A Missing Key 218 Missed Calls One Family Secret novel Chapter 44

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

From that day on, I completely changed.

I stopped crying, stopped making a fuss, stopped trying to prove anything to anyone.

I threw all my energy into studying.

Dad and Rebecca thought I’d finally “faced reality” and “matured.”

They were thrilled about it, while I just watched coldly as they put on their self-deceptive show.

Dad started paying attention to my grades again. Every parent-teacher conference, hearing the teachers praise me, he’d grin from ear to ear.

“I always knew Nora was a good kid deep down-she was just traumatized before,” he’d tell Rebecca.

Rebecca became much gentler with me too, preparing elaborate meals every day and fussing over me constantly.

“Nora, eat more. Look how skinny you are.”

Seeing that I’d stopped fighting back, Jake got bored and gradually stopped bothering me.

The house had this eerie harmony to it.

But I knew it was all fake.

I wasn’t studying hard to make them happy.

I was doing it for myself.

So I could grow up fast enough to have the power to find Mom.

Mom was a soldier.

So I’d become a soldier too.

I’d go to the places she’d been, walk the paths she’d walked. I believed that someday, I’d find her.

This belief carried me through countless nights of studying alone under lamplight.

My grades shot up-from mediocre to good to valedictorian.

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A Missing Key. 218 Missed Calls. One Family Secret

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Chapter S

I became the genius in my teachers and classmates’ eyes.

Only I knew I wasn’t a genius.

I just had a goal I had to achieve-no matter what.

Senior year, I became the school’s star student.

My practice test scores got better each time. Everyone thought getting into Harvard was a done deal for me.

Dad was incredibly proud. He’d already started planning my future, wanting me to major in finance so I could eventually inherit the family company.

“Nora, Dad’s company will all be yours someday. Listen tome-study finance!”

Rebecca started sucking up to me too. The way she looked at me wasn’t pity anymore, but calculating shrewdness.

She began casually mentioning how great it would be if Jake and I could run the company together someday.

She wore that fake smile while her eyes flashed with cunning: “Nora, you’ll have to help Jake out-he’s not as sharp as you.”

I watched coldly without taking a position.

As the SATs got closer, Rebecca’s anxiety grew daily.

She was probably scared that I was too excellent and would steal everything that belonged to Jake.

She started pulling little stunts.

First, my study materials mysteriously disappeared, and I had to buy new ones.

Then my room’s AC would suddenly break while I was pulling all-nighters, leaving me sweating buckets.

Once, she brought me a glass of hot milk with an extra friendly smile.

“Nora, studying’s exhausting. Drink some milk and get some rest.”

I smelled the milk-there was a weird, sickly sweet odor that made me frown.

I looked at her expectant expression and took it.

“Thanks.”

The second she turned to leave, I dumped the milk into the flower pot outside my window.

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A Missing Key, 218 Missed Calls. One Family Secret

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Chapter 5

The next day, my thriving pothos plant’s leaves were half yellow.

But I said nothing.

I just installed a tiny camera right above my desk.

The night before the SATs, the crucial moment arrived.

I needed to go to school to pick up my admission ticket.

Rebecca eagerly offered to drive me.

“Nora, let me take you. Save you from dealing with the bus.”

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