Right there in front of the guests, I laid out the dates of creation, my inspirations, the thinking behind every detail — even the cloud records of the originals.
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
Tessa’s face went paper-white, her eyes darting in panic.
A second later, her eyes filled with tears. She rushed off the stage, threw herself into Mom and Dad’s arms, and sobbed out her twisted version of events.
“Mom, Dad, she’s jealous of me — jealous that people like me! She deliberately accused me of copying in front of everyone just to ruin my party. She can’t stand to see me happy.”
Dad saw red. Without a single question, he stormed up to me.
Dad saw red. Without a single question, he stormed up to me.
Crack.
He swung his arm with all his strength and slapped me hard across the left side of my face.
The sound was sharp and loud, echoing through the entire banquet hall.
I stumbled and slammed into the metal railing of the stage.
The taste of blood flooded my mouth.
My teeth — already crooked — loosened under the blow, and a piercing pain shot from my roots across my whole cheek. Half my face swelled and burned.
Blood dripped from the corner of my mouth, staining my light-colored clothes. Impossible to miss.
My wolf reared up to fight, only to be forced into submission by my father’s dominant wolf.
I pressed my hand to my cheek and slowly lifted my head to look at my family.
But there was no room for me in their eyes.
Mom grabbed the wailing Tessa first.
She soothed her in a soft voice, her eyes full of concern — without a single glance at me, bleeding and hurt.
Then she pointed at me, her voice dripping with disgust.
“Elise, you’ve lost your mind! You caused a scene on purpose, with your venomous, selfish little heart. You’ve embarrassed this entire family!”
Not one relative asked if I was in pain. No one asked for the truth.
Everyone crowded around me, urging me to lower my head and apologize — to apologize to Tessa.
No one cared that my savings had been taken, my tutoring career destroyed, my beloved work stolen, that my father had slapped me in public.
The despair in my chest hurt a thousand times more than my face.
I stopped crying.
Every fantasy I’d had about family died in that moment.
I turned and left, the noise behind me cut off by the door.
Back home, I packed a bag and went straight back to school that night.
Six full months passed after that.
No mindlink from home. Not one message asking how I was.
They never asked about my injuries. They never apologized for that slap.
Just when I’d started to think the ties between me and that house would slowly rot away on their own, my phone rang.
The caller was Mom.
Gone was her usual coldness. Her voice was deliberately soft and gentle, carrying an unfamiliar, fawning warmth.
“Elise, can you come home for a bit? Mom and Dad miss you.”
After hesitating, I went back to the house I hadn’t seen in ages.
Why?
I figured it was time to go to the Elders Council and sever my ties with the Miller family for good.
The moment I pushed open the door, Mom, Dad, and Tessa swarmed around me, all warmth and smiles.
Fruit brought to me. Warm water pressed into my hands. Gentle voices, kind faces — treatment I’d hardly ever known growing up.
I felt nothing.
My wolf even went on edge without my telling it to.
She hated being in that place.
After a few pleasantries, Mom dropped the act and got straight to the point.
“Tessa’s studying design in college, and the coursework is extremely demanding.”
“She doesn’t have any real drawing ability — she can’t do the assignments or the final projects on her own.”
“We want you to move back home and help her finish all her course designs in your spare time, so she can pass her semester.”
Two months of silence, and now they’d swallowed their pride and played nice.
The whole time, they were just after my design talent, cleaning up Tessa’s academic mess.
Growing up, they’d always fake warmth when they needed me.
And when they didn’t, they hurt me and took from me without a second thought.