Prologue
Twenty minutes before my SAT, my little sister called me in tears.
She said our parents had been in a terrible car accident. They were in the ER. She needed me to come home right now and bring money.
So I walked away from the exam — the one thing that mattered most to me.
When I got home, a spotlight hit me out of nowhere. And right there in front of my eyes, in big bright letters: Happy Birthday.
Chapter 1
If I had to name the most desperate moment of my life, this was it. No question.
Tears fell before I even realized I was crying. I stared straight into the camera pointed at my face, and something inside me turned to pure, white-hot hatred.
My sister Edith stomped her foot, killed the recording, and whipped around to our parents. "Can you do something about her? The SAT only happens once. This was supposed to be a goldmine for clout, and she's sitting there like that? Nobody's going to follow us because of her."
The words barely left her mouth before my dad slapped me across the face.
The crack echoed through the living room. My cheek burned like it was on fire.
Edith watched the whole thing and lifted her chin, smug as ever. "Maybe next time you'll be smart about it and just do what you're told."
I clenched my teeth so hard they ached. "You all know how much this exam means to me. You ruined my life!"
My mom glared at me, not an ounce of sympathy. "You're a girl. What's the point of all that studying? You're going to end up married anyway. All we're asking is a little return on the investment of raising you all these years. You can't even handle that?"
Then she gave me that look. Bitter disappointment. Like I was the one letting them down.
My dad jabbed his finger against my forehead, pressing hard enough to leave a mark. "I'm giving you one more chance. When we roll again, you smile. You act happy. The whole internet eats up the cool-parents thing right now, and you are not going to blow the public image we built."
I opened my mouth to fight back, but Edith raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Save it. We had a deal, remember? You don't film, Mom and Dad stop paying for school. So what are you going to do then?"
The three of them. A united front. And they had me exactly where it hurt most.
They were supposed to be my family. The people closest to me in the world. Instead, they were the enemy.
In that moment, I hated this face — this face everyone else couldn't stop complimenting.
It was my mom's fault. She'd been filming a video one day, and I wandered into the frame by accident. That one moment became a nightmare I could never wake up from.
After that, my parents started running the account under Edith's direction. Even when Edith's grades tanked, they shrugged it off like it didn't matter. And somehow, that attitude — that complete indifference to academics — got spun by their followers into proof they were "cool parents." It blew up. Gained them even more fans.
Three takes in, and Edith still wasn't satisfied. She stood behind the camera, nitpicking every little thing about me.
My parents used to hold me up as the example to motivate Edith. Be more like your sister. Study harder.
But the second Edith figured out how to make money, they put her on a pedestal.
And me? I became the bookworm. A pawn. Nothing but a tool to make them cash.
Edith stood with her hands on her hips and scoffed. "Walking around with that miserable look on your face every day. Who the hell do you think owes you something?"
My dad's patience finally snapped. He stormed into my bedroom and came back with all of my study notes. Every single one.
Then he told my mom to bring out the metal basin.
The second I realized what he was about to do, I lunged forward. "Don't burn my books! I need to repeat senior year — those notes are everything I have!"
My dad narrowed his eyes. He flicked his cigarette butt into the basin without a second thought. "You want to fight me? Fine. The minute you cooperate and give Edith the video she wants, that's the minute this fire goes out."
