get any wilder over the break."

"Go on, pack your things."

Marvin reached out and patted my shoulder.

"Mia, it's okay. Even if you don't have a degree and you're working in a factory, I won't look down on you."

I didn't fight. I didn't cry or make a scene.

I just crouched down numbly and started gathering the few clothes I had left.

The light was fading. When I went to collect my toiletries, I passed Harper's half-open bedroom door.

"Marvin, you had me sneak Mia's acceptance letter out and put it on the desk—so you could tear it up? That was the plan?"

"You scared me half to death just now. You know how she treasures that piece of paper. Why would you do that?"

Marvin's voice was low.

"Mia's been unhappy lately, and she keeps contacting that Mrs. James from the tutoring thing. She definitely hasn't given up on college."

"If I let her keep going like this, no telling what she might do to get tuition money."

"And the way she looks at you isn't right. She's got to be blaming you."

"Don't let her quiet act fool you. She's actually got a lot of scheming in her."

"You're too simple. You'd never be able to handle her."

"So it's better if I cut off her way out with my own hands."

"That way she can't pin it on you, and your hands stay clean."

"But what if she gets mad at you and never speaks to you again?" Harper couldn't believe it.

Marvin's tone was certain.

"She won't. She's always depended on me. Growing up, no one looked after her but me. A little sweet-talking and she'll come around."

Tears dropped onto the floor without a sound.

I didn't wipe them away.

Once the tears had run completely dry, I threw out the wishing stars Marvin had folded by hand, jar and all, into the trash.

Only after I'd packed everything did I notice Mrs. James had already replied.

"Someone's on the way to pick you up. The car will be downstairs any minute."

A black Porsche pulled up slowly below the building.

My mother pushed me out the door.

A young man in a bespoke suit stepped out of the car.

Tall, straight-backed, with a bearing that stood out.

He asked politely,

"Which of you is Miss Mia Fox? My mother sent me to pick her up."

My mother's eyes went wide, her whole face breaking into a smile.

She was about to introduce Harper to him when I cut in.

"That's me."

The man took the bag from my hand and opened the car door for me.

Only then did my mother shoot me a resentful glare.

Marvin looked at the Porsche, worry on his face, but in the end he still put on that air of doing me a favor.

"Mia, stay safe on the road. When the weekend break comes, I'll go visit you at the factory."

"My sister looks really upset. She's not going to run away from home, is she?"

Harper's eyes darted away. She always looked like that when she had something to hide.

But Marvin only scoffed.

"No. She's got no money left. Other than the factory, she's got nowhere to go."

I didn't bother with any of them and climbed into the passenger seat.

The instant the car door shut, my mother's phone rang.

Maggie Finch's voice came through.

"Mrs. Fox, so sorry—my son can't get away today."

"Picking up your daughter will have to wait a couple of days."

My mother's face went white.

Marvin's pupils shrank. He lunged and grabbed the car window.

"Mia!"