Chapter 2

02

A few days later, staring at the cracked headlights and the deeply caved-in bumper, rage surged through me.

I checked my phone, only to realize Brody hadn't sent a single explanation.

I was usually swamped with research projects with my advisor, so I rarely drove.

If I hadn't needed to rush to the research lab today to grab some urgent documents, I wouldn't have known how long that idiot planned on hiding it from me.

I immediately dialed Brody's number to demand answers.

A girl answered instead.

"Hello? Calling this early, are you trying to give someone a heart attack?!"

Her tone was obnoxious and downright hostile.

Remembering what she had said on the phone days ago, my anger flared even higher.

"Put Brody on the phone. What the hell happened to my car?"

"Oh, so you're my boyfriend's sister," Candice drawled sarcastically.

"I thought some random side chick was trying to seduce my man."

"I've heard all about you from Brody. Sis, even if you're blood-related, you need to learn boundaries. Stop freeloading off your brother."

"Where I come from, the family assets all belong to the son. As a woman, you should have some self-awareness and stop coveting what doesn't belong to you."

I was rendered speechless by her sheer audacity. Brody's taste in women was truly something else.

If someone didn't know better, they'd think she crawled straight out of the nineteenth century.

"If you have a brain defect, go see a doctor. Stop projecting your backward madness onto me. Use whatever little gray matter you have left to realize you crashed my car and wrecked it. Do you actually think you're in the right?"

She snorted coldly over the line.

"Your car? That car belongs to Brody and me! I've lived twenty-something years and never heard of a family buying a luxury car for a daughter when they have a son."

She hadn't even set foot through our front door and she was already treating my family's wealth as her personal piggy bank.

I let out a bitter laugh, though my upbringing kept me relatively composed.

"Listen, sweetie. Out of respect for the fact that you're Brody's girlfriend, I won't stoop to your level. But the car title is under my name."

"Cut the crap and stop bluffing. Unless your parents are brain-dead, there's no way in hell they'd buy a car for a daughter!"

Well, sometimes being polite with trash is just a waste of breath.

"Keep dreaming, because as long as I'm alive, your pathetic gold-digging scheme will never work. And you don't get to comment on my family's business, because you will never step foot into this household!"

Before she could screech another word, I hung up, blocked her number, and deleted her contact.

Still fuming, I forwarded the call recording directly into our family group chat.

Brody, who had been MIA, panicked instantly and sent several frantic voice messages.

"Sis, why did you do that?! You're going to ruin my future with Candice! What if Mom and Dad see it?!"

I texted back coldly, "What's there to ruin? It's just the raw truth."

Brody scrambled to make excuses: "No, you don't understand! Candice comes from a broken, toxic household where everyone favors boys over girls. That's why she assumed you took my car!"

"She had too much to drink that night and accidentally scraped the guardrail while driving..."

My temper flared right back up. I lent my car in good faith, and this was how they treated it? Drunk driving and wrecking it?!

"Are you mute? Couldn't you explain things to her? Since you won't take responsibility, I'll just call the police and report a hit-and-run."

"No, no, no! Sis, I'm begging you! Candice is truly an amazing girl. She just has flawed views because of her toxic family trauma."

Brody was anxious as an ant on a hot pan: "Sis, I really love her. Please, just let it go. I will pay for all the repairs myself!"

He was completely blinded by infatuation and had lost every ounce of his brain.

The way she spoke to me wasn't about family trauma at all―it was a total lack of basic decency and manners!