Ficorpio
Chapter 1
At the family dinner celebrating my brother’s new apartment, Ethan suddenly turned on me.
“Claire, honestly? You’re kind of an embarrassment to this family.”
At that moment, I was busy moving around the table, handing out plates and silverware to everyone.
I froze.
He lounged lazily in a carved wooden armchair, his tone sharpened with mocking disdain.
“No apartment, no car, no man willing to take you. You’ve been working for ten years and you still have nothing to show for it. How do you even fail that badly?”
The arrogant contempt in his eyes stabbed into my chest like a knife.
My parents said nothing. They simply let him humiliate me in front of everyone.
I didn’t say a word.
That very night, I moved overseas.
But after I left, no one was there to pay Ethan’s car loan.
No one covered the mortgage.
And the promotion they’d been trying to buy through connections fell apart because there was no money left to pull strings.
Only then did Ethan seem to realize who, exactly, had spent the last ten years accomplishing nothing.
…
Two years ago, Ethan Bennett had bought a $40,000 SUV outright. This year, he had purchased a downtown apartment.
He had been out of college for less than three years.
My parents were glowing with pride. They reserved the largest private dining room in the city and invited relatives and family friends to celebrate.
But the lively atmosphere in the room froze into ice the moment Ethan spoke.
My mother shot him a warning look, silently telling him to stop.
He acted as if he hadn’t seen it and went on. “Claire, you’re already a washed-up spinster. At this point, marriage is probably your only way out. You should accept reality while you still can. Wait a few more years and no one will want you even if you give yourself away. Don’t come crying to me then.”
Ethan had been spoiled rotten by our parents since childhood. I had never expected him to respect me. But at the very least, I hadn’t thought he would say something this humiliating in front of so many people.
Seeing my expression darken, my mother gave his arm a symbolic slap.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Ethan reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. His voice shot up.
“How is it nonsense?”
He looked me up and down. “I’m only twenty-six and I already have an apartment and a car. What does she have? She’s thirty this year. Fine, she doesn’t have much talent, but she can’t even get a boyfriend. Do you know how outsiders laugh at our family because of her?”
Chapter 2
The relatives around the table were only too happy to watch the show. One after another, they started chiming in.
“Claire, after graduation you stayed at home and never even helped with household expenses. Ten years, and you don’t even own one decent outfit. You drift through life every day. If I were your brother, I’d be worried too.”
“That’s right. He may not be saying it nicely, but hard truths are still truths. He’s doing it for your own good.”
With everyone else backing him up, Ethan grew even more pleased with himself.
“You think I want to say any of this? If I weren’t trying to keep Mom and Dad from worrying, I wouldn’t bother. They can support you now, but can they support you forever? Don’t cling to me later. I’m not supporting some useless, unmotivated leech.”
Every sentence came barbed, without the slightest mercy. The others kept stealing glances at me and snickering.
Their sharp, amused looks pinned me in place, leaving me nowhere to hide.
Instinctively, I looked toward my parents.
My father drank as if nothing were happening.
My mother stayed silent.
A huge swell of hurt and resentment lodged in my chest, so tight I could barely breathe.
Ethan was my parents’ late-in-life son, so they had doted on him beyond reason and expected me to meet his every demand too.
The year I started college, he began high school. He had his eye on a pair of designer sneakers that cost five thousand dollars and insisted I buy them for him.
Looking at the five thousand dollars in scholarship money that had just landed in my bank account, I refused him for the first time.
That very night, my mother called me dozens of times, crying as she told me she had cancer.
“The doctor said I can’t be upset, but whenever your brother makes a scene, I feel terrible. Can you really bear to watch your mother suffer?”
Panicked and terrified, I immediately transferred the money back to her.
After she accepted it, she and my father both reminded me not to tell Ethan about her illness.
I thought he was too young to help anyway, so I agreed.
Protected from everything, Ethan only became more entitled.
An eight-hundred-dollar iPhone, a thousand-dollar gaming laptop—even trips with girls were expenses he expected me to reimburse.
I had no choice but to take part-time jobs. More than once, I fainted from low blood sugar.
Later, when he started college and I began working full-time, my parents demanded that I cover his tuition and living expenses too.
“There are medical bills at home, and we don’t have enough money to put your brother through school anymore. We raised you. It’s time for you to contribute to this family.”
Under that emotional blackmail, I was still young enough to obey. I transferred most of my salary to my mother.
Chapter 3
After Ethan graduated and started working, I thought I could finally breathe. I decided to tell him what had really been going on at home.
But my mother fought me desperately, even threatening to kill herself.
“Your brother is a man. One day he’ll have to get married and support a family. We can’t add more pressure to him!”
Even now, I was still sending my mother money every month for her medicine.
From college to work, I had given my youth and my money to this family. Not one day had belonged to me.
And yet Mom and Dad wouldn’t say a single word in my defense.
My heart went completely cold.
Unable to endure another second, I rushed out of the private dining room.
Ethan’s sneer followed me from behind.
“Not much ability, but what a temper.”
Aunt Helen sighed.
“If Claire were half as capable as Ethan, you wouldn’t have so many gray hairs.”
My mother’s voice was low, but it still pierced my ears.
“Tell me about it. She’s the one I worry about most in this family.”
…
I spent a long time in the restroom trying to calm myself down. When I finally came out, I heard my parents talking in a corner.
“Did you call Jason Cross?” my mother asked.
“I did. He’ll be here soon.”
“Back then, we promised to introduce him to a wife, and that’s why he agreed to get Ethan into the company. I didn’t expect him to take a liking to Claire.”
“Let them spend some time together today. Once Claire marries him, we’ll have every reason to ask for a better position for Ethan. Everyone wins.”
“Don’t let Ethan find out. That child has too much pride. He’s always trying to rely on himself. But these days, you can’t get ahead alone. While we can still help him, we should help him as much as possible.”
Their words turned my whole body cold. My limbs felt frozen, as if I had been nailed in place.
I knew they spoiled Ethan. I knew they were willing to support him without reservation. But I had never imagined they would trade the rest of my life for his benefit.
Jason Cross was a distant relative on my father’s side. He was already forty-five this year—and he had spent five years in prison for assaulting a female employee.
I wanted to storm out and curse them both to their faces, but my mother’s next words struck me even harder.
“If Claire refuses, I’ll use the falsified medical records to force her into it. She’s softhearted. This will go smoothly.”
My father took her hand. “You always have the best ideas. All these years, pretending to be sick got quite a lot of savings out of her. That’s how we managed to buy Ethan the apartment and the car. Once Jason is involved, he can help with the car loan and the mortgage too. Then we’ll finally have it easy.”
My head snapped up.
I stared at the two of them in disbelief as they spoke in such ordinary tones, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
So Ethan had not merely been protected.
Everything he had now had been built by stepping on me.