They Chose the Favorite Over Me

3: 3

With my mother gone, I had stopped being able to live in this house long ago.

They couldn't stand having me around, and I saw no reason to sit here waiting for them to throw me out.

Grandma took my words as a challenge to her authority as an elder.

It only made her angrier, and she started sniping at my back.

"A worthless girl can't even take a couple of words? Black-hearted, vicious, and still won't let anyone say so?"

"If Greg weren't such a kind boy, taking pity on his cousin and speaking up for you, I'd have driven you out ages ago!"

"Back in the day, if a worthless girl had a temper like yours, what family would've taken you in? They'd probably have beaten you to death already!"

My father, of course, joined his mother in taking jabs at me.

"I honestly don't know if you're even mine. There isn't a single thing about you that looks like me, head to toe."

"If your mother hadn't passed, I'd want to ask her to her face whether you were some bastard she got fooling around behind my back!"

Whether they threw me out or not, I no longer wanted to stay here.

Who knew what stunt my cousin would pull next?

I had no intention of staying to take the blame for him.

3.

Back in my bedroom, I called Renee Swanson.

I told her to cancel all the herbal orders I'd placed.

Renee knew what my family was like, and she asked me anxiously,

"Did your grandma and your dad get on you again?"

"You treat your grandma so well. If that still isn't enough for her, isn't that going too far?"

I let out a soft sigh.

And told her everything that had just happened.

"What?" Renee burst out. "What gives your cousin the right to spew that garbage?"

"He can decide my grandpa's herbs are cheap junk off a single sentence? Where's his proof?"

I told her to calm down.

"You know how my grandma dotes on him, and my dad does whatever she says. I've already decided to move out. I don't want to live with them anymore."

The moment Renee heard I was moving out, she eagerly invited me to come stay at her place.

She added, "I've been feeling how empty the house is on my own anyway. Come live with me!"

That actually seemed like a decent choice.

I'd just agreed when my cousin knocked on my door.

"Gail, calling you out like that today really was wrong of me, as your older cousin."

"Open up. I want to apologize to your face and clear up this misunderstanding."

Apologize to me?

A weasel wishing me a happy new year. There was nothing good behind it.

I ignored him.

He went right on talking. "Gail, I'm sure you'd like to make a good impression on Grandma and your dad too, wouldn't you?"

"I've got an opportunity here that could smooth things over between the two of you."

Wasn't he the one who'd turned my relationship with Grandma into this in the first place?

I thought it over, started a recording, and opened the door.