Chapter 1
I did not open the door all the way. I left the chain on and looked through the gap at the folder in my mother's hands, because I had learned that people who call paper "just a signature" usually expect your whole life to hide inside the fine print. Bella stepped forward first, her face blotchy and angry, and snapped, "You already moved out. Stop punishing me." My mother pushed the folder toward the opening and said the university needed the next-term student-loan co-signature form by morning.
Dad finally admitted what they had avoided saying. Their credit would not carry Bella's loan, and they could not pay her balance themselves. If I refused, Bella could lose her classes, her dorm, and the pretty story they had built around her being the family success. I asked whether Brooke was still basically family. Nobody laughed.
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Then Mom's mask slipped. "Sign, or she loses school," she said, like my name was a tool she could pick up whenever Bella needed one. I looked down at the form and saw exactly what it was: my promise to be liable if Bella missed payments. Grace was behind me at the table, coloring quietly, and I knew she was listening.
I slid the folder back through the chain gap without writing a letter. Mom's hand trembled when she caught it. Bella whispered, "You can't do this." I said, "I already stopped doing it." That was when Dad said there was another paper coming, one that had nothing to do with Bella and everything to do with the house they had tried to throw us out of.
