The Daughter They Didn’t Want Won The Lottery Chapter 08
Disney had been mine and Liam’s. Not hers.
Junior year, on the bleachers after cross-country, I’d told him one day I wanted to see the fireworks over Cinderella Castle. He’d said, After graduation. My treat. We’ll do it right.
He’d done it right. Just not with me.
Chloe tilted her head. “You know, Em, it’s kind of sad. Mom and Dad don’t like you. Liam doesn’t like you anymore either. Liam and I get four years at Columbia together. Probably a lot more after that. You’ll just be… somewhere.”
Mom appeared in the doorway, spotted the new phone in my hand, and snatched it back.
“Chloe, are you kidding me? That was your graduation gift. She doesn’t need a phone like that. Give her your old one.”
Chloe pouted. “But Mom—her old phone dying is what got her hurt. I want her to have the new one.”
Mom’s face shifted in real time. Her eyes narrowed at me.
“Emma. I see what this is. You staged the whole thing—the locked door, the dead phone, the little collapse—to guilt-trip your sister into handing over her graduation gift. My God.”
She shoved the phone back into Chloe’s hand.
“Chloe, honey. Keep it. Emma—you want a new phone, get a summer job and buy one yourself. This family isn’t a charity.”
Chloe murmured, “Yes, Mom,” lashes lowered, corner of her mouth twitching up.
She’d never wanted to give me the phone. She’d wanted Mom to yell at me one more time, so she could stand there being generous. And that lock screen, that whole Disney album—that was the present she’d wanted me to unwrap.
A year ago I would’ve been in tears.
Today I just looked at Mom and said, evenly, “Fine. I’ll get a job.”
She sniffed and swept out with Chloe under her arm.
Next morning I walked out the front door with my backpack, my ID, and the debit card.
I went to the mall. That day I had one job. Spend money.
Newest iPhone. Jeans that fit. A soft gray coat. Ankle boots. Underwear that had never been anyone else’s. A suitcase.
Every receipt filled a hole in me I hadn’t known was there.
I sat down in the food court with a latte and cheesecake and cried into a napkin.
Money was a beautiful thing. From now on I would never beg for scraps, never wear anyone else’s clothes, never get slapped in a Chick-fil-A over a sandwich. Every dollar in my account was mine, and it was clean.
I repacked everything into the new suitcase in the mall bathroom and Ubered straight to the airport.
At the gate, I opened Liam’s contact and typed one last message.
Liam. The fireworks at Disney are beautiful. But your life is yours now. I won’t be part of it anymore.
I hit send and blocked his number, his Instagram, his email. Everything.
The boarding call came over the PA.
I stood up, wheeled my suitcase down the jet bridge, and didn’t look back.
From here on out, my life started on the other side of the ocean.
Nobody noticed I was gone until late the next afternoon.
Mom came out of the kitchen with a plate of sliced watermelon, glanced toward my bedroom, and asked, absently, “Where’s Emma? Haven’t seen her all day.”
Dad, from the couch, without turning: “Didn’t you tell her to go get a summer job?”
The plate paused in her hand. Her brow tightened. “A summer job doesn’t keep you out all day with no phone call. That little—she’s out with some boy, isn’t she? I swear to God—”
She dropped the plate on the counter and grabbed her keys. Her hand had just touched the doorknob when the bell rang.
Two people on the porch in matching polos. State lottery logo on the chest.
The woman in front smiled. “Hi there. Are you the Carter family? Emma Carter’s scratch-off ticket from last week was a top-prize winner. Five hundred thousand dollars. Claim’s already processed. We wanted to swing by for a quick interview and a photo—she’s actually our youngest jackpot winner this quarter.”
Mom’s hand froze on the door.
For a second she looked like she hadn’t understood the words. Then, softly: “…What did you say?”