Coming home from my high school tutoring gig, I saw my sister Serena playing the "Family Love Subscription" game with dad Richard and mom Eleanor. "One kiss is twenty thousand dollars." "One hug is fifty thousand dollars." Richard kissed Serena's cheek twice. "I want to subscribe to two kisses, Serena." Eleanor pulled Serena into her arms. "I want a ten-minute hug subscription." I stood at the doorway, silent. Serena giggled as her phone buzzed with one Venmo notification after another. "What about Sienna? Sienna enjoys your love for free. Why doesn't she have to pay?" Eleanor had a difficult labor when she gave birth to me. Ever since then, they gave all their love to Serena. There was only ever one portion of gourmet breakfast on the table. Serena's monthly allowance was three hundred thousand dollars, while mine was only three hundred. Eleanor frowned. "Serena is right. Family love requires a subscription fee." Richard sneered. "If you don't renew your subscription, Sienna, don't even think about calling us your parents anymore!" I gripped my faded, worn-out school hoodie. Fine. I didn't want this kind of "family" anyway.
I stood at the door, frozen. Serena scraped her fork against her plate, making a sharp, grating noise. "Richard, Eleanor, I’m hungry." Eleanor immediately took out the food she had kept warm in the oven. A sweet, doting smile was plastered across her face. "Here you go, Serena, sweetie. It's all your favorites." I quietly put down my backpack and grabbed a plate from the kitchen corner. I was about to grab some food and eat in my room like I always did. But Serena suddenly shrieked. "Sienna! What are you doing?!" "Eleanor and Richard prepared this aesthetic lunch just for me! I haven't even taken photos for Snapchat yet!" Richard immediately grabbed the dish I had touched and threw it into the trash. He looked at me with pure disgust. "Sienna, you are so selfish! This is Serena's Insta-worthy lunch. How dare you touch it without her permission?" I froze. Today was my birthday. I had thought, just for a second, that some of this food was meant for me. Eleanor grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the table. "Sienna Vance, since you refuse to pay for your family subscription, we are no longer your parents. Don't you dare think of yourself as a Vance anymore!" A bitter taste filled my mouth. The eldest daughter of the Vance family? Had I ever actually been that? Serena always dragged me along to social events when we were younger. She wore designer dresses and custom jewelry. I, on the other hand, wore faded, oversized t-shirts. When people asked who I was, Serena would always smirk. "Oh, she's just the housekeeper's kid. My mom felt sorry for her, so she let me bring her along." Seeing Serena still pouting, Richard immediately called a Michelin-star restaurant to deliver an identical meal. Then he turned to me, his eyes cold and distant. "Sienna, you won't even spend a dime of your tutoring money on us." "From today on, you're moving to the servants' quarters in the back. And don't you dare tell anyone you're our daughter!" I bit my lip, grabbed my backpack, and turned to leave. But Serena rushed forward and ripped at my collar. A sharp pain shot through my neck. Loose pearls scattered all over the hardwood floor. Serena held up a sparkling diamond necklace with a triumphant grin. "This is Grandma Rose's heirloom necklace. Why do you have it?" "Oh, I get it! You stole it! You're a thief!" I clutched my neck, looking at Richard and Eleanor in disbelief. This was the heirloom Grandma Rose had personally given to me before she fell ill. But Eleanor only looked at me with cold indifference. "Serena, sweetie, this was always meant for you. This little thief has kept it from you for years." Serena immediately locked the diamond necklace around her neck. She pointed a finger at me. "Should we call the cops on this thief?" A dial tone echoed in the quiet room. I met Richard's icy gaze. My heart shattered. Tears spilled over my eyelashes. Then, his voice cut through the air. "911? Yes, I'd like to report a burglary at my estate. We caught the thief red-handed."
Inside the police station interrogation room. The officer, forced to work overtime past midnight, looked highly annoyed. "Kid, you're still in high school. Why are you stealing?" I bit my lip, my voice trembling but stubborn. "I didn't steal it. My grandmother gave it to me." The officer sighed. "Look, everyone knows the Vance family only has one precious daughter, and they spoil her rotten. Your lie is a bit too..." Right. The Vance family had two daughters, but the world only knew Serena. My chest felt suffocatingly tight, but I refused to back down. The officer frowned. "Just sit here and think about it." He walked out, but he didn't close the door all the way. Richard and Eleanor's voices drifted in from the hallway. "Eleanor, are we going too far with Sienna? What if she hates us? She is our flesh and blood, after all." Eleanor scoffed. "It's just a game. Serena plays along fine. Why can't she? "We'll bring her back in a few months. She's just stubborn. She needs to learn her lesson." A cold sweat broke out over my body. They thought they could just whistle and I'd run back, pretending nothing happened, playing the role of their obedient, quiet daughter. But Richard, Eleanor... I was so, so tired. The police said the Vances didn't want to press charges. They just wanted to keep me overnight to "teach me a lesson." I hadn't eaten since yesterday's lunch. In the middle of the night, my chronic stomach ulcer flared up. The pain was so intense I rolled onto the cold floor. Growing up, I was never allowed to touch any food Serena liked. They called it "being a good older sister." With my three-hundred-dollar allowance, I had to budget every single cent just to buy basic groceries. I worked myself to the bone after school—tutoring, washing dishes, managing local cybercafes. I did anything that paid. Over time, I developed severe stomach issues, but I couldn't afford the medication. Once, when the pain was unbearable, I told Eleanor. She just snapped at me. "Stop being so dramatic. Serena never fakes illnesses to beg for money." My tears wet the concrete floor of the cell. I curled into a ball in the corner, pressing my hands hard against my stomach. The next day, I went to a nearby convenience store to grab a cheap sandwich. At the register, the machine beeped. "Declined. Insufficient funds." Meeting the cashier's judgmental glare, my face burned with humiliation. I was sure I had five hundred dollars left in that account—money I had painstakingly saved from tutoring. How could it be empty? I had to put the sandwich back. As I walked out, I ran straight into Serena, who was holding hands with Eleanor and Richard. She had a bright, malicious smile on her face. "Richard, Eleanor, wasn't that restaurant amazing? I don't have much money, so I could only treat you guys to a five-hundred-dollar lunch." Five hundred dollars. Exactly five hundred dollars. My stomach churned, and I shook with rage. Serena fake-smiled and handed me a plastic bag, whispering in my ear, "Here. Our leftovers. Thanks for paying for our lunch, Sienna~" The blood rushed to my head. I shoved her away. "Serena! You went too far!" The next second, Richard kicked me hard in the ribs. I crashed against the brick wall. A rogue rusty nail tore into my palm, and blood began to gush instantly. "Sienna! Serena was nice enough to bring you food, and you tried to hurt her! How can you be so evil?!" Richard held Serena close, looking down at me with absolute disgust. "Richard, my ankle hurts so bad... what if I can never walk again? Sob..." Seeing Serena cry, Richard and Eleanor panicked. "My precious baby, we're taking you to the ER right now." They didn't look at me even once. They left me sitting in the dirt, my hand covered in blood.
Richard and Eleanor rushed Serena to the hospital. "Where is the doctor? My daughter hurt her ankle! Get us your best specialist right now!" The genuine worry on their faces pierced my heart. I wiped my tears and tried to follow them inside, but the security guard blocked me. "Get lost, street rat. No begging allowed here." I shook my head frantically. "I'm not a beggar. The people who just walked in are my parents and my sister." The guard looked me up and down and sneered. "You, related to them? They're wearing designer clothes. Look at yourself." I looked down. A ripped t-shirt, muddy jeans, covered in dirt and blood. I looked exactly like a homeless person. I didn't belong to that family at all. My chest felt suffocated. But the pain in my hand was getting worse. I peered past the guard. "Richard! Eleanor! I'm here! My hand hurts!" They heard my voice. They turned around, gave me one cold, indifferent look, and kept walking. I froze in place. Something inside me snapped. The guard threw me out of the hospital plaza. I sat on the concrete steps, numb. A sharp throb in my palm pulled me back to reality. It was my right hand. I needed to study. I had to get into college. Education was the only escape I had left. Panic seized me. I used the last of my pocket change to buy some rubbing alcohol and cheap gauze from a dollar store. I roughly bandaged my own wound. But between the chronic malnutrition and the blood loss, the world began to spin. Everything went black. When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in the small, humid servants' quarters back at the estate. It was so hot. Shadows danced in front of my eyes. Then, a familiar voice spoke. I realized who was beside me. "Sienna... are you okay?" My lips were cracked. I was burning up with a fever. It wasn't Eleanor. A wave of bitter disappointment washed over me. I shook my head weakly. "Thank you, Martha." After a while, my head felt heavier. Through the haze, I heard Martha on her phone. "Ma'am, Sienna is in really bad shape. Her fever is 104 degrees. We need to get her to a hospital!" Hearing Eleanor's name, I forced my heavy eyelids open. But Eleanor's cold voice came through the speaker. "She's not that fragile. She's probably just faking it to get attention. "She's not our daughter anymore anyway. Martha, don't you dare spend a penny of our money on her." A tear slipped down my temple, drying instantly against my burning skin. Martha ended up taking me to a shady, cheap clinic down the street. But she didn't dare pay for me. She didn't want to lose her job. "Kid, you're finally awake. A little later, and you would've been a goner," the old doctor, Dr. Evans, said as he pulled out my IV. "Thank you." He grabbed my arm tightly. His grip was painful. "You think you can just leave? 'Thank you' doesn't pay the medical bills." I bit my lip. "I don't have money. And I don't have a family." My eyes flickered to a sketchy flyer on his wall advertising clinical trials. I looked away, then forced myself to look back. My voice shook, but I was desperate. "I can test your experimental drugs."
When I returned to the estate, the right side of my body was numb. Terror crept into my soul. I wanted to find someone, anyone, to scream to, but there was no one. Before I knew it, I had walked back to the front gates of the mansion. I let out a self-deprecating laugh. Helpless children always run back to their parents. Sienna Vance, they threw you away. Why are you back? I clenched my fists, wanting to turn around, but my legs wouldn't move. I hit my own thighs. "Go! This isn't your home anymore!" Suddenly, loud laughter echoed from inside the villa. Richard and Eleanor were surrounding Serena, watching her twirl in a brand-new designer dress. I stood by the window like a ghost, a pathetic creature spying on someone else's happiness. The weekend passed. I locked my emotions deep inside, trying to focus entirely on studying for my AP exams. But the principal called me into his office on Monday. He slammed my report card at my feet. "Sienna Vance, you were reported for cheating. The evidence is solid." I picked up the paper. My name was at the very top of the class ranking. "Sir, my grades have always been straight A's. Why would I cheat?" The principal sneered. "Who's to say you didn't cheat before? "According to school policy, cheating means immediate expulsion and a permanent stain on your record." My brain went numb. "Please, sir! Give me one day. I can prove my innocence!" He didn't answer. Desperate, I grabbed the paper and ran out of the office. But as I rounded the corner, a foot tripped me. I fell flat on my face. I looked up straight into Serena's mocking eyes. In an instant, I understood. "It was you—" Serena snatched the paper from my hand and ripped it to shreds. "Yeah, it was me. "Get on your knees, crawl around your classroom, and bark like a dog. Do that, and maybe I'll tell the principal it was a mistake." The wound on my palm opened up again, bleeding through the gauze. I broke out in a cold sweat from the pain. Seeing this, Serena stepped directly on my injured hand. She ground her heel down. "An orphan with no parents only has her grades to cling to, right? "Sienna, you better start barking before I change my mind." Panic consumed me. I was terrified of being expelled. I was terrified of being stuck working minimum-wage jobs forever. Nothing else mattered. I got down on my knees, bowed to Serena, and crawled into my classroom, barking like a dog while her friends recorded it on Snapchat. The laughter of my classmates roared in my ears, but I blocked it out. With empty, hollow eyes, I walked back to Serena, who was giggling. "I did what you asked." Serena kept her word and led me back to the principal's office, but the moment she opened her mouth, she gasped. "Principal, Sienna bullied me! She forced me to lie for her! Sob..." My eyes widened. The principal demanded to call my parents. I muttered quietly, "I... I don't have parents." Serena burst out laughing. "Principal, she's just an unwanted stray!" Soon, Richard and Eleanor arrived. I kept my head down. Serena immediately threw herself into Eleanor's arms. "Eleanor, Richard, Sienna cheated, and then she threatened to beat me up if I didn't lie for her! Look!" She pulled up her sleeve to show a faint red mark. Eleanor's face flushed with fury. She slapped me across the face so hard my vision went blurry. My cheek swelled up instantly. "Sienna Vance, you absolute parasite! "How dare you bully your sister at school? I think you should just drop out!" The last string of sanity in my brain snapped. "No! I can't drop out!" I fell to my knees, begging Richard and Eleanor. "Mr. Vance, Mrs. Vance, I beg you. Please." Richard took a step back. Eleanor frowned, a flicker of pity crossing her eyes. But as Serena tugged at Eleanor's sleeve, that pity vanished. "You're dropping out."
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