After Losing Us Both

My billionaire parents, Gerald Voight and Diane Westwood, were afraid my sister, Claire Voight, and I would grow spoiled if we stayed in luxury, so they pulled us out of the city's best prep school and sent us to study in a remote mountain town. On the way there, locals knocked us unconscious and sold us into a brutal trafficking ring. I found a way to contact my parents and begged them to save us, but they said I was lying. "Being sent to the mountains means you were trafficked? You really were raised too soft. You can't handle even a little hardship." "Kids there get into college by fighting their way out. Learn to do the same. Stop depending on us for everything." They blocked my sister's number and mine before I could explain. To survive, my sister and I escaped after three days without food, but when we tried to buy tickets out of the county, the ticket clerk refused us. "Sorry, miss. We've received instructions from the Voight family. You're not allowed to leave the county by any method, unless it's for college." We couldn't get away. The traffickers dragged us back. Later, my sister died from the tortures in a filthy basement. I was luckier. At my last breath, undercover anti-trafficking officers found me. I held my sister's ashes and fled to the farthest city from home. Then our cousin, Jenna Reed, posted a photo from her overseas school. [Uncle Gerald and Aunt Diane are just like my real parents. They give me the best love.] She tagged me on purpose, the way she always did, hoping I'd be provoked into questioning her. This time, I only liked the post and replied: [If you're willing, they can be your real parents. You can be their only daughter.] Chapter 1 I was alone in a strange city. When I opened the door at eleven in the morning, I wasn't prepared at all. But the moment I saw that couple standing outside, my heart dropped. My first instinct was to run. Run, fast. Otherwise, they'd send me back to that godforsaken mountain valley again. I didn't think about anything else. I turned to grab my sister's ashes. But I had barely taken one step before someone seized my arm. I was wrenched around, and the next second, a slap landed hard across my face. "You're running now? Now you know fear? Where was that fear when you and your sister skipped school together? "I sent you to a hard place on purpose, so you could lose that arrogance, work hard, and prepare for your exams. If I hadn't seen your comment on Jenna's post, I'd have thought you two had finally gone quiet because you'd learned to try!" Looking at that man's flushed, furious face, a chill rose inside me. He was my father. But it was exactly that title that gave him the nerve to hurt us without restraint. "Where's your sister? Call her back. "I went to so much trouble for both of you, and this is how you repay me? By skipping school? Claire always had even more tricks than you. You never picked up a single good habit, only the bad ones!" He could hit me and curse me all he wanted. But the second he mentioned my sister, I stiffened my neck and lifted my head. If they hadn't been insane enough to believe my sister and I would turn into gold diggers just because we were born rich, my sister never would have died. "What are you looking at me like that for?" My stare enraged him. His hand rose again. "So I can't keep you in line anymore? Go apologize to Jenna right now, or I'll make sure you feel real pain today. "I'll teach you that sparing the rod only spoils the child!" Hit. Apologize. The first half of Claire's life and mine had almost been buried under those two words. Seeing my temper flare, my mother finally stepped in to smooth things over. "Clara, listen to your father. Call Claire out and apologize to Jenna, both of you. Then this whole thing is over. "Your father and I are truly disappointed in you this time. If we hadn't looked into it, we still wouldn't know you never even took the exams and ran off in secret!" Ha. Was it that we didn't want to take the exams? It was clearly because we'd been kidnapped by traffickers. My chest rose and fell violently, and I couldn't hold back anymore. "You want me to apologize? Never. I'd rather die than apologize!" My father's eyes widened, and his slap came down at once. "I'll ask you one last time. Are you apologizing or not?" His eyes were sharp, the pressure suffocating. My face had gone numb from the beating, but I forced myself up. I walked into the kitchen and came back with a knife. My father narrowed his eyes in disbelief. The finger he pointed at me trembled slightly. "Are you trying to kill your mother and me? "Good thing Jenna suggested we send you somewhere hard enough to straighten you out. Otherwise you'd really grow up to turn on your own parents for the family fortune!" I looked at him calmly. "When Claire and I were little, you were both busy with the business. We grew up on instant noodles. "What luxury did we ever enjoy in this family? What terrible thing did we ever do, to make the two of you imagine your own daughters this way?" My father's voice rose. "You bullied Jenna! She's your cousin, you're family!" "That was all a lie! Jenna framed Claire and me on purpose, because she wanted you to love her best!" For so long, Claire's death had been the boulder pressing on my heart. My father's next words came out cold through clenched teeth. "You still don't see what you did wrong." I pointed at my own head. "Then beat me to death. "You were going to beat me to death, weren't you? Go ahead." Claire was gone anyway. I had no reason to live then. Chapter 2 My father glared at me for a long time. In the end, my mother snatched the knife away. "This time we'll take you back ourselves. If you can't fix that rotten temper, you can stay there for the rest of your life!" I sat nearby without speaking. After we boarded the plane, my mother actually sighed and reached for my hand. I dodged her. She froze, then put on that same look of bitter parental concern. "Clara, I never thought you'd hate us this much. "You and Claire are our biological daughters. Your father and I only did this because we wanted better for you. "Jenna lost both her parents. If you two could've gotten along with her, that would've been fine. But you were spoiled from childhood and couldn't stand to have anyone else around." I gave a smile uglier than crying. "Did you ever catch Claire and me bullying her? Did you ever have proof? "You sent us to the mountains to study, but before we even got there, someone knocked us out and sold us to traffickers. We barely escaped and begged you to save us, and you refused! "Tell me, how were we supposed to take the exams after being abducted?" My mother looked at me with reproach and said nothing. My father supplied what she was thinking. "You'd say anything to frame Jenna. "Your story is full of holes. If you were really abducted by traffickers, how could someone like you possibly escape? "Once we send you back, you'll behave. Still lying through your teeth, even now!" Bitterness spread through me. At last, I asked the question I had never been able to make sense of. "Why would you rather believe Jenna than your own daughters?" After I said it, I walked to the emergency exit and put my hand on the handle. "I'd rather die than go back there." After Claire and I were abducted, we were sold to a village full of lonely men. The price of resisting was a beating, stripped bare and whipped with switches. To protect me, Claire had no choice but to give herself up. And even when her body was already ruined, Claire still knelt on the ground and bowed her head to them for my sake. "Please let my sister go. Please don't hurt her anymore. "She's still little. I'm already like this. Please, just don't touch her, okay?" Again and again, Claire pressed her forehead to the ground until tiny stones embedded themselves in her skin. The traffickers didn't spare her. They didn't go easy on me either. Claire couldn't survive eventually. I held on until the police found us during an anti-trafficking operation. Then I took Claire's ashes and went to the farthest city from home. The only reason my parents came for me this time was probably to defend Jenna. "If you force me back there, I'll open this door right now." I looked at them calmly. In that moment, I truly felt the urge to take them down with me. After all, the only person in the world who loved me was already gone. My parents' faces changed in terror, and they immediately had the plane turn back. From the moment the plane landed, I was back inside that cage. On the plane, they hadn't dared make a move. Now that we were home, my father pulled out the bamboo switch without another word. He pointed at the floor. "Kneel." Chapter 3 I didn't want to kneel, but my father's bodyguards forced me down. Every time the bamboo switch fell, my back burned. "I sent you to a simple, honest place to wash the stink of money off you, and look at what you've become. Absolutely disgraceful! "Where's your sister? Tell her to come back now!" The front door suddenly opened. For one dazed second, the timing was so perfect I almost wondered if Claire had truly come back. But the person who ran in was Jenna. The moment she entered, she threw herself into my mother's arms. "Aunt Diane..." My parents' voices softened on instinct. My father, who had just been ready to tear me apart, even put the bamboo switch away at once, afraid of scaring his sweet niece. "Jenna, why did you come back so suddenly? "You traveled all that way from overseas. Why don't you take better care of yourself? "If you wanted to come home, you should've told us. Your aunt would have sent the private jet. We have the means. Why squeeze onto a commercial flight with strangers?" I laughed at myself. When my sister and I studied in the city, that made us spoiled. But for Jenna, even a private jet flying back and forth was perfectly reasonable. Jenna glanced at me. "I... I heard Clara came home. "I was afraid you'd get angry and lay a hand on her, so I rushed back overnight because I was worried. "Uncle Gerald, Aunt Diane, I'm already living under your roof. You've been so kind to me. So what if Clara says a few sharp things to me? "Please don't be angry anymore." Playing the victim to get her way had always been her favorite trick. Her fake meekness was nauseating, but my parents fell for it every time. My father grabbed the bamboo switch again and pointed it at me. "Look at Jenna, then look at yourself. When will you ever be as sensible as her? When will you stop making us worry?" I stood there numbly. Before we were sent away to that remote school, Claire and I had already realized we could never win against Jenna. To keep our parents from getting angry, we swallowed every grievance and tried to stay out of her way. But now, there was no one left in this family I cared about. Parents like this were better than nothing only in theory. So I put her little schemes out in the open. "Did you come home because you're afraid they'll get angry? Or are you afraid my coming back will threaten your place in this family?" A vicious flash crossed Jenna's eyes, but the next second she clutched my mother's hand and began to sob. "Aunt Diane, thank you for being willing to send me abroad for school, but maybe I should just go." My mother, who had been willing to play the gentle one, lost her temper over that one sentence. She frowned at me. "Clara Voight, Jenna already offered you an olive branch. Do you have to lace every word with thorns? "You said your father and I wrongly accused you before. But this time we heard the whole thing ourselves. You were the one picking a fight for no reason. You're petty and can't stand anyone else. What is there left to argue?" Still furious, she stepped forward and struck me twice across the back. In this family, my sister and I were always the weaker side. No matter how hard I fought back, they could handle me with ease. My mother hit me while Jenna watched. Now and then, Jenna even came over to twist the knife. "Aunt Diane, please stop hitting her. The more you do this, the more she'll hate me. Before she was sent away last time, she said that once she came back she'd make sure I couldn't stay in this family anymore. "Just give in already, Clara. I already did what you wanted and went abroad. Stop making trouble, okay?" The more she spoke, the angrier my parents became. "Who gave you the nerve to talk like that? We're still alive, and you already think you're the head of this family? "Was this your sister's idea? "Go to your room and think about what you've done. You don't eat until you admit you're wrong! "I'll make this clear today. If you and your sister stay this unrepentant, neither of you will see a cent. When I'm gone, every last dollar goes to Jenna!" Chapter 4 Hearing that, even Jenna, usually so good at pretending, couldn't hide the glee on her face. But I had just clawed my life back from hell. I no longer cared about money. Dragging my battered body, I turned and left. Every part of me felt like it was coming apart. Back in my room, I took a shower. When I stood before the mirror and saw the scars scattered all over my body, my nose stung. Anger and grief surged up together, and the tears finally came. These wounds were nothing. I had long since gone numb to my parents' words. But I missed Claire. My heart ached for everything she'd been put through. Before she died, she had clutched my hand and still tried to wipe the tears from my face. She had told me to be good, to not hate anyone for her sake. "Clara, I'm finally free now." There were still traces of my sister in this house. I lay on her bed and wrapped myself tightly in her blanket. A bed this simple had once been something my sister and I didn't even dare dream of. Two days later, the door opened from the outside. At that moment, I was sitting by the window with Claire's urn in my arms. Before Jenna came into our lives, my sister and I used to pass the slow afternoons exactly like this. "We're giving you a chance to apologize. "Call Claire right now. As long as she comes back and admits her mistakes, we won't hold the rest against you." I turned to look at them, my heart feeling as if it were being carved open. My sister was right here in my arms. How was I supposed to call her back? Jenna spoke up. "Clara, I begged Uncle Gerald and Aunt Diane for a long time before they finally calmed down. "Uncle Gerald has high blood pressure. Stop making them angry." I pulled my lips into a mocking smile. "You really know how to look after people. No wonder my parents love you so much." My father's voice rose at once. "Don't push your luck!" Jenna let out a small, innocent sound and pointed at my sister's self-portrait on the wall. "I'm so envious that you two were this close. Are you missing her because you're looking at her things? If so, why not just call her home? "She still won't come back. Could it be that she's out there..." She deliberately trailed off, leaving endless room for filthy speculation. I shot to my feet, rage bursting through my chest. That mouth of hers never stopped spewing poison. I strode over and slapped her hard across the face. Jenna dropped to the floor. "Clara Voight!" My father jabbed a finger at me and shouted, "Do you really think I'll keep tolerating you?" I shouted back just as loudly, "I've already nearly died at your hands more than once! "Didn't you want Claire back? Fine." I turned, picked up the urn, and shoved it into his arms. "Claire is dead. The traffickers tortured her to death!"