Millions in Debt, Tricked by My Own Brother

Synopsis

The year the Cooper family went bankrupt, I had just received a full scholarship to the design department at Westbridge University. I hadn't had time to enjoy my acceptance letter when my brother, Ryan Cooper, got into a car accident. He suffered a spinal injury and was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Our parents died young, and after the company was liquidated, we were left with a staggering 4 million dollars in debt. I dropped out of college. The day I signed all the debt agreements, I had just turned nineteen. For four years, I worked four jobs a day, didn't clock out until 2 a.m., and was back up at six to make special meals for Ryan's rehab. One time, debt collectors cornered me in an alley and kicked me so hard I coughed up blood. I couldn't afford the hospital, so I patched myself up and showed up for work like nothing happened the next day. I got so skinny my period stopped for three months, but I never set foot in a clinic. Every dollar I managed to save went straight to Ryan's imported pain relief injections and nursing pads. Then everything changed one night. I was working in the kitchen at the Grand Crest Hotel. From the service window, I could see straight into the VIP hallway on the second floor. A man stepped out of a private room to take a call. He was dressed in a perfectly tailored suit, walking with steady, confident steps, his tall, upright figure impossible to miss. The moment he turned his head, I nearly dropped the tray I was holding. It was Ryan. The same Ryan I carried from bed to wheelchair every day, fed, bathed, and emptied his catheter bag was standing perfectly steady on the marble floor with those supposedly "permanently paralyzed" legs. I was frozen at the service window, holding a thirty-pound metal tray, my fingers tightening around it slowly. He hung up, turned, and pushed open the private room door, letting a wave of laughter spill out. "Ryan, you've been faking it for four years. Impressive," someone said.