Things weren’t always like this, not before Wendy came into our lives.
Back then, I still had a mother and father who loved me, and Ian was just a little boy.
Ian and I would play together, Mom would tell me bedtime stories, and Dad would take me on walks in the park.
Everything changed three summers ago.
Mom and Dad left for the ancestral home while Ian and I stayed behind for school.
A few days later, Dad returned with two pieces of devastating news.
Mom had been in a car accident at the ancestral home. She didn’t survive.
And before her death, she and Dad had adopted the daughter of an old friend.
I lost my mother but gained a sister.
At first, I welcomed Wendy. I thought of her as the last connection I had to Mom since Mom had adopted her before the accident.
I wanted a sister, too, so I did my best to care for her.
I made sure no one at school bullied her, keeping an eye out for trouble in her class.
I helped her with homework and took care of her whenever she was sick.
I gave her everything I could as a sister, treating her like she was my own blood.
However, one day, everything changed.
I had gone to her class to bring her burn ointment, only to overhear her talking to her classmates.
“My sister burned me by accident,” she said, her voice soft and pitiful. “It’s my fault—I shouldn’t have brought her such a hot drink.
“Please don’t say bad things about her. She’s really nice to me. She asks me to do chores and serve her tea, but she’s never bullied me.”
I stood frozen, stunned by the lies.
The burn on her hand wasn’t my doing. She’d wanted to make coffee for Dad but claimed I had forced her to serve me hot tea.
Dad had already punished me for her injury, yet I hadn’t blamed her. I felt guilty for letting her into the kitchen in the first place.
After hearing her lies, I confronted her at school.
That day marked a turning point in my life—or maybe the change had started long before.
Dad stopped doting on me. Ian no longer followed me around like my little shadow.
I became an outsider in my own home, the person everyone vented their frustrations on.
