My Mom Threw My Acceptance Letter Away For My Stepsister Chapter 07
At the same time, I was walking the campus.
An admissions counselor was giving me a personal tour, pointing out landmarks.
She patted my shoulder. “You’re our highest science score this year. If you need anything, just ask.”
I pressed my lips together and shook my head, grateful. “Thank you, but just being here is enough.”
“Although…”
“When does the full-ride scholarship deposit? I’m…”
I’d left the Whitman house with nothing. I needed to survive.
She understood.
“It should hit your account tonight. Fifty thousand dollars.”
I exhaled.
Her phone rang. She glanced at it. “I have to take this. Will you be okay?”
I smiled. “Go ahead. I’ll explore.”
She nodded and walked off.
I strolled down Maple Avenue, heart lighter than it had been in years.
The life I’d dreamed of was about to start.
—
I’d changed my number. I didn’t want them reaching me.
I’d only taken a few steps when three voices, raw and shaking, cut through the air behind me.
“Natalie…”
My body locked. Revulsion flooded my veins. I turned.
Ethan’s eyes were red-rimmed.
He rushed forward, breath uneven.
“You switched schools. Flew across the country. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Do you have any idea how worried we were? Back in Fairview, not knowing where you were?”
I looked at him.
Just a look. A quiet, empty look.
He froze. Because there was nothing in my eyes. Not warmth. Not anger. Nothing.
A cold laugh escaped me.
“Tell you?”
“So you could destroy my last option? Force me to follow Sophie—oh, sorry, Sophie Whitman—and be her servant?”
Ethan’s mouth opened. Nothing came out.
Mom pushed forward, eyes wet.
—
“Natalie, what are you saying? You’re my daughter. I would never make you a servant.”
My face didn’t move.
Old Natalie would’ve crumbled at those words. Would’ve sobbed with gratitude.
But that girl was gone.
“No?”
“You ruined my life. Took someone with my scores and shoved me into a second-rate state school. Turned me into Sophie’s personal pharmacy—had to carry her damn inhaler like I was her pack mule. And I had to beg her for pocket money like a dog.”
“Do I need to go on?”
“Every single thing you’ve done makes me sick.”
All three of them stood paralyzed.
Mom tried to argue, but my cold stare stripped away every excuse she’d ever leaned on.
She couldn’t say it anymore. Couldn’t say Sophie has asthma, you have to let her win.
It finally hit her.
Her biological daughter had drifted so far away.
Gavin stood at the back, staring at me like a stranger. In his head, I was still the girl who blushed when he walked in the room.
—
Now I didn’t even glance his way. He was a ghost.
And he realized—without me desperately propping up our relationship, he wasn’t even a ghost. He was nothing.
I took a deep breath.
I was done wasting time on these people.
“Don’t worry. I have a scholarship. I won’t touch a cent of your money. I won’t fight Sophie for anything.”
“From now on, I walk my path. You walk yours. We’re done.”
Their faces twisted with something painful.
I paused. “Oh, and I’ll pay you back for the last eighteen years of child support. After I graduate and start working. Don’t rush me.”
Mom swayed on her feet.
Ethan’s voice came out wrecked. “Natalie, what are you talking about? We didn’t come here for child support. You’re my sister. The only real child of this family.”
My gaze stopped on him.
A mocking smile. “Mr. Whitman. My name isn’t Natalie Whitman anymore. Don’t forget that.”
His pupils contracted. That composed, unshakeable CEO mask cracked wide open.
Right.
She wasn’t a Whitman.
—
They had done this. They’d stripped her name away themselves.
His hands clenched at his sides, palms stinging. But the pain was nothing compared to the hollow, gaping loss in his chest.
They had made a terrible mistake.
They had lost her. This stranger who used to be his little girl.
His real little sister.