My Mom Hid Gold In Her Truffle Box Chapter 08

My Mom Hid Gold In Her Truffle Box Chapter 08

“You kept my tuition so Chloe could have it. I worked myself so hard I was half-dead just to pay for both of us. That’s training?”

“A cheap moped for me. A car for Chloe. That’s training?”

My voice was shaking.

“She got the money. She got the love. I got guilt and a lecture about how I should be grateful for scraps.”

“And you have the nerve to call that a favor?”

Mom had just admitted she’d given Chloe everything, and Chloe wasn’t grateful. She was insulted.

“Mom, what the hell?” She turned on our mother.

“You think I’m nothing, don’t you? That I’m not worth the effort?”

“You just threw money at me because you’d already given up on me. Is that it?”

Dad grabbed my arm.

“Eleanor, your mother meant well. She just went about it the wrong way.”

“She’s still your mother. Just let it go.”

My aunt chimed in. “Eleanor, your mom does love you.”

“Look how well you turned out. She put more into you than she ever put into Chloe. It just wasn’t money.”

My uncle sighed. “All your mother did for Chloe was throw money at her, and look how she turned out.”

“With you, she actually put in the work. That means something.”

The disgust hit me in waves.

So that was how they saw it. Taking everything from me counted as an investment, and handing Chloe a free ride was neglect.

Chloe latched onto it immediately. As long as the family agreed Mom loved me more in spirit, she’d never run out of ammunition. She’d always be the victim.

“Did you hear that, Eleanor?” Chloe’s chin tipped up, triumphant.

“Mom and Dad love you the most. I’m just the one who got the money. The afterthought.”

“So what exactly do you have to complain about?”

She jabbed a finger at me. “Now pay up.”

“Consider it compensation for all the years I had to watch you be their favorite.”

Something inside me went still.

“Fine.” I looked at every one of them.

“If money doesn’t matter, if it’s all about love, then nobody should mind if we settle the numbers.”

I picked up my phone and started running the math.

“Every transfer to Chloe. Every dollar you kept from me. Every cent I sent home that was supposed to help the family.”

The color left Mom’s face the second she realized I was serious.

“Eleanor, what are you doing?”

“Eleanor, don’t you dare!” Chloe’s voice shot up an octave.

I didn’t look up. I finished the calculation and dropped the total into the family group chat.

Every phone in the room went off at once.

Mom stared at the number. Her eyes went wide, and the breath seemed to leave her body.

“Eleanor, you’re trying to kill your own mother…”

Her eyes rolled back, and she slumped backward, playing dead.

I’d seen this performance before. She wasn’t unconscious. She was hiding.

The living room broke into chaos.

“Margaret! Margaret, what’s wrong?” Dad went white, catching her as she fell.

“Mom! Mom, wake up!” Chloe threw herself down beside her, sobbing.

Someone called 911.

I stood where I was and watched all of it unfold like it was happening to someone else. The ambulance arrived fast. Dad, Chloe, and the relatives scrambled to help get Mom onto the stretcher.

“Eleanor, come on!” My aunt shouted from the doorway.

I didn’t move. “Go ahead. I’m not coming.”