Mom Blindly Trusted My Sister's Mind-Reading, and It Became My Death Sentence

1: 1

I'm mute, but Mom never let me learn sign language.

All because my twin sister was born able to hear the voice in my head.

She said it was a gift from heaven, given to my sister so she could look after her defective older twin.

But that gift became the source of my nightmares.

The first time, I had a high fever and wanted to go to the hospital.

My sister claimed I was just playing sick for attention, and I nearly went deaf from the fever.

The second time, I wanted to go to a top high school.

My sister put on a troubled face again and said I wanted to slack off at a vocational school.

Because of that my allowance was cut off, and I had to take under-the-table jobs just to keep myself fed.

I once tried to confront them, only to have Mom cry and turn it back on me: [If your sister weren't so considerate, helping me take care of you, I'd have given up on living long ago!]

So I never let my thoughts show again.

Until it was almost college move-in day, and my sister said I was sleeping around, that I was determined to marry and have a baby.

Mom exploded, tore up my school file on the spot, and in the name of punishment sold me for twenty thousand dollars to a thug from across the street.

This time, I didn't fight it.

Because not long before, the mother from eighteen years ago, the one who loved me most, had found me.

She said that in seven days, she would take me away.

......

[Good thing you're not pregnant.]

[Otherwise your sister's future would be stained.]

Mom turned the exam results over in her hands, reading them again and again.

Only then did she let out a breath, glaring at me as she spoke.

My sister tugged her mask up higher, hurrying Mom to leave.

[Ivycrest University cares most about personal conduct!]

Her eyes slid over me, full of blame: [If someone sees I've been to the OB-GYN and reports me for being pregnant before marriage,]

[Dad's old boss from before he passed will definitely revoke my special admission!]

After all, my sister's grades were mediocre. She'd only been let in through a special exception, riding on the achievements Dad left behind.

The moment she said it, Mom went tense.

She quickly dug out a mask and put it on, then carefully scanned the area around us.

Catching sight of me standing there in a daze, she snapped and tossed a mask at me: [Wear it!]

[If I'd known you'd cause this much trouble, I never should have had you.]

That line, I'd heard more times than I could count, my whole life.

But my eyes still stung before I could stop them.

I opened my mouth, wanting to argue back, but all that came out was an ugly, whimpering sound.

When I lifted my head again, Mom had already taken my sister's hand and vanished into the hospital lobby.

And me, I was left standing there again.

By the time I got home, five whole hours had passed.

The second I walked in, Mom's face was dark, and she dumped the steaming food into the trash.

[Sis, you really went too far today.]

[After Mom left the hospital, she blamed herself for coming down too hard on you. She spent forever making a whole table of your favorite dishes.]

My sister sighed. [She waited for you even though her stomach was acting up, wouldn't eat a bite, kept reheating everything over and over.]

Seeing me frozen in place, my sister slipped into her usual role as peacemaker.

She nudged me forward. [What are you standing there for? Go apologize to Mom.]

[But I didn't do anything wrong!]

I shot back instinctively, in my head.

[Don't you two know better than anyone why it took me five hours to get home?]

Hearing my sister repeat it, Mom shot up from her seat and fixed me with a cold stare.

For a long moment she just looked, and then it was as if all the strength drained out of her.

She waved a hand. [Forget it. In seven days you'll be married off anyway.]

[After that I won't be able to control you either, as your mother.]

I pressed my lips together, and couldn't help thinking of that gentle mother from eighteen years ago, the one who loved me like her own life.

She wouldn't scorn me for being mute. She wouldn't resent me as her stain.

At that thought, the tears I'd been holding back spilled over.

[You're the one who was ashamed of me and wouldn't let me out. You're the one who was scared I'd get on the internet, so you never gave me a phone!]

[So every time you dumped me at the roadside, all I could do was stare at the road signs, trial and error, over and over, until I found my way back!]

Crying, I raised my hands and signed frantically.

But the instant I lifted them,

Mom clicked her tongue and frowned. [Haven't I told you? You are not allowed to communicate in sign language!]

[Whatever you want to say, Kitty Fox will pass it along for you.]

Seeing this, my sister looked at me, helpless.

But I clamped down on the voice in my head at once and chose silence.

A moment later, my sister carried over the trash can, the one filled with food, and held it out to me.

Just like before, she coaxed me softly: [Eat it.]

[If you eat it, Mom won't be angry anymore.]

I looked at the trash can, at the scraps of shrimp and fish, and my throat heaved.

Eighteen years. Everyone knew these things made me throw up the moment I ate them.

It was my sister who especially loved them.

But in Mom's eyes, we were twins, so of course we liked and disliked the same things.

At that thought, my brow furrowed.

For the first time, I refused my sister's so-called "help."

Under Mom's shocked stare, I snatched my sister's phone and quickly typed out a line.

I tapped the text-to-speech: [I hate eating this!]

[And I never slept around. My sister's been lying the whole time!]

The mechanical voice rang out in the empty living room, eerie and crystal clear.

My sister panicked instantly.

She'd just opened her mouth to explain when there was a sharp crack.

Mom's eyes went wide with rage, and her hand came down across my face in a slap.

Her expression twisted. [Still lying!]

[Melody Fox, forget that you never once thanked your sister for taking care of you all these years. Now you're actually biting the hand that fed you!]

[If Kitty couldn't read minds, you'd have died from that fever when you were eight!]

I cupped the cheap hearing aid she'd knocked loose, biting down against the stabbing ring in my ear.

And suddenly I laughed.

I didn't die, no. But my ears nearly went deaf, and I became a complete cripple.

Maybe I should have accepted long ago the simple fact that I wasn't loved.

In the middle of the standoff, the doorbell rang out of nowhere.

My sister, curled up on the couch bingeing a show, sprang up, her voice cheerful: [Mom, the delivery's here!]

[I ordered from that place we both love, the home-cooked stir-fry!]

At the sound of her voice, the anger in Mom's face softened considerably.

But when the door opened, it was an uninvited guest dragging a suitcase.

A thoroughly ordinary-looking man shoved my sister aside and strolled right in.

He looked at my stunned mother, a smirk curling his lips. [My place sprang a leak. Mother-in-law won't mind if I crash here, will she?]

[Oh, right, Mother-in-law. Which daughter is it you're marrying off?]

The man's appraising gaze crawled over every inch of skin like a cold, venomous snake.

The moment I made out his face, the wanted poster I'd seen on the way home surfaced in my mind.

My breath shook, and I yanked Mom behind me.

I turned to my sister, screaming inside my head: [He's a murderer, call the police, now!]

2: 2

Meeting my anxious eyes, my sister froze for a beat.

Sensing something off, Mom knitted her brows and asked, "What's going on?"

Call the police, now!

Kitty! What are you standing there for!

When my inner voice did no good, I reached for the phone clenched in Mom's hand.

But Kitty spoke first. "Sis says she's really happy Maxwell came."

"She says whatever we do, don't drive him off, or she'll cut ties with us."

Boom

My outstretched hand froze in the air, and the last thread of reason in my head snapped.

I stared at my sister spouting nonsense in front of me, unable to believe it, cold crawling up from the soles of my feet.

At her words, Mom yanked her hand free of my grip.

Her eyes, when they turned to me, were full of disappointment. "Melody, I think you've truly lost your mind!"

"If you won't value yourself, then just wait until you're sorry."

Sensing the standoff, Maxwell looked me up and down, his gaze locking onto my chest.

His throat worked with a nasty leer, and he stood and came toward me.

"So Melody likes me this much, huh."

"Then tonight will be our wedding night."

I clenched my fists on guard, but just as the man got within thirty feet of me, there was a crack.

Mom had stepped in front of me.

She grabbed the vase off the table and hurled it at Maxwell as he tried to talk his way through, her voice cutting him down. "Get out!"

"I will never marry my daughter to trash like you!"

"The twenty thousand dollars, I'll give it back to you. But if I ever see you again, don't expect me to be nice!"

I lifted my eyes to Mom's back, and the sting rushed to them at once.

I picked up the lipstick off the table and wrote: Just now my sister twisted my words. That man is a murderer...

Before I could finish, Kitty suddenly pushed forward and shoved me aside.

She hooked her arm through Mom's, all affection, and scuffed her slipper right across the words I'd written.

"Mom, Sis isn't grateful at all."

"She says it's Maxwell or no one, or she'll die!"

Mom whipped her head around and caught sight of my hands smeared with lipstick, the glaring red making her think I'd hurt myself.

She flared up instantly. "Melody!"

"Are you so worthless you have to destroy yourself?"

It's not true!

Kitty is lying! Unable to say a word, all I could do was lift my hands again and sign frantically.

But I'd forgotten. Mom couldn't understand any of it.

The thought pulled a bitter twist to my lips.

I glanced at the man being driven out the door, then at my sister standing there pretending to worry about me.

I couldn't hold back anymore. I lunged and grabbed her hair, and we were tangled and fighting.

Why? Why do you keep hurting me!

Aren't we sisters? What good does any of this do you!

I screamed it inside, but the laughter in my sister's eyes only deepened.

Her lips moved without a sound: Because this way, Mom will love me more.

Full of provocation.

Through her pained sobbing, my grip grew heavier and heavier, as if to pour out every twisted grievance she'd forced on me over the years.

Seeing the commotion grow, Maxwell slipped out in the chaos, afraid of getting mixed up in it.

When pulling us apart failed, Mom called the police.

By the time the officers arrived, I was still on top of my sister, blood on my fists.

Mom scooped her up, aching over her, and glared at me.

Her voice came out ice-cold. "I want to press charges against my daughter Melody, for attempted murder!"

3: 3

In that moment my heart dropped all the way to the bottom.

I looked at the resolute line of Mom's profile, and every word of explanation I'd been about to say went back down my throat.

Seeing this, the officers had no choice but to follow the law.

They cuffed me and led me from the scene.

On the way to the station, I could faintly hear the two of them talking in the front.

"You really do get all sorts these days. A mother reporting her own daughter for trying to kill the other one."

"The neighbors told me this Melody Fox just graduated high school. She's mute, but wild as they come... beat her sister out of pure jealousy, because the girl got into Ivycrest University..."

So that was the reputation I had out in the world.

I still remembered being little, when someone called me a mute and Mom would chase them down to set things right for me.

Back then she always comforted me so gently. "Melody, sweetheart, not being able to speak is no big deal."

"Your sister can read minds. You don't even have to open your mouth, and people will know what you're thinking."

"With Mom and your sister looking out for you, no one will ever get to bully you."

But when did it change.

Maybe the first time Kitty made things up, said I was faking an illness, and cost Mom a precious promotion she gave up for me.

Or all the times after that, when Kitty said my grades were copied.

Until the mother who'd once raised me like a prodigy went cold clean through.

I don't remember.

I only know that Mom's eyes stopped landing on me a long time ago.

Looking at the calendar hanging outside the door, I dropped my gaze and hid eyes that had gone wet.

Four more days, and the gentle mother from eighteen years ago would come for me.

....

On the third day in custody, out of nowhere I was bailed out.

I saw Kitty signing the papers, and I still couldn't help craning my neck to look past her, hoping.

Behind her there was no one.

Catching the disappointment on my face, Kitty smiled. "Don't bother looking. It's just me."

"What are you here for?"

"If I ended up in jail, shouldn't you be happy? After all, my whole life, you've never once wanted things to go well for me."

Kitty nodded, calm as anything.

"That's right. I don't want things to go well for you."

"I want Mom to hate you. Who told us to be twins? You're a mute, and still you show me up at every turn."

She drew a deep breath. "Sis, all you want is for Mom to know I'm the liar, right?"

"So let's make a bet."

"You go tell Mom the truth. I won't interfere. Let's see what she decides."

I stared at her, suspicious. My gut told me there was something rotten in this.

But I wanted, so badly, to be free of the years of misunderstanding chained to me.

"What are the stakes?"

Kitty snapped her fingers, her smile all innocence. "Simple."

"You lose, and you leave this family for good. Then when I'm at Ivycrest University, no one will ever know I have a shameful mute for a sister."

Seeing me stay silent, she tossed out one more thing I couldn't refuse. "Of course, if you win."

"I'll apologize to you in public, and give back every honor I ever stole from you."

4: 4

Back home, Kitty went up the stairs first.

She left plenty of room for me and Mom.

"Kitty says you have something you want to tell me?" Mom threw me a glance.

I nodded.

I took out the new notebook and pen I'd bought on the way, and wrote down the truth I'd buried in my heart, word by word.

An hour later, I played it back through the text-to-speech device.

The year I ran a high fever, Kitty lied. I never faked being sick. I was really ill!

And I never cheated. My grades were all real... I never wanted to throw away my future either. It was all Kitty's lies. Before that day I didn't even know that man, Maxwell. What I said that day was for Kitty to call the police, because Maxwell is a mur

"So? What's your point?"

Mom cut off the machine's flat voice, calm, staring at me coldly.

When I said nothing, she pinched the bridge of her nose, impatient.

"Melody, you're the older sister."

"Even if your sister did something wrong, that's just her being immature, and she already confessed all of it to me."

"She knows she was wrong. That's why she bailed you out. Are you still not satisfied?"

Meeting her indifferent expression, I froze where I stood.

"Or do you want me to throw your sister out?"

Mom sneered. "Melody, I never realized your heart was this vicious."

Her words drove into my chest like a blade, precise.

It hurt, badly.

I tilted my head back, trying to force the tears down.

But the tears seemed to know how wronged I was, and poured out uncontrollably.

Wiping at them hard, I pressed on the device and dragged the words out: Why?

Am I not your daughter too? Why do you always take Kitty's side!

If Kitty got me killed, would you still say she just didn't know any better, and tell me, the older sister, to be more understanding!

The only answer was endless silence.

Mom sighed and looked away from my questioning eyes.

Seeing her about to leave, I grabbed her, and couldn't stop myself from asking the last question: If I left,

would you be sad?

She didn't answer. Instead she said, out of nowhere, "There's chicken soup in the pot. Drink it while it's hot."

And went up the stairs on her own.

I slumped down in the living room and laughed without a sound.

That was when Kitty stood at the second-floor railing and tilted her head at me. "Sis, you lost."

"If you're willing to beg me, the bet doesn't have to count."

Ding!

The pendulum on the wall clock swung to midnight.

I wiped my tears, stood, and looked at her. No need.

In a few more hours, I'd see my gentle mother, and be completely away from this house.

Early the next morning, Mom dressed up.

Today was the day Kitty moved into Ivycrest University. Even though it was a special-exception admission,

for an ordinary family it was already an enormous honor.

After all, everyone inside was either from a wealthy family or from power. A world that crossed class lines entirely.

"Where's your sister?"

Kitty looked at the empty bedroom. "Her bags are gone."

Mom's brow furrowed at once. She tried to call me, but the phone stayed switched off.

For some reason, she couldn't shake a feeling of unease.

"Mom, we're going to be late."

Only when Kitty urged her did she let the thought go.

Out the door, Mom couldn't hold back her smile and wanted to show off to the neighbors, only to find the street empty.

Everyone had crowded to the mouth of the street across the way instead.

Just then the siren of a patrol car made the unease in her chest sharpen.

"What's going on?"

A passerby glanced at her and shook his head with regret. "You don't know yet? There was a killer hiding across the street."

"Blood all over the ground. They say the one who died was a young girl."

Mom licked her dry lips, and was about to say what a shame,

when a neighbor beside her, who'd recognized her, cut in.

"Right, I think I saw your older daughter heading that way this morning. Hurry and give her a call"

The bag in Mom's hand hit the ground with a slap.