I Took The Same Exam, They Only Celebrated Her Chapter 08

I Took The Same Exam, They Only Celebrated Her Chapter 08

The cramped little room had nothing but a bare mattress and some cardboard boxes. You could tell at a

glance it had been used for years as a junk storage closet.

My aunt shrieked, her voice echoing off the walls. “You’ve been keeping Vivi in a storage room?! Doesn’t Vivi

have her own room? Where is her actual bedroom?”

Mom’s face flushed bright red. “I… it was converted into Rory’s walk–in closet.”

Before anyone could unleash their outrage, she rushed to explain, “It was only after she stole her sister’s

money, so…”

“Stole money? Why on earth would Vivi ever steal money?” Grandpa demanded.

Grandma frowned and walked straight into my room. She spotted the medical record sitting on the

nightstand. It showed I’d spent nearly five hundred dollars on allergy treatment ten days ago.

Before Grandma could even speak, my aunt screamed, “There’s writing on the wall!”

The cameras swung around, zooming in on the jagged, desperate marks carved into the plaster.

Countdown to leaving home.

“What have you monsters done to that child?” Grandma wept, clutching the hospital bill to her chest. “After

Vivi got better, her grandpa and I moved back home, thinking you could finally handle things. If you couldn’t take care of three kids, you should’ve told us! We would’ve helped!”

Dad said helplessly, “Mom, you don’t know the first thing about raising kids. We had our attention all on Vivi

back then, so we asked you to look after Rory. She kept calling us, crying that you treated her badly.”

Grandma’s sobs stopped dead. She turned her head and fixed a death stare on Rory. “Tell me, how exactly did

we treat you badly? While your parents were at the hospital with Vivi, I cooked you something different every

single day. I poured my entire pension into buying you things. And this is what you told them?”

Rory’s face went ghostly pale. “I… I was just a little kid then…”

“And you knew perfectly well how serious Vivi’s allergies are–how could you let her have an allergic

reaction!”

Liam answered, “Grandma, we’ve been wrongly accused on this one. She ate the peanuts herself to get Mom

and Dad to come home.”

“I don’t believe for a second Vivi would be that stupid.”

Mom sighed. “Mother, there isn’t a single peanut to be found in this whole house. And even if we were that

heartless, her father and I would never harm her like that.”

Asher quickly cut in. “The noodles I was making were beef–flavored! There were zero peanuts in them.”

Just as everyone was at a standoff, the doorbell rang. A delivery guy stood there with a small package.

“Looking for a Miss Hayes?”

My parents rushed forward. “For Vivi?!”

“Uh, Miss Hayes ending in 5555.”

That was Rory.
Rory frowned. “What do you want with me?”

“Sorry, Miss Hayes. About two weeks ago, you ordered a bottle of peanut powder for baking. The seller accidentally sent you crushed peanuts instead. You said it was fine, but the platform is still sending you the correct item. Please sign.”

Rory stood frozen, unable to move.

The delivery guy added helpfully, “It’s free.”