I Cancelled My Dream School To Escape Their Justice Chapter 07

I Cancelled My Dream School To Escape Their Justice Chapter 07

Boston.

The speakerphone echoed through the living room. My mom’s phone nearly fell. My dad’s face

went pale.

“That’s impossible. She’s the state’s top scorer. I watched her fill in Stanford. How could she go to Boston-over a thousand miles away?”

They called my guidance counselor.

“Mrs. Collins, didn’t Nora apply to Stanford? How did she end up at Harvard?”

The guidance counselor’s voice was surprised. “I was about to ask you. At the last minute, she insisted on changing to Harvard. I told her it would be a waste with her score, but she wouldn’t listen. She sounded choked up I thought you parents were forcing her.”

My dad snapped. “Forcing her? It’s Stanford! Who would force her out of that? Is it a system error?

If it delays her enrollment, I’ll sue!”

The guidance counselor lost her temper. “Mr. Shaw, let me ask you something. Nora Shaw was the

state’s top scorer and got into Stanford-so why did you only throw a graduation party for her sister? Why are you telling everyone she only got into community college? Even if parents play favorites, this is too much!”.

“And you left her alone to go on vacation, let her jump from a burning building, break her leg, and stay in the hospital for two weeks and you didn’t even know? She’s your own daughter. How can

you be this biased?”

My dad froze. “She broke her leg?”

My mom’s voice trembled. “When we came back, we were too busy yelling at her about the fire- we forgot to ask if she was hurt. The deadline was that night.”

She grabbed my dad’s sleeve, tears streaming. “She’s given up on us. We pushed her to change her application.”

My dad’s phone hit the floor. His eyes landed on the worn-out sneakers in the trash-patched so

many times they were unrecognizable, bloodstains still visible.

He picked them up with trembling hands. “She kept saying her shoes hurt, that she wanted new ones. I thought she was just being difficult-she didn’t want to wear Sophie’s. She wasn’t lying.”

Three years later, she returns as a top surgeon and pianist with a powerful…

He looked at the empty room. The walls were covered with my certificates. Nothing else. No toys,no decorations. Nothing like Sophie’s room, crammed with dolls and clothes. My room had no trace of

a life.

In that moment, he seemed to age decades.

“Have we been doing this wrong? Nora earned her grades through hard work. We always tried to be. fair, to make up for Sophie’s shortcomings-but maybe we forgot about Nora.”

My mom sobbed, barely able to speak.

Sophie felt a knot of anxiety in her chest. She’d been spoiled her whole life-she believed that

whenever I succeeded, I was stealing what should have been hers. So the moment our parents

showed me guilt, she grew even angrier.

“Mom, Dad, don’t let her fool you. She’s just doing this to make you feel guilty.”

Before she could finish, my mom slapped her across the face.

“It’s your fault. If you hadn’t been fighting and making a scene your whole life, would we have drifted apart from Nora?”