Chapter 9: Lessons in Envy

[The etiquette teacher just praised me and said I’ve improved a lot.]

[I got three ‘Excellents’ in speech class. If it were you, you wouldn’t even get one, right?]

[The psych teacher is so cute, hahaha. She actually seriously advised me to get more sunshine. My life is so happy—even if it rains every day, I won’t get wet.]

[Hehe, you know what? The housekeeper just told mom I finished all my Tuesday goals. Mom was so pleased, she immediately bought me a designer dress.]

Designer dress? So what?

There were more than ten designer dresses in my closet. Those expensive, stiff clothes were less comfortable than a school uniform. The minute I put one on, my name changed to “CEO Madison’s daughter.” At those stifling events, even my face and voice didn’t belong to me.

I remembered the hours in etiquette classes, back straight, eyes forward, smiling for the camera while my mom closed million-dollar deals in the background. Being envied for the wrong reasons is lonelier than being ignored.

“Natalie, your mom can’t take you again?”

Samantha from the next class called out. Her sympathetic voice snapped me out of my daze. I forced a smile. “Yeah, she’s got to take care of my sister.”

Samantha looped her arm through mine. “Why aren’t you upset today? Don’t you usually hate your sister?”

Hate her? Natalie’s little sister was like a marshmallow—soft, sweet, calling me ‘sissy’ in her tiny voice. How could anyone hate that?

Was it about money again?

I tried to imagine how Natalie must have felt—torn between loving her sister and knowing every dollar got stretched thinner with two mouths to feed.