Chapter 2
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Chloe comes back, strutting her stuff,
flashing this huge rock on her finger.
“Sis, I’m getting hitched! You’re happy for me,
right?”
I adjust my glasses and say, real cold, “Yeah,
good luck with that. Hope you break a world
record for number of kids.”
I barely step out the door before I hear Chloe
start bawling her eyes out.
“I finally find happiness, and my sister has to
ruin it.”
My mom snorts. “What good is working hard?
You’re still single at the end of the day.”
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Then she turns all sweet and coos at Chloe,
“She’s just jealous, sweetie. Don’t cry.”
I roll my eyes so hard I almost see my brain.
In my mom’s book, a husband is all that
matters.
Last time, Mark said he liked the idea of a
stay–at–home wife, so my mom threw a fit
and forced me to quit my job. She even
handed over all my IDs and bank cards to
Mark, just to trap me at home.
I raised hell about it, and my mom called me
ungrateful.
“Mark’s family is loaded, you’re lucky to be a
housewife. If it wasn’t for Chloe giving him
up, you wouldn’t even have the chance!”
<
Thanks to that gem of wisdom, for the next
few decades, I’m stuck taking care of the in-
laws, cleaning the house, dealing with the
kids‘ school, soccer practice, tutoring… all by
myself.
And on top of that, I get yelled at for being
lazy and just asking for money.
The kids act like I’m a broke joke.
Then, when I saw Chloe again, she looked like
a million bucks while I was a tired old hag.
Even at their weddings, I wasn’t allowed to
give a speech, but you bet your ass they
wanted me to watch the kids.
Thinking about it makes me shudder.
Г
I barely get to my desk at work before my
coworker whispers, “The boss wants to see
you, and he looks pissed. Probably not good.”
I thank her and head straight to the boss’s
office.
He looks like he wants to explode.
He barely holds back his anger. “Sarah Miller,
you’re fired! And you have to pay for all the
company’s damages!”
I’m totally confused. “But, sir, you know how
much profit my marketing plan brought to the
company. You can’t just…”
Before I can finish, he throws a stack of
papers at me. “Your plan? You’re gonna claim
“Now our company is a laughingstock, You
either quit and pay for the damages, or the
whole industry will know you’re a copycat,
you’ll never work in this field again!”
I frown. Plagiarism? But I spent nights
researching and putting that plan together.
I hesitantly open the file and see the other
company’s marketing lead’s name: Chloe
Miller. Everything makes sense now.
