They Wanted Me to Chaperone My Sister Abroad, So I Vanished Chapter 11

They Wanted Me to Chaperone My Sister Abroad, So I Vanished Chapter 11

Linda lay awake all night, staring at the ceiling until dawn bled through the curtains.

When she dragged herself out of bed the next morning, she saw matching dark, bruised circles beneath

Mom, Dad, and Owen’s eyes.

At breakfast, Linda kept her head down and said nothing, having learned her lesson from the day prior.

Dad set down his fork after finishing his meal and spoke the first words of the morning. “I’ve decided we still need to throw Bella a college send-off party.”

Linda’s fragile flicker of hope died instantly. Once again, every conversation circled back to Bella’s SAT

achievement.

“I agree,” Mom sighed heavily. “Her scores are extraordinary-we should let all our relatives and friends celebrate this milestone with us. We’ll book the finest hotel in D.C.; since we’re hosting late, venue reservations will be easier to secure.”

They quickly dove into planning every detail of the lavish celebration.

“How large should we make the banquet tables?”

“Only the most premium menu options will suffice.”

“Send messages to all our distant family back home-we’ll cover every flight and hotel bill for their visit.”

“I’ll handle all the bookings. Don’t forget to reach out to every key business partner; we can’t leave anyone

out.”

As the plans for Bella’s extravagant party grew grander by the minute, Linda’s pent-up resentment boiled over. She set her spoon down hard against the ceramic plate with a sharp “clink”.

“Mom, Dad.” She forced a thin, shaky smile. “If Bella’s already enrolled at UC Berkeley, she’s probably already settled on campus. Is such an enormous, expensive celebration really necessary?”

Dad shook his head in disapproval. “She can take a leave of absence for the party. It’s not that hard.”

“But we can’t get in contact with her at all.”

“She’s only upset right now. Once her mood softens, she’ll come home.”

“This is her family. We’ve fed, clothed, and supported her all these years, and we’re the reason she earned admission to such a prestigious university. She can’t cut us off forever, can she?”

“Also, you should text her regularly these days. You two grew up side by side-maybe hearing from you will

convince her to come home.”

Linda’s hands clenched tight beneath the dining table, and she finally voiced the fear weighing on her heart

nonstop.

“But if Bella’s attending university, who’s going to accompany me overseas?”

The second the words left her mouth, tears welled up and spilled over, tracking hot paths down her face.

“I can’t go abroad without her. I’m too scared to travel that far all alone-I’ve never left home without someone by my side… If Bella’s at UC Berkeley, what am I supposed to do?”

Dad stared at her in genuine shock. “You’re asking if Bella should still drop her university studies to move overseas with you?”

“Linda Miller, have all these years of endless spoiling robbed you of every ounce of common sense? How can you even utter such a ridiculous request? You expect her to throw that away just to babysit you at a low-tier overseas school you only got into by paying tuition fees?”

“You’re an adult now. Kids from dozens of neighboring families start studying overseas as early as middle school. If children that young can manage alone, what stops you?”

Linda’s throat tightened, on the verge of hysterical sobs.

Send the sheltered, pampered princess overseas all by herself? Only days ago, Dad had promised Bella would travel with her without a single hesitation.

She turned to Mom for support, yet the woman who’d always spoken to her with gentle warmth now wore a stern, disapproving frown.

“Linda, be reasonable and stop throwing a fit. Bella cannot possibly accompany you abroad. Studying overseas alone is hardly a crisis. Don’t bring this subject up again in the future.”

Linda grew frantic. “But we all agreed on this plan months ago! I haven’t mentally prepared myself to live overseas by myself, and my university enrollment deadline is almost here-there’s no time to rearrange

everything!”

“No time?” Dad snapped, anger flaring at his daughter’s refusal to accept reality, his brows furrowed deep.

“If you don’t have the courage to face this on your own, you don’t deserve to attend college at all. Stay home and rest until you build enough confidence to reapply for overseas programs. If you never fix this cowardly, dependent mindset, you won’t be attending any university whatsoever.”

With that, Mom and Dad returned to finalizing every detail of Bella’s celebration, completely ignoring Linda’s

distress.

Linda sat frozen on her stool, unable to stop her endless stream of tears.

She turned tear-blurred eyes toward silent Owen, voice trembling with desperation. “Owen, why did Mom and Dad break their promise to me? All I asked was for Bella to move abroad with me. Is UC Berkeley really that extraordinary? Why would they renege on a deal they made with me?”

She cried so hard her vision blurred, failing to notice the cold, judgmental stare Owen fixed on her-as if she

were a foolish, spoiled child blind to reality.

Owen’s voice was quiet, deadly calm. “What was your SAT score?”

Linda’s throat locked up instantly.

She’d known the second she left the exam hall her results would be catastrophics-she’d never bothered

studying throughout high school.

While Bella crammed practice questions until midnight, Linda buried her nose in romance novels. While Bella

lined up at teachers’ offices to ask for extra help, Linda secretly scrolled social media on her phone during

study hall. While Bella took meticulous class notes and listened intently to every lecture, Linda doodled stick

figures across every textbook page.

No one had ever cared to check her results, so she’d pulled up her score alone, then slammed her laptop shut

as if burned by the numbers on screen.

Bella’s lie about barely hitting the 1200 cutoff had been a fabrication. Linda’s real scores hadn’t even cleared

the 900.

“But SAT scores don’t define a person’s worth-” she tried to argue.

Owen cut her off before she could finish. “Enough, Linda. You’re eighteen; when will you stop acting like a

helpless little child?”

“If you can’t grasp how monumental Bella’s achievement is, there’s no use explaining it to you. Never again ask us to pull her away from her university to follow you overseas-that’s a ridiculous, selfish demand.”