Chapter 1

On my eighteenth birthday, I took the 200 dollars I'd painstakingly saved from months of washing dishes in the school cafeteria and invited my parents and brother to celebrate with me at a steakhouse.

But in the end, they stood me up.

They took my adopted sister to the amusement park instead. Seeing the fireworks in their Instagram posts felt like a punch to the gut.

I couldn't help but call them, wanting to ask, "Aren't I your real family, not her?"

But before I could say a word, my adopted sister's mocking voice came through the phone.

She said, "Does she really think we'd actually show up for her birthday? Is she really that dumb?

"Does she seriously not know she was actually a random baby Mom and Dad found in a hospital dumpster?

"Otherwise, why does everyone treat her even worse than me, the adopted one?"

In that moment, everything that had been weighing on my heart suddenly made sense.

So I wasn't even my parents' real kid.

No wonder they dumped me with my grandma in the countryside when I was little.

No wonder they never liked me at all.

I was done begging for their affection.

I filled out an application for Akotalm University.

Then I bought myself a plane ticket to Thauriax.

But when I was about to leave, they broke down in tears, begging me to stay.

"Chloe, you're our real daughter. Your sister was joking. Why would you believe her?" they cried.

I looked at their tear-stained faces and smiled. "But I did believe her."

*****

I closed the application page.

Finally, I had a moment to take in the sight of the steak spread before me.

This meal wasn't cheap. I'd spent over half a year washing dishes in the school cafeteria to pay for it.

I ordered my mom's favorite, sirloin.

For my dad, I got his go-to, the filet mignon.

And for my brother, I ordered the lobster he could never get enough of.

I even made sure to get the ribeye that my adopted sister always liked.

The table was piled high with all their favorite dishes.

It wasn't until I picked up my fork that I realized I hadn't even thought about what I wanted to eat.

But that was okay.

Now that I was done begging for their shallow affection, I was going to learn to love myself.

I would start doing it at that moment.

Steak tasted as good even though I was eating it by myself.

Even if nobody was around to say happy birthday, the cake still tasted sweet.

The waitress at the steakhouse even sang me a birthday song.

Honestly, I didn't feel lonely at all today.