When I opened my eyes, I found myself back on the day my adopted sister bought her first Hermès bag. My sister Kiki had somehow bound herself to a parasitic wealth-transfer glitch—every penny she spent online was automatically taken from our mother’s retirement account. In my past life, she used this to build a lavish lifestyle and became a famous influencer, while I, left managing Mom’s finances, fell into crippling debt. When I showed my family the truth, they accused me of jealousy and theft, choosing to believe Kiki’s story that a secret billionaire was funding her luxury. In the end, she lived in fame and fortune, while I was doxxed, canceled, and finally pushed in front of a subway train by her enraged fans. Now, back at that moment in the boutique, I pushed past her and laid our mother’s debit card on the counter before she could speak. “I’ll take this bag,” I said calmly, a cold smile touching my lips. This time, I would rewrite everything. 1 It was that time of the month again to reconcile Mom's retirement account. Staring at the $15,000 monthly expense on the screen, I fell completely silent. Even though I had been reborn, the automatic deduction glitch still existed. Six months. For six entire months, massive amounts of cash had been bleeding out of Mom's savings. The safety net she had worked her entire life to build was evaporating into thin air. With trembling fingers, I tapped into the current month's transaction history. Aside from a few minor pharmacy and grocery runs, there were three massive, unexplained charges. The recipient for all of them was just a string of scrambled alphanumeric code. I took screenshots and sent them to the bank's online fraud department, stating clearly that these purchases were unauthorized. The automated response came back instantly. [These are pre-authorized automated deductions. No anomalies detected.] I immediately switched apps and opened Instagram. Kiki had just posted a new story. Her grid was an endless parade of diamonds, champagne, and high-end aesthetics. I scrolled meticulously through every single post, searching for the breadcrumbs. Finally, I found it. On July 15th, she posted a close-up of a sparkling sapphire necklace with the caption. [Thanks to my perfect guy for the birthday surprise! I deserve the absolute best!] I did not care about the clarity of the stones. I only cared that the retail price of that specific piece was exactly $5,800. And on that exact day, Mom's account had a mysterious deduction of $5,800. It wasn't a coincidence. On July 10th, she posted a mirror selfie showing off the newest custom smartphone, retailing at $2,500. That matched the exact missing amount on the 10th. I took screenshot after screenshot, building my arsenal of receipts. Almost every single massive deduction perfectly aligned with her latest luxury flex online. "Harper! Get out here and eat! Do we really have to beg you to join the family every single night?!" My dad's booming voice snapped me out of my trance. I dragged my feet into the dining room. Mom was busy placing the best cut of roast beef directly onto Kiki's plate, her face glowing with unapologetic favoritism. "Eat up, sweetie. You are looking so thin lately." Kiki was practically radiating smugness today. She twirled her wrist, letting the dining room lights catch the heavy, solid gold Cartier bracelet she was wearing. "Look, Mom! Do you like my new bracelet? It is custom heavy gold!" "Did your... your special guy get that for you?" Mom took the bait instantly, putting down her fork to admire the jewelry. "Yeah! It was almost five grand!" Kiki nodded enthusiastically, a perfectly rehearsed blush creeping up her cheeks. "He told me that ever since he met me, his investments have skyrocketed. He says spoiling his princess is his good luck charm, so he is going to keep buying me nice things." I let out a harsh, dry laugh. That wasn't some billionaire spoiling his princess. That was a parasite sucking her mother dry. Mom's eyes crinkled with pure joy. She reached out and pinched Kiki's cheek affectionately. "Oh, my precious girl! You are so blessed! A man like that is one in a million. You hold onto him tight!" She spoke as if Kiki had just won the absolute lottery. Suddenly, as if remembering something, I pulled out my phone and checked the banking app. Sure enough, exactly one minute ago, Mom's account had been drained of $4,800. I slammed my phone face-up on the dining table. "Kiki, did your imaginary billionaire buy that bracelet, or did you just swipe Mom's card?" She froze for a split second, but her eyes immediately welled up with practiced tears. "Dad! Mom! Look at Harper! She is so jealous that I have a rich guy chasing me, she is trying to blame her own theft on me! She is the one stealing your retirement money!" "Harper!" My dad erupted. He grabbed my phone off the table and hurled it violently onto the hardwood floor. "You vicious little snake! You scheme to drain your own mother's life savings, and now you want to drag your sister's reputation through the mud?! What is wrong with you?!" After a relentless screaming match, my parents locked me inside my bedroom. This could not go on. Mom's retirement fund was not a bottomless pit. Kiki was going to bleed us entirely dry. Before the sun even fully rose the next morning, I climbed out my ground-floor window and marched straight to the bank. "Hi, I need to report a debit card as lost and freeze the account." After filling out the paperwork, I casually walked back home, even stopping to buy myself an iced coffee. The moment I stepped through the front door, I was met with the sound of Kiki bawling her eyes out in Mom's arms. "Mom! It is ruined! The black card my guy gave me is suddenly declining! I know Harper did this!" "She accused me yesterday, and today my card is locked! Mom, you have to do something!" Mom's face morphed into a scowl the second she saw me. She pulled Kiki tighter against her chest, rubbing her back soothingly. "Shh, sweetie, don't cry." She shot daggers at me. "Harper, is this your doing?! Can you really not stand seeing your sister happy?!" "She is just an adopted child who finally found a good man who can take care of her. Instead of being happy for her, you are actively trying to sabotage her relationship?!" Mom demanded I hand over her physical retirement card so she could give it to Kiki as a temporary fix. My dad sat in the armchair, his face dark as thunder, looking like he wanted to rip my head off. But Kiki... she lifted her face from Mom's shoulder, and right where our parents could not see, she flashed me a sickening, victorious smirk. She knew exactly what she was doing. She definitely knew I had frozen the card, which stopped her glitch from pulling the funds! I muttered some excuse about calling the bank to sort it out and stepped outside to undo the freeze. Minutes later, Kiki gleefully announced her "guy's card" was miraculously working again and she was going shopping. I set my jaw and followed her right out the door. The moment we walked into the Hermès boutique, she made a beeline for the display and pointed at a pristine Picotin bucket bag. "Could you bring this out for me to tr—" "I will take the bag!" I lunged in front of her, slapping my own debit card onto the polished glass counter. Kiki's jaw dropped. She glared at me. "Harper! What is your problem? You are trying to outbid me? With what money, you broke loser?" "Whether I have the money or not is between me and the card reader, isn't it?" I did not even look at her, keeping my eyes locked on the sales associate. "Ring it up. Run the card. Right now." "Fine! You have some nerve, Harper. You are going to regret this!" Kiki stomped her designer heels and stormed out of the boutique. I aggressively signed the receipt, snapped a picture of the bag, and immediately posted it to my Instagram story. Then, I glued my eyes to the banking app on my phone. It wasn't going to deduct from Mom's account, right? I refreshed the screen over and over. Finally, the notification popped up. [Hermès Boutique Purchase: $9,500.] How could this be? I stood in the middle of the store, completely paralyzed. The wildly expensive leather bag in my hands suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. The system only worked one way! As long as Kiki made the purchase and posted a photo flexing it online, the glitch would drain the exact amount from Mom's account to cover her tracks! 2 I stumbled home and collapsed onto my mattress. Opening TikTok, I saw Kiki had just launched a brand new public account. Her very first video was live. In the frame, she was wearing a cute tweed matching set, leaning against the hood of a brand new, gleaming white Porsche. She smiled coyly at the camera. "Ugh, taking the subway to work was getting so exhausting. Thank God my amazing guy surprised me with this little runaround car today." "He told me his princess deserves nothing but the best!" The video had barely been up for ten minutes, but the comment section was already exploding. [A Porsche just for running errands?! What kind of fairy tale romance is this?!] [Is your man a walking ATM?! I am so jealous!] Kiki's follower count was climbing like a rocket, smashing past fifty thousand in minutes. My hands shook uncontrollably as I opened the banking app. The newest transaction: $30,000. It had cleared exactly one minute after she posted the video. I kicked Kiki's bedroom door open and tore through her desk drawers until I found a sleek leather folder. Inside was the vehicle purchase agreement. The down payment was exactly thirty thousand dollars. The signature on the dotted line belonged to Kiki, and it was dated today. I sprinted into the living room. "Dad, look at this!" I slammed the stack of contracts onto the coffee table right in front of him. "Kiki's new car wasn't a gift from some billionaire!" "That thirty grand down payment was siphoned directly out of Mom's retirement fund! This is the hard proof!" My dad casually picked up the contract, his eyes scanning the ink. A second later, he ripped the papers straight down the middle. "Harper, are you mentally ill? You are even jealous of a car her boyfriend bought her?" "You are her older sister! How could you forge this kind of disgusting lie just to tear her down? I do not know how I raised such a toxic, bitter child!" That night, Kiki went live on TikTok. She looked absolutely heartbroken on camera. "Hey guys... I am just having a really rough night. My sister... sigh." "I think she just resents that I am doing well. She is telling everyone my boyfriend doesn't even exist." Kiki paused, her timing absolutely impeccable. She reached off-camera and pulled a velvet box into the frame, popping it open. Inside sat a breathtaking Patek Philippe watch. "My guy gave this to me today. He said it holds its value perfectly, and I can keep it as part of my future dowry." "He treats me so incredibly well... I just don't understand why my sister refuses to believe me..." Under Kiki's subtle manipulation, the internet quickly painted me as the ultimate evil, jealous older sibling. The next morning, the second I opened the front door to leave for work, a bucket of blood-red paint splashed across my chest. "Harper! You bloodsucking leech!" Before I could even process what happened, rotting vegetables and sharp pebbles rained down on me from the sidewalk. "Get out of our neighborhood! You are a stain on this community!" "You heartless psycho!" The furious screams of my neighbors drowned out my own heartbeat. Faces I had known for years—people who used to be kind and normal—were now twisted into masks of vicious, self-righteous rage. I threw my arms up, desperately dodging the garbage, running for my life down the street. What could I do? What options did I even have left? I blindly stumbled into a public park restroom, locking myself in a stall, too terrified to breathe. I didn't dare step outside until the sun went down. I snuck back into the house like a criminal. But the living room was lit up like a Christmas tree. Aunt Susan, Uncle Robert, and a handful of other relatives were crammed onto the sofas. The coffee table was littered with sunflower seed shells and fruit peels. Mom was sitting right next to Kiki, lovingly peeling an orange and feeding her the slices. Kiki was dressed in a brand new Chanel skirt suit, dangling a pair of crystal-encrusted stilettos from her toes, soaking up the attention like royalty. "Oh, you are finally back?" Kiki dramatically pinched her nose, shrinking away and burying her face in Mom's shoulder. "Ugh, Harper, what is that smell?! Go take a shower, you are stinking up the whole house." The relatives, clearly fully briefed on the narrative, immediately started lecturing me. "Harper, I am just going to be honest with you. As the older sister, you need to be more open-minded." "Your jealousy is completely out of control. Kiki is successful and found a wealthy man to take care of her. Shouldn't we be celebrating that?" I had spent the entire day hiding in a filthy public bathroom, and now I had to sit through a family tribunal? Something inside me snapped. I walked into my room, grabbed the thick folder of financial evidence I had compiled, and slammed it down in the middle of the coffee table. "Every single luxury item Kiki has bought over the last few months matches an exact withdrawal from Mom's retirement account! The proof is right here!" Dead silence. Aunt Susan and Uncle Robert darted their eyes nervously between me and Kiki. The smile froze on Mom's face. Kiki shot up off the couch like a rocket, shoving her phone screen directly into my face. "How can you keep slandering me like this?! Look! All of these are wire transfers directly from my boyfriend!" On her screen were incredibly convincing, flawlessly forged bank transfer receipts. "Those are fake! You photoshopped them!" I lunged forward to grab the phone. "Enough!" My dad roared, standing up so fast his chair tipped over. He pointed a thick finger right between my eyes. "Harper, can you not stand to see this family have a single moment of peace?! Are you absolutely determined to destroy your sister's reputation and tear this family apart?!" The relatives' expressions instantly shifted. They looked at me like I was a piece of trash stuck to the bottom of their shoes. Mom gasped for air, clutching her chest before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed limply onto the sofa. Total chaos erupted. People were screaming, searching for her blood pressure pills, fanning her face. I stood frozen in the center of the room, painted as the ultimate villain. Kiki played the devoted daughter, staying by Mom's bedside for days until she finally recovered. During that week, no new deductions hit the bank account. But I noticed Kiki kept hovering around my bedroom door, looking for excuses to peek inside. She suspected something. Did I have a blind spot? Was there a secret hiding in my own room? When the house was finally empty, I turned my room upside down. My bedroom used to be an old storage closet. It was still filled with boxes of my grandfather's dusty antiques and obscure occult journals. I flipped through the rotting pages one by one, and incredibly, I struck gold. I finally understood exactly how to destroy Kiki's parasitic wealth system!
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