Dad turned angry with embarrassment. “Finley, you’re just like your mother, small-minded and foolish. With such a bright future ahead, you still insist on creating trouble before being content?”
He stared at me harshly, tone like winter, “Even if you won’t think for yourself, at least think about Cassandra. She’s a senior in high school and earns medals every year. You wouldn’t want her to quit now, right?”
My expression dimmed right away. I sank onto the couch, worn out.
Honestly, I could not risk my sister’s future.
The year Mom jumped, she had only turned one.
Such a small baby, gripping my fingertip and smiling with bright eyes, unaware she would never meet Mom again.
From age one forward, she was given poison three times, attacked by a snake, hit by a vehicle, and broke ribs, nearly died from allergies.
I guarded her through too many near-death moments. How could I destroy her future?
Dad eventually slammed the door and left. When Aster came back, she found me on the ground, drunk and tear-streaked.
Quietly, she lifted me onto the couch and fetched a cloth to clean my face.
She brought a lemon drink, held my arm, helping me drink slowly.
For an instant, it felt like eighteen years earlier, when we still meant the world to one another.
Back then, Mom passed away. Dad married his mistress.
I was ordered to kneel and call that woman “Mom,” then hid in the attic, crying my heart out.
Aster held me exactly like this, wiping my cheeks, letting me drink water.
She hugged me, saying things would be fine, that she was here.
At thirteen, she knelt before her father to seek protection for me, using cooperation to prove I was worth keeping.
How could I not love such a girl?
That short comfort was shattered when she let out a long breath, “Finley, I won’t walk away. That really was only an accident.”
I gripped her neck tightly, voice broken apart, “Aster, you understand I can't accept this. I refuse to suffer like Mom once did.”
“Aster, send them overseas, alright? We can support them for our entire lives.”
“Why didn’t you end it back then? Why didn’t you tell me when you wanted children?”
After a long pause, Aster finally spoke flatly, “The Olson-Lawson clean-energy collaboration cuts the ribbon tomorrow. Get ready. Don’t be absent, it will raise suspicion.”
Seeing her cold back move away, my heart finally dropped to the lowest point.
…