My Parents Deleted My Only Graduation Photo for My Bestie Chapter 06

My Parents Deleted My Only Graduation Photo for My Bestie Chapter 06

My dad took the phone, his hands trembling.

The screen displayed the official project contact list.

Photo, university, department-all of it laid out right there in plain sight.

The person in the photo was me.

The line of text underneath read like a death sentence.

[Westridge Aerospace Materials Institute. Initial Review Lead, New Materials Joint Project:

Audrey.]

My mom leaned in to see. The color drained from her face.

“Impossible.”

The word slipped out before she could stop it.

“How did she land a position like that?”

“She couldn’t even find a job. That’s what she told us!”

Blake watched them, his expression hardening.

“It’s not that she couldn’t find a job. It’s that you never bothered to ask.”

Just one sentence, but no accusation could have cut deeper.

Just minutes ago they’d been standing in this same lobby, bragging about Chloe’s big career launch.

Calling their own daughter unemployable.

And now the daughter they said should “just take whatever she can get” was the

person

Zenith’s

entire project team had to impress.

Panic set in.

My dad grabbed his phone first.

The call went straight to voicemail. He tried texting.

[Message Not Delivered]. The red text stared back at him from the screen.

My mom frantically pulled out her phone and sent a voice note.

“Audrey, where are you? Call me back right now.”

[Failed to Send].

Julian and Logan both tried her number.

Same result each time.

Straight to voicemail. Message blocked. [Not Delivered].

That was when it finally sank in. I wasn’t throwing a tantrum. I wasn’t bluffing.

I had cut them all off, and I was gone.

My dad swallowed his pride and turned to Blake.

“Blake, do you have any way to reach her?”

Blake’s expression turned stony.

“She’s your daughter. You can’t reach her yourself?”

Humiliation washed over my dad’s face in waves.

Blake looked at all of them. He wasn’t even trying to hide his disgust.

“Listening to the way you talked about her right in front of me? It made me sick. Honestly? I’d have cut you off too.”

The Zenith employees lingering in the lobby had started staring.

Whispers broke out.

“They don’t even know where their own daughter works, but they all showed up to drop off the neighbor’s daughter on her first day?”

“That’s beyond messed up. What kind of parents do that?”

“Good for her for getting out. At least she built something for herself.”

Blake wasn’t done.

“This project is critical for Zenith. Whether we make it past the first round depends entirely on the

institute’s review.”

He paused and looked at Chloe.

“Chloe’s on this project team. And this bid will decide whether she passes her probationary period.”

All the color drained from Chloe’s face.

Minutes ago she’d been the center of attention, everyone fussing over her first big day.

Everyone telling her how impressive she was, how bright her future looked.

Now, whether she even kept this job depended on the one person she’d spent her whole life looking

down on.

My dad started to say something. Some excuse. Some defense.

Blake cut him off.

“The initial review meeting is in three days. Virtual.”

“Audrey will be representing the institute’s review team.”

“I’d suggest you fix things with her before then. Otherwise, you can forget about Chloe staying on

this team.”

Chloe stood there, tears already pooling in her eyes.

In the past, the second those tears fell, everyone would have rushed to comfort her.

This time, even Logan didn’t move.

He was just staring at the red text on his screen-[Message Not Delivered]-his face completely

unreadable.

He tried my number one more time. Nothing. Just a dead line.

“She’s really gone.”