Graduation Day: I Wasn't in the Picture

On the day we take our graduation photos, Mom and Dad hold up their cameras, snapping countless pictures of my boyfriend and my best friend. In the viewfinder, the two of them lean in close while my parents watch on with proud, beaming smiles, despite my being their biological daughter and the girl Gavin has been dating for the last four years. I stand off in the corner, clad in my cap and gown, waiting for what feels like an eternity, but Mom never once beckons me over to join them. Once Charlotte finishes her photoshoot, she mentions that she still hasn't lined up a decent job yet. Gavin completely forgets I'm even there and instantly leans in to comfort her. "Why don't you come work at the company I just joined? That way, I can look out for you." Dad nods right along in agreement. "Send me a copy of your resume, Lottie. I'll ask around for you. You shouldn't have to settle, especially when it's your first real job." Nolan walks over carrying a bottle of ice water, but he passes it to Charlotte. "Don't sweat the job hunt, Lottie," he says. "My company's hiring. I'll get you an internal referral." It's only when they catch sight of my hand freezing midair that everyone finally remembers that I'm standing right next to them. "Natalie, you should just find a random job and get on with it," Nolan says. Mom chimes in, "Exactly. You didn't major in anything special, so you should be grateful if a company even wants you. Stop being so picky." As Gavin scrolls through the gallery on his phone, his brow suddenly furrows into a frown. "Natalie's blocking Lottie in this one. I'm deleting it." But out of nearly 400 pictures, that's the only one where I exist. I stand off to the side, my hands tightening into fists. It turns out it isn't a matter of them failing to see me. They see me perfectly fine. They just think I'm a nuisance. It's as if Charlotte is their actual daughter, and my boyfriend belongs right by her side. If that's how it's going to be, then I'm taking the job farthest away from home, and I'm never coming back. Chapter 1 After deleting the photos, Gavin Mercer tossed the phone right back to Charlotte Hale so she could keep scrolling through her options. Right as she took it, an email with a rejection letter from the company she had just interviewed with came through, and she immediately started tearing up. "Am I really that incompetent?" Charlotte asked. "I can't even get a foot in the door anywhere." Mom wasted no time pulling her into a tight embrace. "What are you talking about? If anyone's going to struggle to find a job around here, it's Natalie, not you. You've always excelled at everything since you were a kid, so there's no way you're going to end up unemployed." She threw a pointed look over her shoulder at me before continuing, "That company obviously doesn't know real talent when it's staring them in the face. Don't worry about it. We'll take our time and find you the perfect fit." I stood nearby, silent and stationary, yet I had somehow been dragged into the conversation to serve as the default standard for failure just to make Charlotte look better. Growing up, I spent countless nights wondering if I had been switched at birth, convinced that Charlotte was my parents' real biological daughter. Unfortunately, a DNA test eventually cleared up any doubt about my lineage. For a long time, I tried to convince myself that the problem was just my own flawed personality or that I simply wasn't smart enough, which drove me to work myself to the bone just to prove my worth to them. But by the time I finally earned enough to catch their attention, I realized that their blatant favoritism toward Charlotte had already become hardwired into their daily routine. They were so accustomed to this, knowing that no matter how badly they ignored me, I would always find my own way home anyway. As I stood there watching Gavin coax Charlotte, Dad already had his phone out, dialing the HR manager at Stellar Group. Once he hung up, he turned to Charlotte with confidence. "Don't you worry. I'm going to sort this out for you," he promised. "That first step on the career ladder is absolutely important, so we can't be careless about it. You need to be starting at a major corporation like Stellar Group at the very least." It felt like Charlotte always had an invisible safety net stretched beneath her feet, ensuring that the moment she faltered, everyone would desperately scramble to catch her. During our freshman year of college, she flunked one of her core classes, and Mom immediately pulled every string she had to hire a senior student as a private tutor. She dropped 300 dollars per lesson and paid for 20 sessions upfront without a second thought. That same semester, I scored 95 points on my own exam. I proudly brought the paper home to Mom, desperately craving even a shred of validation or praise. Instead, she frowned and chided me, "I thought you said you were actually studying for this class? How did you manage to lose five points?" After that, I stopped telling them my grades entirely. Then there was our junior year, when an acute gastritis attack left me collapsed on the steps of the lab building, unable to stand up. I called Gavin to beg him to take me to the hospital for the first time in our relationship, but the line went quiet for a few seconds. "Lottie has a massive presentation tomorrow, and she's a nervous wreck right now. She really needs me to help her prepare for it," he finally said. "Natalie, you've always been the independent one anyway, so you should be fine catching a taxi by yourself, right?" When the driver noticed how pale I was, he actually got out to help steady me as I stumbled into the emergency room. Even a stranger could tell I needed help, yet Gavin genuinely believed I could handle it all on my own. I suppose I had been the reliable, well-behaved child for too long. Eventually, everyone just assumed I was made of stone and was immune to pain or heartbreak. It took what felt like an eternity before Mom casually asked about my own job-hunting experience. I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could say a single word, Dad dismissed the topic with a sharp wave of his hand. "What kind of career is she even expecting to jump into with a major like that? She just needs to find some run-of-the-mill desk job and get it over with." My brother, Nolan Sinclair, shot a glance in my direction, his brow furrowing as he chimed in, "He's right. You need to get your foot in the door somewhere so you don't end up freeloading off Mom and Dad the second you graduate." Gavin even went so far as to suggest that if I hit a total dead end, he could look into a receptionist opening at his own company. He made it sound so casually sincere that anyone would think he was actually concerned about me. I kept my head down, quietly unlocking my phone to look at the offer letter from Selton Space Center. The salary package was incredibly generous, and the position carried an immense amount of prestige, but the massive downside was that the facility sat 2,000 miles away from home. For the last seven days, I had been intentionally dragging my feet on accepting the offer because I was holding out hope. I was waiting for Mom to ask me just once where I actually envisioned myself living, or for Dad to pick up the phone and make a single call to help me out. I was also waiting for Gavin to remember the promise we had made to build a life in the same city after college. Yet with the confirmation countdown ticking down to its final six hours, the silence from my family was deafening. I finally tapped the confirmation button, and an automated message popped up on the screen. "Welcome to Selton Space Center, Natalie Sinclair." The very first genuine welcome I had received regarding my future came from a computer system located 2,000 miles away. Chapter 2 The next morning, Mom dragged all of us out to the mall. She insisted that since Charlotte was about to start a corporate job at a massive company, she needed to look the part. They had picked out a designer pantsuit that cost over 6,000 dollars, a 15,000-dollar designer tote bag, and a 5,000-dollar pair of heels. Every single time Charlotte checked a price tag, Mom would just beam at her and tell her to ignore the numbers. "You're stepping into the big leagues now, so you have to look impeccable," Mom said. Dad didn't hesitate to swipe his credit card at the register, while Nolan stood by with his hands full of shopping bags, asking Charlotte if there were any perfumes she wanted to take a look at. Gavin even went as far as to crouch down on the floor, gently feeling the back of Charlotte's brand-new heels. "The leather feels a little stiff here. Let's swap them out for another pair. I don't want you blistering your feet on your very first day of work," Gavin murmured. I stood just a few steps away, staring at the tender expression on his face as he looked down at her feet. Throughout the four years of college, I had spent countless days walking right by his side in shoes that pinched my feet. Whenever my heels would crack open and bleed, he would merely laugh it off and tell me I was being overly dramatic. It turned out he had always known that stiff shoes could pinch a person's feet. It was just that when those shoes happened to be on my feet, they were never worth his time or concern. When we passed by a luggage boutique, I halted in my tracks. My own suitcase had been in constant use for an entire decade, leaving the plastic corners completely cracked open. I had wrapped multiple layers of clear packing tape around it, and the two wheels were worn down unevenly. I picked out the cheapest model in the store, which came out to 329 dollars. Instead of taking it straight to the counter to pay, I turned to Dad first to ask, "Is this one okay?" Deep down, I suppose I was still harboring a shred of hope. They had just spent over 30,000 dollars buying Charlotte a brand-new collection of designer clothes, shoes, and bags, so surely asking for a 300-dollar suitcase wouldn't be considered too much. Maybe I just wanted to prove that I still occupied a tiny fraction of space in their hearts, even if it amounted to a mere one-in-a-ten-thousand shot. Alas, Dad's brow instantly furrowed into a deep frown. "Don't you already have a perfectly fine suitcase sitting at home?" "That one's been around for ten years, and it's already broken." "Just because it's broken doesn't mean it's completely useless. Do you honestly think your mother and I work ourselves to the bone just so you can throw money out the window like this?" Mom strolled over as well. "Lottie managed to secure an incredibly prestigious job, so she deserves the best wardrobe." She swept a dismissive glance over the suitcase in my hands, her tone dripping with impatience. "What kind of job are you expecting to land that would even justify buying a nice piece of luggage like this? "Once you end up sitting behind some front desk at a run-of-the-mill company, nobody's going to care about what your suitcase looks like. Can't you just make do with what you've got?" Nolan let out a sharp chuckle from the side. "She's just being petty and competitive. She saw everything we bought for Lottie, so now she's jealous and wants to copy her." My fingers froze against the extendable handle before I quietly slid the suitcase right back into its original spot. Charlotte stood just outside the boutique, her brand-new 15,000-dollar bag resting on her shoulder while a mountain of shopping bags littered the floor around her feet. "Are you really not going to get anything at all, Natalie?" she asked. "No," I replied, keeping my eyes glued to the floor as I stared down at my own canvas tote bag, which had already started fraying along the edges. It wasn't as if our family lacked money, nor was it a case where maintaining a respectable appearance didn't matter to them. It was just that whenever a situation involved me, everything suddenly became unnecessary and a massive waste of money. That evening, Mom booked a restaurant reservation under the guise of celebrating our joint graduation. A massive cake sat on the table in the private room, and the very first thing I noticed was the message written across the top, "Wishing our dear Charlotte a very happy graduation and a spectacular future!" Charlotte looked rather embarrassed. "Mrs. Sinclair, did you forget to put Natalie's name on it as well?" Mom didn't even bother to look up from what she was doing. "She doesn't even care for cake anyway. It doesn't make a difference whether her name's on it or not." The truth was that I actually loved cake, but she had simply never bothered to buy one for me in my entire life. As we sat around the dinner table, Dad pulled out a recommendation letter and handed it to Charlotte. "I've already taken care of all the arrangements, so you can head straight over to Stellar Group next week to report for duty. The company sits incredibly close to our house, and the compensation package's fantastic." Tears instantly welled up in Charlotte's eyes. "You've all been so incredibly good to me that I honestly have no idea how I could ever begin to repay you." Mom squeezed her hand. "Oh, don't worry about repaying us. We've started viewing you as our very own daughter a long time ago." As I watched the three of them locking hands, I felt as though I had sat in the wrong seat. That loving display was too much to look at, and it felt like a crime for me to be there. When the bill finally arrived, Mom covered Charlotte's portion, only to send a Venmo request to me for 136.50 dollars. "Natalie, now that you've officially graduated, you can't keep relying on our money to get by," Mom stated firmly. "From now on, you'll be expected to split everything down to the penny, including family dinners, rent, and the monthly utility bills." I looked at the exact change demanded of me down to the last cent. I didn't say a single word and simply wired the money over. Chapter 3 When I got back home, Mom stopped me just as I was about to head into my room. "Pack your things. Lottie's moving in tomorrow. She's starting her new position at Stellar Group next week, and her place is way too far from the office, so she's going to be living with us from now on." I followed her gaze toward the hallway. A fresh set of bedding was sitting out alongside a brand-new vanity table that had just been delivered, everything decked out in Charlotte's favorite shade of pink. "Where's she staying?" I asked. "Your room, of course. It's not like we have any other spare bedrooms." I froze. "Then what about me?" Mom paused for a second before pointing toward the utility closet by the entrance. "Clean out the closet. We can fit a folding cot in there. Lottie's a guest, so you'll just have to make do for a bit." The closet was packed to the ceiling with old furniture. A massive cabinet blocked half the window, and the corners of the walls were covered in stubborn mildew stains. When we were kids and Charlotte stayed over, I had given up my bed and slept in that exact spot. Back then, Mom had stroked my hair and praised me. "You're so mature, Natalie." I had genuinely believed that being the mature one would earn me a little bit of her love. It was only later that I realized the true reward was that they would expect me to keep backing down for the rest of my life. "I'm not doing it," I said. It was the very first time I had ever told her no. Mom's expression instantly darkened. "Lottie's going to have a demanding job, so she needs to get proper rest. You don't even have a career lined up yet, so what difference does it make where you sleep?" "This is my room," I said quietly. Mom scoffed as if she had just heard a joke. "What are you talking about? Everything in this house belongs to us, and we gave it to you. What's the big deal about giving up a bedroom?" I stared at her, the question slipping out before I could stop it. "What if the job I was offered is actually better than Charlotte's?" Mom frowned. "Natalie, it's one thing to lack capability, but you shouldn't lie just to make yourself look good." I intended to tell her that I had been employed by Selton Space Center, but the words died in my throat. "If you don't want to sleep in the closet, then pack your bags and get out. Nobody's stopping you," Dad finally chimed in, his tone dripping with impatience. I looked at them and nodded. "Fine." They assumed I was just throwing a tantrum, so Mom didn't even attempt to make me stay. Instead, she merely reminded me to clear out the room before I left so I wouldn't delay Charlotte's move the next morning. I ended up at a nearby hostel, where I reserved a six-person room, top bunk, for 30 dollars a night. Whenever the person in the next bed rolled over, the entire metal frame creaked and shook. Yet the moment I lay down, I actually felt a deeper sense of peace than I ever had at home. At the very least, this bunk was something I had paid for myself, and it truly belonged to me. … The next day, I went back home to pack the rest of my belongings. When I opened my jewelry box, I discovered that the emerald pendant Grandma had left me was gone. Grandma was the only person in that family who had ever shown me any affection. When I was running a high fever as a child, Mom was accompanying Charlotte to dance class, leaving Grandma to carry me to the hospital on her back. She used to tell me that it wasn't that I didn't feel pain. I just didn't dare to cry because there was nobody around to comfort me. After she passed away, that emerald pendant became the only thing I had left of her. I clutched the empty box and walked into the living room. "Mom, where's my emerald pendant?" Mom's hands paused for a second as she stripped the bedsheets. "It's just a piece of emerald. Why would I know where you placed it?" The words had barely left her mouth when my phone buzzed with a notification. A picture had been sent to the family group chat. Dad had used his connections to set up a meeting, and he was introducing Charlotte to the executives from Stellar Group. In the picture, Charlotte was wearing the brand-new dress we had bought yesterday, and hanging around her neck was my emerald pendant. I held the screen right in front of Mom's face. Seeing that she could no longer deny it, she doubled down instead. "Lottie had an important meeting with the executives, and it didn't look right for her neck to be completely bare, so I gave it to her. You just leave it sitting around anyway. It was only gathering dust." "Grandma left that to me," I said. Mom's expression turned cold. "I'm your mother. Do I really need to get your permission just to borrow something of yours? Besides, your grandmother loved Lottie, too. If she knew you were throwing a fit over a piece of jewelry, she'd think you were being incredibly petty." "Grandma wouldn't think that." Tears streamed down my cheeks without warning, and my voice trembled. "She was the only person in this entire family who never forced me to give anything up for Charlotte." I turned around to head to the restaurant, but Mom immediately blocked the doorway. "The meeting is still ongoing! If you go over right now, you're going to ruin Lottie's career!" During our struggle, the front door suddenly swung open from the outside. Charlotte had returned. She reached up to touch the emerald pendant resting against her chest. "Natalie, were you looking for this?" Unclasping the chain, she held it out in her open palm. "I had no idea your grandmother left this to you. Mrs. Sinclair told me it was a gift for starting my new job." I walked over, extending my hand as I demanded, "Give it back." I had clearly put some distance between us, but her hand suddenly went limp. The emerald pendant fell to the floor before snapping in half. Charlotte took a step back, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry! You rushed at me so fast. I was taken aback…" Chapter 4 I dropped to my knees and gathered the shattered pieces of the emerald into my palm. The jagged edge sliced into my finger, letting blood seep into the hairline cracks of the broken stone. On my 18th birthday, Grandma had placed this exact pendant around my neck. Her hands were already losing their strength, forcing her to fumble with the clasp several times before she finally managed to fasten it. "You're always giving in," she had said. "Once I'm not around anymore, you have to learn to hold onto the things you love. Don't go making yourself miserable just to please others." I had wrapped my arms around her at the time, insisting that as long as she was by my side, I would never have to suffer through anything. But then Grandma passed away. From that moment on, nobody in our household treated me like a little girl who could get hurt, who felt pain, or who deserved to be fiercely protected and loved. I had failed to protect the very last piece of her memory. The only shred of affection I possessed in that house was casually handed over to Charlotte, only to be smashed to pieces right in front of my face. "Natalie, I swear I didn't mean to do it," Charlotte sobbed, instantly covering her face as she began to cry. Mom immediately pulled her into a protective embrace. "Don't cry, sweetie. It's not your fault." Then, she lifted her head to glare daggers at me. "If you hadn't rushed at her out of nowhere like that, her hands wouldn't have trembled." Yet, the truth was that I hadn't even come close to touching Charlotte. Nolan chimed in impatiently, "Can't you just take it to a jeweler and get it fixed? It's not like it was worth a fortune anyway." Meanwhile, Gavin pulled out a tissue to gently wipe away Charlotte's tears. Everyone was completely oblivious to the fact that my own hand was bleeding. Or perhaps they did notice, but compared to Charlotte's tears, my pain simply wasn't worth their concern. I clenched my fist tightly around the broken emerald in my palm. I used to exhaust myself trying to clear my name every time I was misunderstood because I genuinely believed that as long as I laid out the facts, they would finally understand for once. But at that moment, I no longer had the energy to explain anything to them. I slipped the shattered pieces of the emerald into my pocket, turned on my heel, and left. Mom's voice boomed down the hallway behind me. "If you walk out that door, don't you dare come back! You're a grown woman, yet you have such a nasty temper. Who is ever going to put up with you in the future?" I didn't turn back. She had no idea that I had no intention of ever returning to that house. By the time I made it back to the hostel, my official commencement date at Selton Space Center was only two days away. I packed up my last few pieces of clothing. At 1:00 am, Gavin sent me a text that read, "Lottie's been crying the entire night. Are you happy now?" I stared at it for a long time. My initial instinct drove me to defend myself, but halfway through the message, I deleted the entire thing. He wouldn't care anyway, just like he had never cared about why I was leaving. Charlotte's tears spurred every single one of them to spend the night comforting her, while the pain I had suffered only earned me a dismissive comment about having a nasty temper. I blocked every single one of their numbers, dragged my broken suitcase out into the night, and headed straight for the train station. While I was dragging my luggage through the station, one of the uneven wheels got stuck under the steps. A kind lady standing nearby noticed and helped me lift it over the ledge. "Are you traveling all by yourself? Didn't your family come to see you off?" she asked gently. I gave her a faint, weary smile. "No, they've got their hands full with someone more important." The train slowly pulled away from the platform. As I stared down at the broken emerald pendant, I finally let my tears fall in a place where absolutely nobody knew my name. I wasn't crying because I couldn't bear to leave my family behind. I was simply heartbroken for the girl who had once genuinely believed that if she could just be a little more understanding, someone would eventually come to love her. Just before I switched off my phone, I received a text from my family. Once again, they told me to take the high road, bullying me into coming back and apologizing to Charlotte. But they had no idea that the version of Natalie, who was always compliant and who had spent her entire life waiting for a shred of their validation, was gone. And she was never coming back.