‘They Made her family? I made them homeless’ novel link in comments

Chapter 1 https://inkster.pkjob.pk/raising-the-shadow-prodigy-by-mark-twain-1/

Chapter 1

I got home for Thanksgiving break to find the place completely empty.

Just a crumpled brochure for Maui trips sitting on the table.

Confused, I was about to call Mom when a post popped up on my feed:

[Been planning this family trip forever. Some annoying distant relative keeps insisting on tagging along. How do I “politely” tell her to back off?]

Posted 4 hours ago.

My stomach dropped.

Then my sister’s story lit up my screen—a photo at the airport gate.

[Mom and Dad are taking me to Maui~ Love them so much~]

The brochure slipped from my fingers.

In that empty, silent house, the only sound was my own sobbing.

They didn’t just exclude me.

They called me the “annoying distant relative.”

And in that moment, I knew exactly what I had to do.

……

I refused to believe it and called Mom.

It rang forever before someone picked up.

“Mom, where are you guys?” I kept my voice steady.

“At… at home, where else would we be? Why?”

“I’m home. I don’t see you.”

Silence on the other end.

Through the phone, I heard it clear as day—the airport announcement:

“Passengers traveling to Maui, please proceed to boarding.”

My heart felt like it was being squeezed by an icy fist.

Then the call ended abruptly.

Until three hours later, my sister Sienna Thayer video-called me on FaceTime.

“Oh! Why’d you call earlier?”

On screen, she wore a brand-new sun hat and oversized sunglasses. Behind her—a beachfront hotel.

Same as always, she had to look picture-perfect 24/7.

And there I was, like some pathetic outsider, sitting alone in an empty house, staring at a screen.

Actually, ever since ten years ago when Mom and Dad brought Sienna home after she lost her parents, I should’ve known.

Their love and attention would be split in half—no, more than half.

But I kept foolishly believing that blood ties couldn’t be broken. That at the end of the day, I was still their biological daughter.

Yet everything in front of me lined up perfectly with that post I’d read earlier.

I had become the “annoying distant relative”.

During what was supposed to be a family trip.

I forced myself to breathe before I could speak.

“Sienna… where are you guys?”

“You seriously?? Hahahaha!”

She laughed carelessly and flipped the camera around.

Mom and Dad stood nearby, flipping through a hotel brochure.

“Oh right, Mom said you’ve been swamped with work lately, so you definitely wouldn’t have time.”

“She didn’t want to make you feel bad, so we just came ahead without you!”