Chapter 1
As my parents and I clutched our stomachs and collapsed in our thirty-square-meter rental, my sister laughed gleefully. Mom struggled over to her, clutching her pant leg, and asked why. She kicked Mom away, throwing the food on the table at us. Her eyes were wild and threatening.
“You bunch of losers! It’s your fault I’m stuck as a nobody while others are born into wealth! If you weren’t holding me back, I’d already be a billionaire’s heiress. If you all just died, no one could say I’m a Johnson!”
We died in disappointment and resentment.
When I opened my eyes again, my sister was complaining about Mom’s Seafood Medley Porridge not meeting her standards.
“I told you I want Seafood Medley Porridge. You’re an adult, yet you can’t even cook properly. Aren’t you afraid I’ll starve?”
Since graduating college and struggling to find a job, she got hooked on those fake heiress novels. She read so much, she started fantasizing about being a lost daughter of a Noble Aristocrat, dreaming that some wealthy tycoon would recognize her one day. Over time, she got so deeply absorbed in this fantasy that she couldn’t pull herself out. She behaved like an heiress every day, ordering mom to make extravagant dishes.
“You don’t get it, heiresses eat like this. If you can’t cook it, learn!”
Whenever she wanted to go out, regardless of the time, one call and Dad had to be waiting with the car.
“No sense of time. If you make me late, I’ll never ride with you again!”
If she was in a bad mood, I would bear the brunt of it.
“How can you be so oblivious? See me upset and not know to give gifts and sweet talk to cheer me up? I can’t have such a clueless sister!”
I couldn’t take it, wanted to yell back, but Mom always stopped me.
“Nora, Phoebe is under a lot of pressure because she can’t find a job. She’s just being harsh. She’s still young, give it time, she’ll come around.”
So I waited and waited. Waited for the day she tried to claim kinship with a billionaire! Waited for the day she attacked someone! Waited for the day she put cyanide in our food! This ungrateful creature doesn’t deserve to live!
If she’s so picky about Mom’s porridge, then she shouldn’t eat it!
I was about to throw her bowl into the trash in front of our parents when Mom, usually so mild, beat me to it. She smashed my sister’s bowl and chopsticks, then slapped her across the face.
“If you’re not cooking, keep quiet. Be grateful you have food! Twenty-four and still living off us? Have some shame!”
“I’m telling you, from now on, you eat what I make, no bargaining! Eat it or starve.”
My sister was stunned, a bright red handprint on her face. She shakily pointed at me.
“Why say I’m mooching? She’s thirty and still living here. Doesn’t she mooch more than me?”
Mom snorted, hands on hips, like she owned the place.
“How can you compare to Nora? This new house you live in, she paid the down payment and she’s paying the mortgage. You’re being generous calling her ungrateful!”
My sister was speechless at Mom’s rebuttal.
She looked left and right, seeing Dad and I had no intention of speaking up for her, finally broke.
“You… you dare treat me this way? When my Noble parents find me, I’ll have them get back at you!”
Then she cried and stomped out.
Dad slammed the door behind her.
We three exchanged glances, then all asked at once, “You… you all came back to life too?”