Chapter 2

It should have been a family dinner.

The whole point was to celebrate my acceptance letter from the National Defense University.

Instead it turned into a full-blown production over a ‘stolen watch.’

Everyone suspected me. Everyone was sure I'd taken it.

Even my own parents refused to believe me.

They'd made up their minds. I was the ‘watch thief.’

I wouldn't confess.

So my parents drove me to the police station themselves.

When the officer began to question us,

before I could even open my mouth,

my mother sitting beside me got there first. “There's something wrong with my daughter's character. Today was supposed to be a celebration for getting into the National Defense University, and on a day this important she quietly stole her cousin's watch.”

“That watch is worth hundreds of thousands.”

“We suspect she did it on purpose.”

The officer frowned. “On purpose?”

“You're saying your daughter had her eye on her cousin's watch all along?”

My mother nodded hard. “Yes.”

“Do you have anything to back that up?”

“Of course we do!”

She paused.

Then my mother launched right into it. “She's a girl about to start college. We never gave her much of an allowance, yet somehow the luxury goods in her room just keep piling up.”

“We strongly suspect she's been doing things she can't let anyone see, and that to enjoy that kind of high-end lifestyle, she may even have sold her own body.”

Hearing my mother say her own daughter had ‘sold her body,’

I stared at her, shocked, unable to believe it.

In that moment,

it was as if someone had swung a giant hammer at my heart

and slammed it hard.

The sheer force of that pain

nearly stopped me from breathing.

And yet.

My cousin, the one who'd actually lost the watch, rushed to defend me.

His mother clapped a hand over his mouth.

“You little brat, don't you dare try to get her off.”

“She stole something, so she has to be punished!”

“She's getting exactly what she deserves.”

My cousin pulled free of her hand.

“Mom, stop it. The watch is gone, so let it go.”

“Emma's spent all these years studying late into the night, pushing herself so hard.”

“She finally made it into the National Defense University.”

“If we go through with reporting her,”

“her whole life could be ruined.”

My uncle looked unimpressed. “For someone like her, wouldn't it be better if she were ruined?”

“So she can't go out and be a menace to society later.”

My father actually nodded in complete agreement.

“She needs to be punished. She needs to learn her lesson.”

“Then she'll finally understand that honesty is worth more.”

The female officer taking the report suddenly lifted her eyes from the computer screen and looked at me.

“Your name is Emma Gilbert?”

I nodded, my eyes red.

“The perfect-score valedictorian from this year's SATs?”

I made a small sound of agreement.

The officer stared at my parents, taken aback.

“What were you thinking.”

“Over a single watch, you'd actually report your own valedictorian daughter?”