The $4,000 Skincare Set That Broke My Family

After working in outdoor sales for a year, my adopted sister’s normally pale complexion had gotten a little tanned. Heartbroken, my mother dragged her to a high-end department store to buy skincare products. She settled on a luxurious La Prairie set, ringing up at a whopping $4,000. My adopted sister feigned hesitation. "Mom, this is way too expensive. Plus, Chloe has been working for five years and you’ve never bought her anything like this. I’d feel awful using it." Mom brushed it off completely. "She’s used to roughing it. Buying her something this nice would be a waste. But you’re different. You’ve never suffered a day in your life. You’re my precious baby." "Then I’ll accept it. Thank you, Mom!" My sister smiled sweetly, turning to shoot me a smug, triumphant look. I just smiled. Right in front of them, I pulled out my phone and called my boss. "Mr. Davis? I’d like to take a year off. I’ll come into the office tomorrow to sign my resignation papers. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience." Lowering my phone, I looked at my mother, whose face was frozen in disbelief. "Starting tomorrow, I have zero income. Don't come to me for the household expenses anymore." "And by the way..." I pointed at the shiny bags in my sister's hands. "That’s way too expensive. I need to start budgeting immediately, so don't expect me to swipe my card for it." Chapter 1 Mom’s lips trembled with rage. She screamed at me right there in the aisle, "Just because I picked out some skincare for Mia, you’re throwing a tantrum? You're going to quit your job and stop providing for this family?!" I corrected her. "You didn't just pick it out. You expect me to pay for it." "What's the difference?! I raised you for over twenty years! Spending a little of your money is my right!" Mom yelled, pointing a finger in my face. "Chloe Sterling, just because you've been working for five years, you think you’re all that? Don't forget you came out of my womb. Providing for me is your absolute duty!" "Mom, please calm down!" Mia quickly rubbed Mom's back to soothe her, then turned her big, innocent eyes to me. "Sister, I don't want the makeup anymore. Just apologize to Mom. Don't make her angry." Her expression was so full of grievance, it perfectly painted me as the ultimate villain. "Mom's health is already fragile. What if you give her a heart attack? I'm begging you, just apologize to her!" Other shoppers at the beauty counters began whispering, shooting me dirty looks. "What an ungrateful daughter. If you have an issue, take it home. Why make a scene in public?" "Didn't you hear? She hasn't gotten a gift in five years, so seeing her mom buy something for her sister made her jealous." "The daughter is immature, but the mom is wrong too. You can't play favorites like that." Maybe it was the embarrassment, or maybe her ego couldn't take the whispers, but Mom suddenly grabbed another luxury set off the counter and shoved it at me. "You're just jealous, aren't you? There! Are you happy now?" I let out a soft laugh. "I’m used to roughing it. Using something this expensive is a waste. Besides, it's my own money anyway." Seeing my attitude, Mom's face turned livid. She raised her hand, ready to slap me across the face. Mia rushed to block her, looking at me with red, teary eyes. "Sister, if you're mad at me, take it out on me! Why are you trying to trigger Mom? She carried you for nine months! She raised you for two decades, suffered so much for you... how can you be so cruel?" Hearing that, the crowd's sympathy shifted entirely. They conveniently ignored my mother's blatant favoritism and aimed all their fire at me. "Your mom loves you, she just has a blind spot out of habit!" "Exactly, there's no mother in the world who doesn't love her child." "Look at how upset your mom and sister are. Just drop it." "Families shouldn't hold grudges. Are you really going to abandon your own mother?" I stayed dead silent. Mia shoved the skincare set into my hands. "Sister, Mom neglected you in the past, but it won't happen again! From now on, whatever I have, you'll get a share too." I stared down at the exorbitant boxes in my hands, my tone dripping with sarcasm. "So, I'm supposed to thank you for your charity?" Mia's tears spilled over. "Sister, how could you think that? I’ve always seen you as my real sister. I never wanted to fight you for anything. I just want to stay by Mom and Dad's side, take care of them, and be a good daughter. I don't understand why you have so much hostility toward me!" She sobbed uncontrollably, wiping her tears like a broken doll. "Mia!" Mom's eyes overflowed with heartache. She pulled Mia behind her like a mother bear protecting her cub, glaring at me. "Chloe Sterling, there is a limit to your tantrums! You clearly don't want this family anymore, and you clearly don't want me as a mother!" "Get out. Get out of my sight right now." "I should be the one to leave," Mia choked out. She suddenly dropped to her knees right on the pristine department store floor. "Mom, thank you for raising me all these years. I'm an unfilial daughter. I can't stay by your side anymore." "Mia!" Mom tried to grab her hand, but Mia dodged it. Weeping, she stumbled toward the exit. Watching this dramatic display, the crowd looked at me with pure disgust. "She really forced her sister out. How venomous." "What goes on in her head? Ruining a perfectly good family just to satisfy her own ego?" "It's just a skincare set! Sure, it's pricey, but making such a huge fuss over it? She clearly hasn't faced enough real-world hardships." Listening to their verbal daggers, I kept my face totally indifferent. I pointed at the skincare set Mia had dropped on the counter and looked at my mom. "So, we're not buying it? If not, let's go. I need to head to the office to hand over my projects so I can sign my resignation papers tomorrow." Mom stared at me in disbelief. "You're still quitting?!" "Obviously. When I say I'm going to do something, I do it." "You..." Mom pointed a shaking finger at me, so furious she couldn't even speak. Mia, who had just reached the store entrance, suddenly spun around and screamed at me. "Chloe! I'm already leaving just like you wanted! Why are you still quitting?! Are you really not going to be happy until you put Mom in the hospital today?!" I looked at her blankly. "Didn't you say you were leaving? Why do you care?" "You... I..." Mia's face flushed deep crimson. The next second, she fell backward, fainting dead away on the floor. "Call 911!" "Help her up!" "Check her pulse, see if you can wake her up!" The crowd devolved into absolute chaos, shouting and panicking. "It's a sin!" Mom wailed, slapping her thighs as she glared at me with pure hatred. "Chloe Sterling, if anything happens to Mia today, I will never forgive you! Get the hell out! I never want to see your face again!" I was more than happy to leave. If I stayed, I would have had to ride in the ambulance and fake a worried, anxious expression. I really didn't have the acting chops for that. But halfway home, I got a furious call from my dad demanding I come to the hospital. The second I walked into the hallway, Dad marched up to me without a word and slapped me across the face so hard my ears rang. Then, he grabbed a stack of medical reports from a nearby table and hurled them at my face. "Look! Open your eyes and look! Mia has terminal cancer. The doctor says she has three months to live at most. Are you happy now?!" Mia had terminal cancer? I froze, ignoring the stinging in my cheek, and instinctively looked toward the hospital bed. Mia was lying there, her face paper-white. Dad's eyes were bloodshot as he roared at me. "Keep throwing your tantrums! Keep making a scene until you kill me and your mother too! Then this whole house will finally belong to you!" A few of the department store clerks who had followed the ambulance looked at me with venomous sneers. "Are you happy now? You won't have to worry about your mom playing favorites anymore, because soon she'll only have you." "Why aren't you throwing a fit anymore? Feeling guilty now that you know she's dying? Where was this attitude earlier?" "People like you deserve to live in the shadow of guilt for the rest of your miserable life." I remained expressionless. "Chloe, you have to save your sister." Mom, who had been tightly gripping Mia's hand, suddenly let go and dropped to her knees in front of me. "I'm begging you! It's all my fault, I was biased! Blame me, but please, don't abandon your sister!" I shook my head. "Once I quit my job, I won't have an income. Even if I wanted to help, I couldn't." The entire hospital room froze. The silence was suffocating, like the exact second before a volcano erupts. Then, the eruption came. Dad looked at me like he wanted to rip me apart. "Quitting! Quitting! That's all you know how to say! Mia has been in our family for over a decade, has she ever done a single thing to hurt you?! Now she's dying, she desperately needs money for treatments, and you're washing your hands of her?! Is your heart made of stone?! Do you care about family at all?!" Mom lunged at me, trying to claw my face. A nurse managed to hold her back as she thrashed wildly. "Let me go! Let me kill her! How did I raise a daughter like this?! If I knew she'd turn out this way, I would have drowned her the day she was born!" The retail clerks looked at me like I was the devil incarnate, hurling every curse in the book at me. "You're the one who should be dying in that hospital bed! You're a waste of oxygen!" "Karma is real. God will strike you down for this." "You better go pray at a church, or you're going to get hit by a bus the second you step outside." I looked at them. They glared right back, completely unfazed. I knew for a fact that if we weren't in a hospital, they would have physically assaulted me. "Thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to stop by a church." I gave a polite smile to the clerk who told me to get hit by a bus, turned around, and walked right out of the room. Thanks to the internet, by the next morning, the story of me throwing a fit over a skincare set and putting my "dying" adopted sister in the hospital had gone completely viral. The moment I arrived at the office, my closest work friend dragged me into the breakroom. "Chloe, is the stuff online true?! Did you really cut off your mom and put your sister in the hospital? That doesn't sound like you at all!" "If it's fake, you need to post a video defending yourself right now. You don't realize how huge this is. It's trending everywhere, and the whole company is talking about it." I just smiled. My coworker was frantic. "Chloe, don't brush this off! Before you got here, I heard HR talking. They said you're damaging the company's public image and they're preparing to discipline you." "You've grinded for five years to get to this position. You've eaten so much dirt to get here. Don't throw it all away over family drama!" I paused, then laughed. "The company wants to discipline me? Perfect. I was just about to resign anyway." My coworker choked on her coffee, her eyes going wide. "You're quitting?! Chloe, when did you get so impulsive? I know your mom favors Mia. Worst case scenario, you rent your own apartment and stop visiting them! You don't need to quit your job!" "I'm warning you, if you quit, you have to start from zero. Do you even have the energy for that anymore?" I was just about to say, Of course I do, when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Mr. Davis, the CEO. [Come to my office.] I patted my coworker's shoulder. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." I turned and headed straight for the executive suite. Mr. Davis didn't ask me about the viral rumors. He just looked at me and asked, "Are you really resigning?" I nodded. He tapped his fingers on his mahogany desk, silent for a moment. "Is it because of your mother and sister?" I didn't answer. Mr. Davis smiled. "I understand. Ignore the office gossip. I am not approving your resignation. If you need a break, take an extended leave of absence. Your position will be waiting for you." "Mr. Davis..." I barely got the words out before he raised a hand to stop me. "You've worked under me for five years. I know your character perfectly well. I trust my own judgment, and I trust that you can handle your family situation. I expect you back when you're ready." I sat in stunned silence for a long time. Finally, I took a deep breath. "Mr. Davis, thank you for your trust. I won't make you wait too long. But I'm going to need a favor first." "Name it." "I need your legal team's help. I need to freeze all my joint accounts with my parents and lock down my personal assets. I don't want anyone touching a single cent of my money but me." Mr. Davis frowned. "Reason?" My expression went ice cold. "Because I refuse to let the money I bled for end up padding someone else's pockets." He stared at me intently, his gaze sharp. I met his eyes without flinching. After a long moment, he nodded. "Done. I'll make a call to a friend at the bank and get our lawyers on it." "Thank you, Mr. Davis." By noon, my dad called. His voice was trembling with rage. "Is this your doing?!" Mom's frantic voice echoed in the background. "Chloe! The bank won't let us withdraw a single penny! Mia is waiting for her life-saving surgery! She's called you her sister for over a decade, you can't just watch her die!" I replied calmly. "Dad, Mom. Wait for me at the hospital for thirty minutes. I'll explain everything." I hung up the phone and immediately went online. I drafted a quick post. [Want to know the truth behind the viral video? Come to City Hospital, Room 402. The truth drops in thirty minutes.] Because of the massive controversy, I was highly trending. The moment the post went live, it rocketed to the top of the timeline. People who had witnessed the department store drama commented that they were driving over immediately to hear my excuses. Several large influencers promised to live-stream the confrontation, and local streamers were already rushing to the hospital. Thirty minutes later. The small hospital room was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. When I walked in, the "witnesses" from the store glared at me with absolute contempt. "Quite the spectacle. Let's see what kind of lies you spin today." "You have some nerve talking about 'the truth'. We watched the whole thing happen with our own eyes." "Stop wasting our time and start talking." Mia was leaning weakly against the headboard, her face pale. "Sister, what are you doing? Are you worried that I'm ruining your reputation? You really don't have to do this. I was planning to go live and clear your name as soon as I felt better." "Me getting terminal cancer is just my bad luck. It has nothing to do with you. I never blamed you, Sister. I've always loved you." Hearing that, the entire room melted with sympathy. Mom wiped her tears frantically. "Mia, stop talking. You're going to break my heart!" Dad's eyes were bloodshot as he yelled at me. "Chloe! Do you hear her?! Even now, Mia is thinking about you! If you have a single shred of conscience left, unfreeze the accounts and pay for her surgery!" I looked at my dad, my voice dead calm. "If you still want me to pay after I'm done talking, I will do it without a second word." With that, I turned to face Mia. I let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Mia, do you really see me as a sister? Or do you just see the money I've made over the last five years?" "And second... are you really dying of terminal cancer?"

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