The Real Daughter Said I Copied Her？Oops, My Test Was Blank Chapter 02
My adoptive parents, Patrick and Eleanor Walsh, stood in the doorway, their faces twisted with fury.
Two private security guards loomed behind them, blocking out the hallway light.
The moment Sophia laid eyes on them, her tears burst open like a dam.
She stumbled forward and threw herself into Eleanor’s arms.
“Dad… Mom… you’re finally here…”
“Please… please don’t blame Lena… it’s my fault… I’m the one who got her in trouble…”
Eleanor’s whole body trembled with the force of her heartbreak.
She pulled Sophia tight against her chest, one hand stroking her back, murmuring “it’s okay, it’s okay” over and over.
But when she looked up at me, all that tenderness vanished. What was left was pure disgust.
“Lena Walsh. You are absolutely beyond saving.”
“How many times did I tell you when Sophia first came home? Be nice to your sister. Be understanding.”
“She spent eighteen years in the foster system. You have no idea what she went through—”
“We fed you, clothed you, raised you like our own for eighteen years. And this is what we get? A—a snake that bites the hand that fed her?”
“When Sophia told us you were bullying her at home, we didn’t even believe it at first.”
“We thought you were better than that. We even told her to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“But you? You cheated on the SAT—the most important test of your life—and then tried to pin it on Sophia?”
“Is that your plan? Get rid of her so you can keep playing the only daughter of the Walsh family?”
“Dream on.”
“Adopted is adopted. You’re not even worth a single strand of Sophia’s hair.”
I’d heard these words a thousand times in my past life.
I thought coming back would make it hurt less.
But they still cut like shards of glass, each one burying itself in my chest.
This same Eleanor used to sit by my bedside all night when I had a fever, not leaving until my temperature dropped.
This same Eleanor once stormed out of the house in her bathrobe to confront a neighbor’s parents because their kid called me a “nobody’s orphan.”
She was the one who looked me in the eye and said, “You’re my daughter. That doesn’t change. Ever.”
And she was also the one who took every lie Sophia fed her and shoved them down my throat like they were facts.
“See? Even the parents are saying it.”
“You never really know a person. Adopted kids just have something wrong with them. It’s in the blood.”
I heard the whispers from the back of the room.
I ignored them.
I lifted my head and looked straight at Eleanor.
“Mom. Do you really think I cheated? Do you honestly believe I bullied Sophia at home?”
“Eighteen years together—and that means less than a few months of her tears?”
Eleanor’s lips parted slightly. But she didn’t answer.
Patrick strode forward, snatched the stack of “evidence” from Morrison, and hurled it at my feet. The papers scattered across the floor.
“Principal Morrison already sent me the scans!”
“Two identical answer sheets—same markings, same erasures, everything. You think that’s a coincidence?”
“Sophia’s top of the grade. You’re a mid-tier student at best. So what, she copied you?”
“All for that MIT recommendation slot—you’d stoop that low to steal from Sophia?”
“Do you have any idea what she went through in foster care?”
“She finally earned something on her own—her first real win—and you couldn’t stand it?”
“Where’s your conscience? You’ve humiliated this entire family!”
Sophia sniffled against Eleanor’s chest and added, her voice soft and fragile:
“Dad… please don’t be mad.”
“Lena probably just wasn’t thinking straight. She’s usually… usually she’s nice to me.”
“It’s just that sometimes… she says I don’t belong in the Walsh family. That everything in this house was supposed to be hers…”
“What? She said that to you?” Eleanor’s voice shot up an octave.
“I did not!” I cut in.
“I never said anything like that. And for the record—I don’t need to steal anyone’s recommendation.”
For the past few years, I’d deliberately kept my grades average.
The night Sophia first came home, she cried and told me she was scared Mom and Dad would compare her to me—scared she’d be abandoned all over again.
I believed her.
I gave her all the spotlight, thinking that was how I kept this family together.
And now she was using it against me.
I paused, looking Patrick and Eleanor straight in the eyes.
“Have you both forgotten?”
“Mitchell Institute sent me an early admission letter last month.”
“Why on earth would I need to cheat?”