His Exclusive Favor

When my SAT results came out, I had scored an impressive 1580, while my younger sister only managed a 1000.

Relatives and friends came over with heartfelt congratulations, praising how I was definitely bound for Harvard and how I would bring glory to our family.

But my mom quietly packed my suitcase behind their backs and handed me a train ticket.

“Anna, your younger sister will be the one going to college. You’re going to work at the factory and earn money to support her,” she said flatly. “If anyone from the village asks, just tell them you chose not to continue your studies.”

Mom had always favored my sister, but she despised me.

“Why don’t you just drop dead already?” she often spat at me, venom lacing her words.

Later, when I really did die, she went insane. Kneeling before my grave, she banged her head on the ground over and over.

——

The day the exam results were released, I had just received my diagnosis: advanced-stage stomach cancer.

The doctor told me it was terminal and advised me to go home, eat well, and stay in a good mood. Maybe, just maybe, I’d last another few weeks.

But what he didn’t realize was that dying felt more like a relief to me.

I went back to the house I could never call warm, the diagnosis still crumpled in my pocket.

Inside, I could hear the voices of relatives and friends congratulating my family.

“Congratulations, Marianne,” one of them gushed to my mom. “Your Anna scored so high. She’s definitely going to Harvard!”

“This is amazing! No one from our village has ever gone to Harvard. Your ancestors must be smiling down on you!” another added.

“We should make sure we send her off with a grand celebration,” someone else chimed in.

My mom kept wiping down the table without looking up, uninterested. “What’s there to celebrate? You all know our situation – we can only afford to send one kid to college.”

Everyone knew about our family’s financial struggles. We survived on what little my dad could send back from his job in the city.

“But surely you’d send Anna,” they insisted. “She’s got a shot at a top-tier school, unlike your younger daughter who can only manage a community college. You wouldn’t take that away from her, would you?”

From my sister’s room came the sound of sobbing and things being thrown.

My mom’s face hardened, and she threw the rag down, shoving the guests out the door. “That’s enough! Out with you all. This is none of your business!”

As the crowd dispersed, I stood there, my heart hammering and my palms damp with sweat, clutching the diagnosis in my hand.

Should I tell my mom that I was dying?

Maybe, just maybe, she’d feel a twinge of compassion, despite her usual disdain for me.

Could she cry for me, hold me, and say, “Anna, please don’t die. I do love you. I was just teasing you all this time”?

Holding onto that desperate hope, I moved toward my sister’s room, only to stop dead at the doorway when I overheard my mom’s words.

“Don’t worry, Mia,” she said with steely conviction. “You’re the one who’ll be going to college.”

And then, I heard her on the phone with Dad.

“Hey, the results are out. Mia scored much higher than Anna,” she lied effortlessly.

It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over me, chilling me to the bone.

My legs gave out, and I nearly collapsed, clutching the wall for support as a sharp pain stabbed through my chest.

How foolish of me to hope, even for a moment.

Mom had always favored my sister. After all, she never liked me.