Sallie's POV
I stayed on the ground for what felt like forever, waiting for the spinning in my head to stop before I dared to move.
No sadness. No disappointment. Just... nothing.
I dug through my pockets and came up with one twenty, two fives, and a couple of fifty-cent pieces.
Webster had told me to grab a cab home, but he hadn't bothered leaving me any cash.
Guess he'd forgotten that when the Noahs shipped me off to St. Chaim Reform Academy two years back, they stripped me of everything I owned. Said I needed to learn to live without luxuries if I wanted to reform—they even took my hair tie.
These thirty-one bucks belonged to whoever had worn this hoodie before me.
I squeezed the coins tight. My chest burned, and my nose started to prickle.
I just tugged the hoodie closer, pulled up the hood, shoved the money back in my pocket, and started the long walk down the mountain road.
The wind picked up as my small figure faded into the distance.
——
The air was getting crisper, and darkness fell fast.
Webster had crushed his race and stuck around with his crew afterward. By the time he rolled home, the night was already deep.
The second he stepped inside, he found his family clustered on the couch, all wearing the same grim expression.
Kevin shot him a look. "We told you to bring Sallie back. Why are you just getting home now? And why didn't you pick up your phone?"
Webster stopped short, then fished out his phone to find several missed calls.
He shrugged it off. "I told you I had that race today. If Jill hadn't begged me to go get her, I wouldn't have bothered."
He moved around to face the couch and finally caught the fury radiating from his parents—and Jill's tear-streaked face.
Something clicked in Webster's brain. "Jill, did Sallie give you trouble again? She really hasn't changed one bit. I knew two years wouldn't be enough to fix her."
He rolled up his sleeves, anger flaring. "Where is she? Get her out here. I'm gonna teach her a lesson she won't forget!"
But after his little explosion, he realized everyone was staring at him like he'd lost his mind.
Zora looked baffled. "Wasn't Sallie supposed to come back with you? We figured you weren't answering because she wouldn't let you."
"She's not back yet?" Webster blinked. "I told her to take a cab."
Kevin adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, the pieces falling into place. "You abandoned her on the roadside and went to your race, didn't you?"
Webster had always been intimidated by his serious older brother. Even though guilt twisted in his gut under Kevin's stare, he muttered defensively, "It's not like she doesn't know her way around. I had money riding on that race—I would've had to pay for everyone's dinner if I'd lost."
Jill, eyes still puffy, turned to Kevin. "Kevin, if Sallie's not back yet... it's because of me."
Her voice shook and fresh tears welled up. "I should've just said I fell down the stairs by myself. It wasn't her fault. This is all on me..."
She grabbed Kevin's sleeve. "Kevin, let's go find Sallie. I'll apologize to her. I know we can bring her home."
Watching Jill cry—the girl he'd always protected—Webster instantly forgot any guilt or concern he'd felt about Sallie. "You don't owe her any apology," he snapped. "Jill, this isn't your fault."
Now all Webster felt toward Sallie was rage. "So she really hasn't changed at all. Still playing games to mess with you.
"If you want to go looking for her, Kevin, knock yourself out. I'm not going. I don't buy for a second that she's really not coming back. She's just pulling this stunt for attention.
"Someone like her, obsessed with money and status—no way she'd actually walk away from this family."
Right as he finished speaking, a maid appeared and announced, "Ms. Isabelle has returned."
Everyone's eyes immediately found the thin girl standing behind the maid.
After two years, seeing Sallie again left Harvey, Zora, and Kevin completely speechless.
They couldn't reconcile this girl—head bowed, hands clasped tightly in front of her—with the vibrant, confident Sallie they remembered.
Webster's voice suddenly boomed with satisfaction. "See? I knew she couldn't stay away. We didn't even have to go searching, and she still came crawling back."
——
Sallie's POV
Harvey snapped back to reality and fixed me with a disapproving glare. "You're a young woman—what are you doing wandering around so late? Do you want to humiliate this family?"
His tone was brutal, and everyone braced for me to snap back, to make excuses and argue like I used to.
They probably had their lectures all prepared—ready to unleash them the moment I opened my mouth.
But I kept my head down. My voice came out flat, emotionless. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
The room went dead silent. Nobody had seen that coming.
In the quiet, Zora suddenly seemed to notice something.
She approached me. "Sallie, you've gotten so thin. Was it rough at St. Chaim's?"
Zora's gentle, warm hand closed around mine.
I went rigid.
Nobody knew how many times I'd prayed for someone to care, to ask how I was holding up. And how many times that hope had been shattered.
For two solid years, they'd dumped me at St. Chaim Reform Academy and never looked back.
I thought I'd learned to live with it—to accept it.
But the instant Zora showed concern, a flood of grief crashed over me anyway.
I thought, 'Isn't it obvious? In that hellhole, where there's no dignity and "students" are treated worse than animals, of course it was rough.'
Just as that pain started to surface, I felt another hand grab mine.
Jill looked thrilled and slightly envious. "Sallie, you really did lose so much weight. If you got all dressed up like before, you'd look incredible.
"Not like me—I keep saying I want to drop pounds, but nothing works. Mom tells me I'm not fat, then keeps feeding me snacks and sabotaging my diet.
"I wish I could be like you. Just slim down that easily."
In just a few words, she made my weight loss sound like some kind of beauty achievement.
Zora bought into Jill's spin and ignored my pale, sickly complexion and parched skin. She released my hand.
The warmth in my chest instantly turned to ice.
I slowly drew my empty hands back to my sides.