Before the sentence could fully leave my mouth, Thomas was out of his chair. He crossed the room in three long strides, his face twisted in a mask of aggressive irritation. He snatched the thick envelope directly from my trembling fingers.
He didn't open it. He didn't look at the university seal. He simply turned and clutched it to Haley, who had paused her live stream to watch the exchange with a smug smile, knowing that little smile...
“Don’t be selfish, Clara,” Thomas mocked, looking at me out of the nose. “Haley’s lifestyle brand desperately needs high-society social media content. Medical school graduation brings in the wealthiest families in the state. You’re just a nurse’s aide anyway. She’ll be sitting in the back row of some general assembly hall with the rest of the support staff. Let your sister have her moment in a real place.”
Haley squealed the ticket away, waving it in front of her ring light. “VIP access! Thanks, Dad. I’m going to get so many amazing pictures.”
I looked at the man who shared my DNA. A cold, suffocating knot tightened in my chest. Let your sister have her moment.
It was a truth I had fiercely guarded, locked away in the darkest, most secure vault of my mind for four grueling years. I hadn't corrected them when they assumed my grueling clinical hours were just low-level assistant work. I hadn't told them because I knew Thomas would instantly try to exploit my connections, or worse, Victoria would find a way to sabotage my funding out of pure, poisonous jealousy.
They didn't know I wasn't graduating from a community college certificate program. They had no idea I was graduating from a top-tier university's elite medical school.
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