Chapter 2

Because Tiffany was Richard's real daughter, she received love from both of them.

I was only Mom's blood.

So as I grew, what I accumulated wasn't memories-it was debt, snowballing and cold.

I had no time for friends at school.

Even with the SATs looming, I spent every lunch break collecting cans, running errands for classmates, and doing homework for the failing kids behind the gym-five dollars per thousand words.

But I never expected Tiffany and her friends to corner me against the brick wall while I was picking up plastic bottles.

Tiffany pulled a folded paper from her uniform pocket.

It was the loan agreement I'd signed for Richard two days earlier-the one for next month's pads.

"See? I told you. Every word's true. Chloe has to borrow from my dad and sign an IOU just to buy pads."

"She's already six hundred thousand in debt to our family-and she's not even eighteen."

"A total money pit. Doesn't earn a cent but spends like it's nothing. Who knows what else she blows cash on?"

"I'm serious. Hang around her, and your wallet might go missing."

Tiffany had been feeding me to her friends as gossip.

Whispers circled around me.

My face burned.

With every secret laid bare, Tiffany made me want to vanish on the spot.

My eyes burned. I reached for the IOU.

But Tiffany held it higher.

Later, she didn't just show it around. She taped it to the school's main bulletin board.

"Let everyone see who our top student really is. What good are perfect grades? She's six hundred thousand in debt already! Trash from the inside out."

That afternoon, I became the school's joke.

"Pad-borrower" became my name.

My teacher called Tiffany and me into her office.

She was a decent person.

She scolded Tiffany firmly for the disrespect, then called our parents.

Richard and Mom both came.

Richard, in a crisp suit, looked every bit the polished gentleman. He apologized to the teacher the moment he entered.

But when the teacher gently brought up "protecting a girl's privacy" and "providing for her basic needs," Richard adjusted his glasses and smiled.

"I think you misunderstand, Miss. This is part of our family's financial literacy curriculum. Chloe has always struggled with fiscal responsibility. The shared-cost system, the personal loan-it's all designed to teach her self-reliance. To prepare her for the real world."

The teacher was left speechless.

Outside the office, in a deserted corner of the hallway, Richard and Mom's polite smiles dropped.

Richard checked his phone. Mom understood immediately and turned on me.

"Chloe, because of your little scene at school, Richard and I had to leave work. Richard bills at five hundred an hour. I bill at three hundred. Plus fifty for gas. That's eight hundred fifty dollars you owe."

Mom scribbled the numbers down quickly.

"This is on you. You've incurred an unnecessary time cost for both your father and me."

And so, my debt increased again.

On the way home, Tiffany happily held Richard and Mom's hands.

Only I was left behind.

Tiffany suddenly turned her head and stuck out her tongue at me, grinning.