My Mom Threw My Acceptance Letter Away For My Stepsister Chapter 06
She grabbed Mom’s hand.
“Mom, where’s Natalie? Is she mad we left without her?”
Mom stopped walking. Checked her phone.
The message thread was still empty.
Still no reply.
Ethan’s brow creased hard. He dialed immediately. Everyone held their breath.
Two rings.
Then the robotic voice. The number you have dialed is not available.
Eyes widened. Ethan looked genuinely rattled. Not available?
That was impossible.
Natalie always picked up his calls on the first ring. Always.
Had something happened?
Mom, Ethan, and Gavin exchanged looks. Shock. Unease.
Ethan pressed his lips together.
“Alright. Mom, you and Gavin take Sophie to her dorm. I’ll go get Natalie myself.”
“We were wrong to leave without her. She has a right to be upset.”
Gavin didn’t hesitate. “I’m coming with you.”
—
He cleared his throat. “Natalie actually listens to me. She’ll come around if I’m there.”
Ethan nodded. “Fine.”
Sophie watched them walk away, her eyes wide with disbelief. She nearly cracked a tooth.
They were leaving her? To go find Natalie? This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
She dug her nails into her palm until she drew blood. Her eyes burned red.
She turned to Mom for comfort.
But Mom wasn’t even looking at her. Mom was staring at her phone, lost.
Sophie glanced at the screen.
Natalie’s chat window.
She nearly fainted. They were thinking about her?
Sophie shook with rage.
She refused to accept this.
…
Barely five minutes later, Ethan and Gavin came sprinting back.
Sophie’s heart leaped. She forced a pitiful expression, ready to be comforted.
—
Ethan reached her first, face ashen.
“The housekeeper said Natalie left right after we did.”
Mom went pale. “Then she should’ve been here ages ago. Where is she?”
Panic crept into her voice.
Gavin’s mouth was a tight line. Something felt wrong. Something slipping.
Before anyone could speak, a commotion erupted from the check-in table.
All four turned.
One of the teachers was saying, “What? Natalie Whitman’s enrollment has been voided?”
Four heads snapped up. Pupils shrank.
Ethan surged forward, voice shaking.
“What do you mean, voided? Explain!”
The teacher flinched. “And you are?”
He sucked in a breath. “I’m her brother.”
The teacher blinked. Her gaze flicked to Sophie, who stiffened, hatred simmering behind her eyes.
The teacher refocused. “We just got word from admin. Her file’s been transferred. She’s no longer enrolled here.”
—
Mom lunged forward. “What do you mean, no longer enrolled? You already accepted her. Where else could she go?”
The teacher kept her patience.
“She was accepted. Her file was here. Normally, once a student commits, no other school can touch them.”
She paused.
“But some programs have their own pipeline. Early talent pulls, special scholarships—they can bypass the whole system and yank a file directly.”
Gavin’s frown deepened. “You’re saying she got snatched by one of those?”
The teacher nodded. “Most likely, yes.”
Mom, Ethan, and Gavin stood there, dazed.
Natalie was gone?
Switched schools?
Without telling them?
Gavin made a call to an administrator. Got the answer. “Westbrook University.”
Ethan’s eyes went wide. Real panic hit him.
His whole life, his little sister had clung to him. Now she’d made a massive decision and hadn’t said a single word.
And Mom.
—
She stood frozen, realizing with a gut-punch that she didn’t know her own daughter at all.
The distance between them had become a canyon.
She closed her eyes.
Turned to Sophie. “I’ll have the driver help with your bags. Mom has something to take care of.”
Ethan and Gavin fell in behind her.
Nobody looked back at Sophie.
She stood there, shaking, eyes bloodshot, face twisting into something ugly.
“Natalie Whitman! You bitch!”
…
Three hours later.
Their plane touched down on the West Coast.
They went straight to Westbrook University.