Chapter 3

Back at the house, Mom intercepted me outside my bedroom.

"You need to pack tonight. The contractor will be here in the morning."

"Contractor? For what?"

"We're opening the wall between your room and Sophie's. She needs a walk-in closet now that she has all those office clothes."

For a second, I waited for her to say she was kidding.

Sophie already occupied the biggest bedroom. I could just squeeze a desk and a bed into mine.

"Then where do I sleep?"

Mom gestured at the storage room next to the laundry area.

"We'll empty that out and get a twin bed in there. It isn't forever."

I went to look.

Boxes and old furniture crowded the room. A high cabinet covered part of the window, and one corner of the ceiling had dark stains.

"Your dad and I might buy a bigger place next year," Mom said. "You'll get first choice of bedrooms there. You can do whatever you like with it."

Next year. I'd heard that before.

In high school, Sophie broke the laptop we used together. Mom replaced it with one for her and said she'd buy mine the next year.

I never got that computer.

Dad spent the savings for my graduation trip on Sophie's dance competition out of state. He promised we'd take my trip the following summer instead.

That didn't happen, either.

All their promises to me ended up in the same place.

Later. Next year. When it was a better time.

For Sophie, the time somehow always came.

For me, it never did.

"I'm not moving into that room."

I'd never said no when they wanted me to give something up for Sophie.

Mom's face went hard.

"She's going to put in long days at Fairmont. She needs somewhere she can keep everything organized."

"That bedroom is mine."

Mom sighed as though I was wearing her out.

"Claire, we own the house. We're moving you to another room for a few months. Nobody's putting you out on the sidewalk."

She could make it sound perfectly fair.

As if taking my room away hardly affected me.

As if her clothes were entitled to more room than I was.

I spoke quietly. "If I had a better job than Sophie, would you let me keep my room?"

Mom frowned.

"It isn't about beating your sister. Inventing some wonderful job because you're jealous isn't going to make this any better."

Dad glanced up from his phone.

"If that room doesn't suit you, you're grown. You can find somewhere else to live."

I looked at each of them.

"All right." I turned and left.

They assumed I was making a scene.

Mom didn't ask where I planned to sleep. She just told me again to clear out before the contractor came.

I reserved a bed in a downtown hostel's six-person dorm.

Thirty-nine dollars a night.

When the woman below me moved in her bunk, the metal bed shook. Across the room, somebody snored. The corridor smelled of stale coffee and bleach.

Still, lying there, I was more at ease than I had been in my parents' house.

I'd paid for a place to sleep.

Nobody could take it away from me that night.

I only had to get through two more days.

In the morning, I went back for my belongings.

I opened my jewelry box. Grandma's cameo wasn't there.

Grandma was the one person in that family who had ever understood me.

When I was eight and running a fever, Mom was at Sophie's dance recital. Grandma drove me to urgent care and stayed with me through the night.

"You aren't as strong as they think, honey," she'd told me once. "You just keep your hurts to yourself because nobody takes the time to help."

After she died, that old pendant was all I had of hers.

I took the empty jewelry box into the hall.

"Mom, have you seen Grandma's necklace?"

She was pulling the sheets off my bed.

"No. You're forever losing things."

A notification came through on my phone.

Dad had sent a picture to the family chat.

He'd set up lunch so Sophie could meet a hiring manager at Fairmont. She was in her new navy suit, carrying the leather tote.

Grandma's cameo hung around her neck.

I showed Mom the picture.

She stopped stripping the bed.

Then she shrugged.

"The outfit needed a little something. I said she could borrow it."

"You opened my jewelry box?"

"You don't wear it. Why leave it lying there getting dusty?"

"Grandma gave it to me."

Her expression chilled.

"I'm your mother, Claire. I don't need to ask permission every time I borrow a necklace."

"You can't lend out something that isn't yours."

"Your grandmother loved Sophie, too. She'd be ashamed of you for being so selfish about jewelry."

"She wouldn't be ashamed of me."

I couldn't hold the tears back.

My voice shook as I spoke.

"She was the only one who didn't expect me to hand Sophie everything I cared about."

I started for the front door.

Mom blocked it.

"Your sister is having lunch with someone who can help her get a job. You aren't going down there and humiliating her over a necklace."

Before I could respond, someone turned the lock.

Sophie came inside.

She touched the cameo at her neck.

"Is this what you're looking for?"

She unclasped the necklace and held it in her open palm.

"I didn't realize Grandma gave it just to you. Mom told me it was a graduation present."

I didn't move closer. I held my hand out.

"Give it to me."

Two steps still separated us.

Then, without warning, she dropped it.

The cameo hit the tile and broke into pieces.

Sophie backed away, tears starting.

"I'm sorry!" she said, gasping. "You rushed at me. I got scared."