Four Ballots. Four Names. My Family Chose To Trade Me Away Chapter 09

Four Ballots. Four Names. My Family Chose To Trade Me Away Chapter 09

The Blakes’ reputation collapsed.

Their stock price kept dropping to new lows, and their business partners canceled their contracts one after

another.

Dorian went live on Twitch to prove he was still a genius, claiming he’d code a brand-new antivirus from

scratch in three hours.

Hundreds of thousands tuned in.

He sat at his keyboard, fingers shaking, and produced code riddled with errors. Basic syntax failures.

Spelled-out variable names that looked like gibberish.

The chat filled with professional mockery.

“This is beginner-level garbage.”

“Did he buy those ‘international awards’? How much per pound?”

Dorian cracked. He smashed the keyboard and screamed into the camera.

“Fuck off! You broke nobodies-not fit to judge me!”

The stream was banned within minutes.

Celeste’s face worsened by the day. She secretly underwent reconstructive surgery, but the necrotic tissue

couldn’t be saved. Half her face became paralyzed-drooping, lopsided, grotesque.

She locked herself in her room and shattered every mirror.

Piper brought her a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

“Mom, please eat something. You’ll get better…”

“You’re here to laugh at me! You think I deserve this, don’t you?!”

“No, Mom, I just want you to recover-”

Celeste shrieked and flung the scalding soup into Piper’s face.

Piper screamed, her skin blistering instantly. She ran out crying and posted photos of her burns online.

Ten minutes later, a new hashtag surged to number one:

#CelesteMontgomeryAssault

Under it, Piper’s blister-covered selfies and a thousand-word accusation.

Seraphina’s fall came just as hard. Her label dropped her, and the breach penalties crushed her finances

Desperate, she tried to attach herself to wealthy social circles, but was soon caught in an affair with a

married man.

The scandal went viral, and she was publicly humiliated.

Harrison’s company finally collapsed. The courts seized everything, including the mansion.

The day they were evicted, a storm poured down.

Piper had already vanished, having stolen Celeste’s remaining jewelry.

The remaining Blakes ended up in a moldy motel room on the outskirts of town.

While sorting their last belongings, Dorian found an old leather notebook.

My journal.

He flipped it open. A page read:

[I wish for Dad’s business to succeed, Mom’s beauty to last, Dorian’s brilliance to shine, and Seraphina’s future to be bright. I will give everything I have to make that happen.]

The writing was shaky-from the pain of siphoning my life force.

Harrison grabbed the journal. As he read, memories crashed back.

Three years ago, he was bankrupt. Celeste aging and depressed. Dorian a failure. Seraphina mocked for her

voice.

Everything had changed the moment I walked through their door.

They’d thought it was luck.

They’d never known it was my health. My life. My years.

And they had traded me away without a second thought.

“What… what have we done?”

Harrison collapsed onto the stained carpet and sobbed.