My Sister Controlled My Life with Pocket Change Chapter 02
Dad stormed out and slammed the door.
Rhea let out a gloating laugh, got up, and went back to her room.
Mom turned to me and extended her hand, palm up.
“Today’s rent. Five dollars.”
I kept my head down. “I already gave all my money to Rhea.”
Mom frowned. “That’s your problem. No money, no staying here.”
She walked over, pulled the balcony door open, and gestured toward it.
“Don’t make me tell you twice.”
I didn’t say anything. I got up and grabbed my small bag from my room.
Inside the bag were my essential toiletries and one change of clothes.
This had happened too many times before. I was long past being surprised by it.
The moment I opened my bedroom door, Rhea walked in and dumped a pile of her laundry onto my bed.
She rubbed her sore wrists and complained, “Since you didn’t get into college, you should find a job and move out as soon as possible. That way you can finally give me back my walk-in closet.”
I glanced at the room, which was already overflowing with her clothes, and didn’t say a word.
I picked up my bag to leave, but she grabbed it right out of my hands.
She yanked it open and started digging through it.
“You’re hiding money now. What else are you stealing?”
She tossed my things onto the floor, one piece at a time.
When she finished, she flipped the bag upside down and shook it hard.
Only after she was completely satisfied that there was nothing left did she nod.
“At least you’ve got a shred of decency. You didn’t steal anything.”
I crouched down and gathered my belongings one by one.
Mom stood by the balcony door, urging me to hurry.
“Come on, move it! If the hot air gets in and Buddy gets heatstroke, Rhea will be heartbroken.”
Buddy was Rhea’s dog.
The dog had her own clothes, her own snacks, her own bed.
Meanwhile, I didn’t even have the right to sleep on the living room sofa.
I carried my things to the balcony. The moment I stepped outside, the door slammed shut behind me with a loud bang.
I turned around and saw Mom locking my bedroom door.
Then she moved on to lock the kitchen door.
Finally, she locked her own bedroom door and Rhea’s door as well.
She was making sure I couldn’t sneak into the kitchen to steal food, and she was making sure I couldn’t sneak into their rooms to steal money.
In this house, I wasn’t just an outsider. I was a stranger they needed to guard against.
The balcony was cluttered with the flowers Rhea raised.
I sat down in the corner with my things and remembered a moment from when I was little, when I asked my mom, “Why does Rhea get everything? Why do I have to pay for everything I use?”
She had looked at me with pure disappointment.
“If it weren’t for you, Rhea would be this family’s only child. She could’ve had a much better life.”
“You need to remember, everything you have is only yours because Rhea took pity on you and let you keep it.”
That was when I finally understood. My very existence was a debt.
A debt they owed to Rhea.
I pulled out the thin blanket I kept in the corner and laid it down with practiced ease.
I had slept on this balcony before, after the first time I talked back to Rhea.
She hadn’t said anything at the time.
But for an entire month after that, she didn’t use a single coupon when she shopped.
No coupons on takeout, no sales, no deals on anything she bought.
She waited until the very last day of the month to order boba and use a five-dollar coupon.
Then she looked at me coldly.
“Zelda, get it through your head. Your entire life is something I hand out to you out of pity.”
My allowance that month had been five dollars.
It was just enough to pay one day’s rent. I spent the rest of the month sleeping on the balcony.
My phone suddenly lit up with a message from Mrs. Hartley, my academic competition advisor:
[I’ll arrange the flight tickets and the scholarship application for you. We’re leaving in five days.]
I leaned against the door, phone in hand, letting the cold air from the AC seep through the crack as a slow smile spread across my face.
I was finally, truly, about to leave this place.