Chapter 2

The house was silent when I got home.

A bowl of instant noodles sat on the coffee table with a note beside it.

[I made these for you. Don't forget to eat.]

I recognized Noah's handwriting immediately.

Maybe it had been too long since anyone had thought of me, because that small bowl of noodles warmed my chest.

Whenever Mom and Dad took Caleb and Maya out to eat, I usually stayed home and filled up on bread.

At first, Mom used to ask what I wanted her to bring back.

Every time she returned, I'd excitedly take the shopping bag from her hands.

There would only be clothes and shoes inside.

"Mom, where's my dinner?"

She would blink at me in surprise.

"You haven't eaten yet? It's so late. We all thought you'd already had something."

I peeled back the lid of the noodles. They had been sitting long enough to turn soft and soggy.

After one bite, something felt wrong.

I spat it out and stared.

Tiny pieces of crushed peanut were mixed through the noodles.

Everyone knew I had a severe peanut allergy.

Why would Noah put peanuts in my food?

My body reacted faster than I expected.

By the time Noah answered my call, red welts had spread across my skin, and the itching was almost unbearable.

"Lena? What's wrong?"

"Noah, why did you put peanuts in the noodles? You know I'm allergic."

He paused. "Of course I know. Why would I put peanuts in them?"

I was about to ask who else could have done it when Maya snatched the phone from him.

Her irritated voice came through the speaker.

"Lenaan, are you pretending to be sick again?

"Every time Mom and Dad go somewhere with me, you call and try to make them come home. When you were sick and they spent all their time with you, I never kept calling and demanding they come back to me."

"I'm not pretending." I fought the urge to claw at my skin. "There really were peanuts in the noodles. I'm having an allergic reaction."

"Stop making excuses. If there were peanuts in there, couldn't you see them? Or did you put them in yourself so you'd have a reaction and ruin my dinner?"

Then she turned on Noah.

"I told you not to be so nice. You gave my sister the noodles you were going to eat, and now she's turning around and accusing you of trying to hurt her."

When Noah took the phone back, his voice had gone cold.

"I regret leaving them for you. I should've just thrown the noodles away.

"So what if they went to waste?"

The call ended.

Only then did I understand.

The noodles hadn't been made for me at all.

Noah had just prepared them for himself when Maya invited him out to dinner. He left them behind for me because he didn't want them to go to waste.

I sat numb on the couch and messaged Mom.

[Mom, I'm having an allergic reaction. Can you take me to the hospital?]

I knew she might think I was lying, so I took a photo of the welts and sent it too.

Half a minute later, her reply appeared.

[Lenaan, you're using AI-generated pictures to lie to your own mother now?]

Panicking, I tried to video call her.

She declined it.

I sent another message asking if she could at least transfer me enough money to get to the hospital myself.

A red warning symbol appeared beside the message.

She had blocked me.

So had Dad.

So had Caleb.

Every member of my family had apparently reached the same conclusion: I was trying to ruin Maya's celebration, so the easiest solution was to shut me out completely.

My hands fell uselessly into my lap.

As tears spilled down my face, one terrible thought crossed my mind.

If I died right here, would Mom and Dad finally regret it?

In the end, I was too afraid to test it.

I had no money, so I took five hundred dollars that had been left on the entryway table.

It was Maya's weekly allowance.

Mine was twenty dollars, just enough to cover the bus to and from school.

I told myself I'd explain when I got home. I would treat it as a loan and pay Maya back.

By the time the IV was finished, it was already midnight.

I carefully slid my key into the front door.

It wouldn't turn.

"Mom! Dad!"

I knocked harder, panic rising in my chest.

The door across the hall opened instead.

Noah stood there in pajamas, leaning against the frame. There was something almost mocking in his eyes.

"Lena, Caleb told me you'd do anything to get your parents' attention. I didn't believe him before.

"Now I do."

I shook my head frantically. I was about to tell him the reaction had been real when our front door finally opened.

The living room lights were blazing.

Maya sat on the couch crying.

Mom and Dad glared at me, while Caleb grabbed my arm and yanked me inside.

"Lenaan, when did you become a thief?"

"I'm not! I didn't have any money for the hospital, so I..."

"Taking money without permission is stealing, no matter what excuse you have!" Dad slammed his palm against the table.

Tears sprang to my eyes.

"I tried to tell you, but all of you blocked me."

I pushed up my sleeves and showed them the red welts that still hadn't faded, then held out the medicine and discharge papers from the hospital.

Their expressions shifted.

Their voices finally softened.

"But that was your sister's money. You still shouldn't have..."

I lowered my head.

"I know. I owe Maya five hundred dollars. I'll pay every cent back."

My vision blurred again as I spoke.

"Mom, Dad... when I was sitting there alone with an IV in my arm, I kept wishing one of you would walk through the door.

"Even if you only stayed for a little while..."

Pain flashed across Mom's face. She stood as if she were about to come to me.

Maya caught her hand.

"Lena, for the first seven years of our lives, Mom and Dad were at the hospital with you almost every day. I was the one left behind. Wasn't that enough?"

Her voice broke.

"Maybe I'm the extra person in this family.

"Maybe I should've just stayed kidnapped back then. At least then you'd finally get what you wanted!"

She rushed toward the door, but Caleb caught her and pulled her into his arms.

"Maya, that's not what Mom and Dad meant. Don't think like that."

Noah stepped in from the hallway.

His voice was firm.

"Lena, you know exactly how you ended up having that allergic reaction."

Everyone looked at me at once.

"Noah, what do you mean?" Mom asked. "Are you saying Lena did it to herself?"

He didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he walked over to the cold bowl of instant noodles and stirred it.

Bits of crushed peanut floated to the surface.

"Lena, I'm going to say the same thing I said before.

"Why would there be crushed peanuts in instant noodles?

"You added them yourself so you'd have a reaction and force your parents to come home and look after you."

No one questioned him.

I shook my head in panic and said over and over that I hadn't done it.

Not one person believed me.

After all, they'd labeled me an attention seeker years ago.

Noah stood and looked down at me, disappointment filling his eyes.

"You weren't like this when we were kids."

Caleb gave a bitter laugh.

"She absolutely was. Maya had a performance, and Lena conveniently fainted."

"I didn't do it on purpose. There were too many people and I couldn't breathe, so I-"

"Right," he cut in. "You always have a reason."

At that, I stopped trying.

Anything I said would only sound like another excuse to them.

Mom sighed and glanced toward my bedroom.

"Maya has been wanting a walk-in closet.

"Your rooms share a wall. We'll knock through and turn yours into part of hers."