This time, no one stopped me from leaving.
“Why aren’t you making a fuss this time?” Adrian asked before I left, but I didn’t even take it to heart.
Once I arrived back at campus, I switched my phone to airplane mode and locked myself away in the lab for 13 whole days.
It wasn’t until the day before I was to leave the country that I finally finished my experiment and stepped out of the lab.
The moment I turned my phone back on, a flood of notifications from various people poured in. I had received messages from my family, Brandon, and several of my friends.
I opened my friend’s messages first. She must have been very angry because I had nearly 80 texts from her, all of them cursing out Brandon and Nina.
I glanced at a photo she had sent. It was a screenshot of a family picture Nina had posted on social media.
My parents, Adrian, Nina, and even Brandon were all in it. Brandon stood right next to Nina, gazing at her lovingly. He looked like her knight in shining armor.
Nina’s caption read, “With the family I love the most.”
My friend was absolutely livid at her shameless stunt. She didn’t just rant to me in private; she had even left a pointed comment
under Nina’s post.
“Looks like your brother–in–law is taking great care of you while your sister is away!”
I replied to her first, calming her down before moving on to the other messages. Without exception, every single one blamed me
for my friend’s comment.
I apologized to everyone, and just as I was about to put my phone down, Adrian called.
“Sadie, what the hell? Why haven’t you been reachable? Do you have any idea how worried everyone was these past few days?”
Right after he finished speaking, I heard Nina’s clear, ringing laugh.
“Mom, Dad, Brandon, come and look at this carousel! It’s so pretty!”
It seemed like they were at an amusement park.
I asked plainly, “Worried, you say?”
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