For My Sister's Glory, I Became Scum

My older sister, Fiona Carter, is the only one from our small town to make it to college. But just when she's about to leave for a high-paying job, I lock her up in the cellar. On the day I leave the country to take the job in her place, she scratches the door so desperately that her nails break. It's then she curses my name out loud and wishes me dead. But Fiona eventually finds a way to build a better life herself. A year later, she secretly makes her way to the big city and rises into the upper class. From then on, she forbids anyone from mentioning my name. I send Fiona an email every year. The first year, I tell her I locked her up because I was jealous of her. The second year, I tell her I'm doing great abroad. I've even sold our late grandma's bracelet to buy a motorcycle. Everyone thought it looked awesome. The third year, I tell her I'm getting married to a city girl who's even prettier than she is. Then, in the fifth year, the emails suddenly stop. Eventually, Fiona returns to our hometown as a successful woman. At a business gathering, someone raises a toast to her. "Hey, isn't your brother named Billy Carter? I heard he's in northern Marova…" "I don't know that good-for-nothing!" Fiona hurls her glass to the floor in disgust. A businessman involved in cross-border trade freezes for a moment, then sighs and shakes his head. "I thought you might know him. That kid, what he did for his sister… Well, I guess that's fate…" Chapter 1 I floated behind my sister and watched her smash her glass. The crystal shards glittered under the lights, their glimmer mirroring the coldness in her eyes. Everyone fell silent at once. The business associates who had been crowding around her and flattering her just moments ago were now too scared to say a word. No one dared mention Billy Carter's name again. My name was off-limits around my sister, Fiona Carter. To her, having me as a brother was the one embarrassment that marred her otherwise impressive reputation. Fiona was now the CEO of a multinational trading company. She wore a custom-tailored designer suit, and the Patek Philippe watch on her wrist glinted under the lights. She'd drunk quite a bit, and there was a fierce look in her eyes. I knew that look could only belong to someone who had been through hell and survived. Thank goodness. She was alive, and that was all that mattered. Even in the afterlife, I could hold my head high as her younger brother. When the business gathering ended, Fiona's assistant opened the car door for her. Someone blocked the car's path. It was Walter Bennett, who worked in cross-border trade. He was the one who'd mentioned my name at the table earlier. "Ms. Carter." Fiona rolled down the car window with a contemptuous sneer. "What? Did Billy send you to ask me for money? Tell him he's not getting a penny. If he wants to die, he can do it somewhere far away. I don't even want to see him." I floated beside Walter. I was so anxious that I wanted to cover his mouth and beg him not to tell her anything. A flicker of sympathy crossed Walter's deeply tanned face. He sighed and pulled a grimy black box from his coat. The box was wrapped in layer after layer of different-colored tape, making it look like a piece of old junk. "The kid asked me to bring this to you. It's the fifth year now, and this is the last one." Fiona looked at the box as though it were the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen. She suddenly raised her hand and knocked it to the ground. "Only Billy would treat trash like this as something precious. Get lost!" The box broke open when it hit the ground. There was no money or gold bar inside. In fact, there was nothing in it but an old Nokia phone with a cracked screen and a missing back cover. Fiona seemed startled for a moment, but her expression quickly turned cold again. "Drive!" The driver didn't dare hesitate. He stepped hard on the gas, and the wheels of the black Mercedes nearly ran over the broken phone. Walter crouched down and picked up the phone in silence. He brushed the dust off it. As he watched the car speed away, he muttered a curse under his breath. "Billy, you gave your life for nothing." I floated beside him with a bitter smile. As long as Fiona was alive, I didn't care if my life had been wasted. It was worth it. Inside the car, Fiona leaned back against the leather seat and rubbed her temples hard. She muttered curses under her breath, complaining about her bad luck and how I just wouldn't leave her alone. Chapter 2 But I saw it. Fiona's eyes were rimmed with red. The next day, Walter still wasn't ready to give up. I followed him into the skyscraper where my sister's company was located. Beyond the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, the city bustled with activity. Fiona's office was on the top floor, and it was nothing short of impressive. She was in a meeting. Even through the frosted glass, I could hear her scolding the people inside. "Even a fool wouldn't make such a basic mistake!" "If you don't want to work here, then get out!" The executives, each earning a seven-figure annual salary, were being scolded like children. Walter pushed open the conference room door without a second thought. "Ms. Carter!" Everyone turned to look at him. Fiona's expression instantly turned icy. "Who let you in? Where's security?" Ignoring everyone else, Walter strode over to the conference table and slapped the broken Nokia down on it. "Ms. Carter, please take a look. Just one look." "I told you, I don't know him!" Fiona snapped, her voice growing shrill. She waved for security to throw Walter out. But the moment her eyes fell on the phone, she froze. The phone's lock screen was lit up, displaying a photo of an elderly woman whose face was lined with wrinkles. It was the grandmother who had taken us in and raised us. She was Fiona's only weakness in the world. While Fiona was distracted, Walter unlocked the phone and opened something. The phone held the five emails I'd arranged for Walter to send, one each year. He opened the earlier messages for Fiona to read. A mechanical voice began reading the email aloud, sounding especially harsh in the silent conference room. "Fiona, long time no see. I've got some good news for you. I sold that crappy bracelet Grandma left behind and bought myself a big motorcycle. It's fucking awesome. And you were stupid enough to treasure that thing." When the reading ended, the conference room fell deathly silent. Suddenly, Fiona laughed. She threw her head back and burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face. But there was no joy in it, only bitter hatred. "I knew it. He'll never amount to anything. Grandma couldn't even rest in peace when she died, and it was all because of him." She suddenly pushed up the sleeve of her suit jacket, revealing an emerald bracelet on her wrist. Its vivid green stones were clearly worth a fortune. "Tell Billy I can afford ten thousand bracelets like this now. Ten thousand!" Like someone celebrating a victory, she showed off her wealth to Walter and to me as I floated unseen nearby. I floated in midair, staring at the flash of green on Fiona's wrist. A sudden pang went through my chest. Fiona, have you forgotten? Back when Grandma was seriously ill, we didn't have a penny to our names. You took that so-called family heirloom to a pawnshop, only to be told the bracelet was made of glass and wasn't worth a cent. I was the one who went to an unlicensed clinic on the west side of town and sold nearly a pint of my blood. That money paid for Grandma's medicine and your bus ticket out of our small town to the big city. And that flashy motorcycle? I'd never even ridden a decent bicycle in my entire life. Walter looked at Fiona, who seemed almost beside herself, with a mixture of complicated emotions and pity in his eyes. "Ms. Carter, have you ever wondered why he would write something like that?" "Why?" She shrieked like a cat that had just had its tail stepped on. "Because he's rotten! He's a good-for-nothing! Deep down, he can't stand seeing me do well. He wants to keep me trapped in that dirt-poor backwater for the rest of my life, so I'll end up a loser just like him." She snatched the Nokia off the table and hurled it toward the trash can in the corner. The phone struck the metal side with a dull thud. It sounded like something breaking inside my chest. In the end, security came and "escorted" Walter out. Chapter 3 Inside the conference room, the executives barely dared to breathe. They all kept their heads down, afraid to draw her attention. "Get out. All of you." Fiona's voice was hoarse with exhaustion. Once the door closed, she was alone in the enormous office. Except for me, floating beside her. She stood there for a long time, like a statue. Then, slowly, one step at a time, she walked over to the trash can in the corner. She bent down and picked the broken phone back up from a pile of discarded papers. I knew she wasn't picking it up because she missed me. She wanted revenge. Fiona wanted to find me, flaunt her success, and humiliate me. She wanted to rub my failure in my face and make sure I knew I was beneath her. Fiona unlocked the phone and opened the third email. It had been scheduled to be sent two years earlier. "Fiona, I'm getting married. My bride's a city girl with wide hips, perfect for having kids. We've already had a son. Don't bother coming to the wedding. I'm afraid you'll be jealous when you see how well I'm doing." After reading it, she gave a cruel smile. She pulled out her latest high-end phone and dialed the number listed at the bottom of the email. I watched her fingers tap the screen as her lips moved silently. She must have been rehearsing countless insults in her head. Fiona wanted to tell me how rich and powerful she was now, and how many men were chasing after her. She wanted to tell me I was a complete and utter loser, destined to spend the rest of my life stuck in the gutter. Instead of connecting, the call was answered by a cold, automated voice. "The number you have dialed is not in service." Fiona froze. The mocking smile on her face stiffened. I floated in front of her, watching the bewilderment spread across her face. Oh, Fiona, that number had been disconnected five years ago. In Northern Marova, phone numbers belonging to the dead weren't kept. Fiona tried calling again, unwilling to believe what she'd just heard. "The number you have dialed is not in service." The result was the same. "Billy Carter!" She snarled at the phone, her voice filled with anger at being made a fool of. "You're avoiding me, aren't you? Did you leave me a fake number? Just you wait! I'll turn over every stone to find you." Fiona thought I'd deliberately changed my number to avoid her. Her anger had completely clouded her judgment. She suddenly grabbed something from her desk and hurled it to the floor. A sharp crack rang out. It was a small clay doll, smashed to pieces. I'd made it for her as a child, molding it out of mud from the fields. She'd called it ugly, yet she'd always kept it by her side. She brought it all the way from our remote mountain town to the big city and placed it in the most prominent spot on her office desk. Now it had become an outlet for her rage. The broken pieces of the clay doll cut her hand. Bright red drops of blood fell one by one onto the expensive wool carpet, spreading into a small, dark red stain. I wanted to cover her wound, but my hands passed through her body again and again. "Fiona, please stop. You'll hurt yourself." Just then, the office door swung open. Walter had been escorted out earlier, but now he'd returned. Somehow, Walter had made his way back upstairs. He took in the mess on the floor and the blood on Fiona's hand. His eyes turned cold. "Stop calling." He didn't raise his voice, but his words hit hard. "That number belonged to a dead man." Fiona looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, glaring furiously. "You're working with him! You're both trying to deceive me." Walter shook his head and spoke slowly, enunciating every word. "Five years ago, the person who owned that number died at a scam center in Northern Marova." "Dead?" Fiona laughed as though she'd heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. There was a hint of madness in her laughter. "Mr. Bennett, you're so determined to help that loser scam me out of money that you'd even go so far as to wish him dead?" Chapter 4 "That sympathy stunt of yours is ridiculously amateurish!" Fiona didn't believe a word that Walter said. She would rather believe that he and I had put on an elaborate performance to play on her emotions, all to extort money from her as the company's CEO. I looked at the contempt and disdain in her eyes. A cold, sinking feeling filled my chest. "Fiona, is that really how little you think of me?" Walter didn't try to explain himself again. Instead, he reached into his worn canvas bag, pulled out a badly crumpled sheet of paper, and slapped it onto Fiona's desk. It was a photocopy of a fax sent by the embassy. The paper had yellowed, and the writing was somewhat blurred. But the heading at the top and the red official stamp at the bottom stood out sharply. DEATH CONFIRMATION LETTER Name: Billy Carter Sex: Male Cause of Death: Prolonged malnutrition, multiple organ failure, and acute shock resulting from physical assault. Date of Death: December 9, five years ago. Fiona stared at the date, her eyes widening in disbelief. Five years ago, on December 9, she'd secured the biggest contract in her company's history. The entire company had celebrated her success. At the celebration, she'd gotten completely drunk, surrounded by several wealthy young men vying for her attention. She was riding high on her success. As for me… I remembered that day. Winter in Northern Marova was cold and damp. I'd secretly hidden a SIM card I'd found somewhere, hoping to call the police late at night. But Drake Hayes and his thugs discovered it. They strung me up and kept me waist-deep in water in a flooded cell, taking turns lashing me with barbed whips. I felt as though my bones were breaking one by one. The cold and unbearable pain gradually overwhelmed me, and I began to lose consciousness. "No… That can't be right…" Fiona's voice trembled, and the paper in her hand shook uncontrollably. "This can't be… He was still emailing me then… He told me he'd had a son…" Her reasoning began to unravel. Everything she'd believed with such certainty was beginning to fall apart. Just then, the shrill ringing of a phone broke the silence in the office. It was Fiona's personal phone. An unfamiliar landline number appeared on the screen. Her hand trembling, she answered the call. "Hello. Am I speaking with Ms. Fiona Carter?" The caller spoke in a calm, professional voice, without a trace of emotion. "This is the city's Criminal Investigation Division. During a recent joint operation with authorities from the Southern Continental region, codenamed Operation Clean Sweep, we discovered human remains at the site of a former scam center in Northern Marova. We believe they may belong to your brother, Billy Carter." "Based on the DNA information we currently have, preliminary testing indicates a 99.9% match. Please come to our office as soon as possible for final identification and confirmation." Every cold, impersonal word struck Fiona with devastating force. Her expensive phone slipped from her limp hand and landed hard on her foot. She didn't seem to feel anything. I watched her face turn deathly pale in an instant, as though all the blood had drained from her body. Just then, the old Nokia she'd tossed onto the desk lit up again. In the dead silence, a fourth email automatically appeared on the screen. It was short, containing just two sentences. "Fiona, don't come back. I'm doing… just fine here in hell." I hadn't written that email myself. Before I died, I'd used the last of my strength to beg Walter to send it for me. It was the only truth I'd left behind for her.