They Wanted Me to Chaperone My Sister Abroad, So I Vanished Chapter 09

They Wanted Me to Chaperone My Sister Abroad, So I Vanished Chapter 09

They’d never bothered to look at Bella’s grades. They knew she did well in school-but they had no idea she

was exceptional.

Mom and Dad locked eyes, the identical bitter thought flickering across both their faces.

If they hadn’t kept Bella up all night drilling practice problems for Linda the evening before the exam, their family might’ve produced the city’s SAT champion.

A D.C. valedictorian would’ve landed front-page news headlines, an unmatched honor.

Owen stood frozen, eyes fixed on the phone lying face-down on the floor.

He was years older than both his sisters and had long considered himself the Miller family’s greatest success story. Getting into the University of Washington was an achievement he never tired of bragging about at every family dinner.

At every gathering, he was the child who made his parents beam with pride. No matter how spoiled Linda was at home, she could never outshine him-all because he’d earned admission to UW.

Yet his spot at the university had only come through blind luck. His scores were barely above the cutoff for

the university.

Now the achievement he’d built his entire identity around had been completely overshadowed by the sister

he’d spent years ignoring.

Marcus stood dazed, replaying his own SAT results in his head. He’d missed the safety cutoff for his dream university by a mere fifteen points.

He’d repeated his senior year solely to chase that school, landing in the same graduating class as Bella and

Linda.

Throughout twelfth grade, Bella had invited him countless times to study together, begging him to join her rigorous study group. He’d turned her down every single time.

He’d been too busy grabbing meals with Linda, wandering the school track with her, running to the convenience store to buy her hot dogs and soda.

What if he’d said yes to Bella’s invitations? What if he’d joined that study group? What if the person he’d spent all his free time with had been sharp, resourceful Bella-someone he could bounce tough questions off of-instead of Linda, who cared for nothing but mindless fun?

Would he have avoided missing his dream school a second time?

A suffocating, heavy silence blanketed the living room. Every person stared blankly ahead, lost in their own tangled regrets and what-ifs.

Linda glanced around the room in quiet confusion, and panic surged through her when she realized no one

was giving a single thought to her predicament.

Bella had always outshone her: taller, more striking, effortlessly graceful, with test scores Linda could never hope to match.

Still, Linda had carried quiet pride in one unshakable truth-no matter how talented Bella was, Mom, Dad, and

Owen only loved her, Linda.

Bella’s endless accomplishments only made her look sad and overlooked by comparison.

In the end, Bella had been supposed to surrender her own university spot, ostensibly to accompany Linda overseas. Everyone knew the unspoken truth: Bella was meant to act as Linda’s full-time caretaker abroad.

But everything had shifted in an instant.

“Good grades” and “an almost perfect SAT score” existed on entirely separate levels of importance.

Linda had never cared about studying, so she only vaguely sensed the gravity of Bella’s achievement without truly grasping what it meant.

Her hand trembled as she tipped the water glass off the table. Water spilled across the floor, and the crash jolted everyone out of their spiraling thoughts as they scrambled to clean up the mess.

Linda blinked slowly, reassured once more. At the end of the day, all eyes always drifted back to her, the youngest daughter. A shallow, smug grin tugged at her lips, the familiar rush of vanity settling over her heart.

What did it matter how well Bella scored? All she had to do was stir up a little commotion, and every ounce

of attention and affection would swing back to her.

Linda parted her lips to call out “Dad,” only for her father to hold a finger to his mouth to shush her, spinning

sharply toward her mother.

“What did the teacher say just now? Which university did she go to?”

Before Mom could reply, Owen’s flat, emotionless voice cut through the hush. “UC Berkeley.”

Dad let out a frustrated groan, his face crumpling with pure regret. “She could’ve picked any top major at

Harvard or MIT. Why UC Berkeley of all schools? What a waste, an absolute tragedy.”

Mom snapped back to reality, equally dismayed. “Bella’s so foolish, making this huge decision without consulting any of us. She didn’t even throw a college send-off party! This would’ve been the perfect chance

to show the whole world how brilliant our daughter is, and we missed it entirely. It’s such a shame.”

Dad shook his head, overcome with disappointment. “That party could’ve sealed deals! We got three contracts from Owen’s send-off-now it’s gone, just like that…”

They bickered back and forth, then retreated to their bedrooms without a single glance toward Linda, completely consumed by regret over missing the chance to celebrate their city-ranked scholar.

Linda watched her parents march into their room without a backward glance, her throat tightening with a

strange coldness.

Why had everything changed?

This was nothing like how she’d imagined it would go.