Chapter 5
Jacob jolted awake like someone had slapped him.
Something was wrong. Really fucking wrong. His chest felt tight, and this weird anxiety was crawling under his skin like bugs.
He glanced out the window, and for some reason, he couldn’t stop thinking about Emma-his sister who he’d spent his whole life hating.
The truth was, Jacob had been planning to tell Emma about the inheritance stuff for a while now.
For months, he’d been watching her live in this fantasy where Mom and Dad loved her most, while he got all the real benefits behind the scenes. And honestly? It was starting to mess with his head.
He actually felt bad for her. This girl who’d been fighting with him since they were kids, who had no clue she was living a lie.
‘art of him wanted to wake her up, make her face reality.
But then again, maybe Emma didn’t have it that bad. During their game yesterday, there was still something he hadn’t told her yet.
Whatever. When she came home, he’d have another chance.
he more he thought about it, the more awake he became. Jacob got up to grab some water and found Mom in the kitchen making breakfast.
You’re up early today, honey.”
fom was flipping pancakes like nothing had happened-like she hadn’t thrown her daughter out in the rain last night wearing nothing but pajamas.
ut Jacob couldn’t stop picturing Emma’s face when Dad shoved her outside. The hurt in her eyes. The disbelief. And something else… something that looked a ot like despair.
The hadn’t opened his big mouth about the house and insurance, maybe none of this would’ve happened.
Mom,” he said, that anxious feeling getting worse, “Emma’s been gone all night. Aren’t you worried something might happen to her?”
Iom shrugged, completely unbothered. “She’s twenty-one, Jacob. What’s gonna happen? Besides, actions have consequences. She made her bed fooling around ith boys-now she can lie in it.”
ooling around.
hose words hit Jacob like a punch to the gut.
ow could a mother just… assume the worst about her own daughter?
ure, Jacob used to tell Emma to drop dead all the time, but he’d never thought of her as… that.
nd even if she was pregnant-so what?
he was still their daughter. Still his sister.
hen he remembered Emma asking Mom that weird question: “If I was really sick… would you even care?”
chill ran down Jacob’s spine,
omething was very, very wrong.
le sprinted to Emma’s room and started tearing through her stuff, looking for… he didn’t know what. Some kind of clue.
That’s when he found it, buried in her desk drawer: a medical report with “STAGE IV CANCER” stamped across the top in bold letters.
Next to it was a crumpled piece of paper covered in Emma’s handwriting-a bucket list.
‘Oh shit! Oh fuck!”
He grabbed both papers and ran back to the kitchen, but before he could say anything, his phone rang.
“Jacob, dude, are you watching the morning news? There’s this girl on TV who looks exactly like your sister…”
Jacob hung up and frantically pulled up the news app on his phone.
The headline made his blood run cold: “Local Woman Pulled from River After Apparent Suicide Attempt.”
The video showed paramedics dragging someone out of the water. Someone wearing pink pajamas that Jacob recognized immediately.
Panic hit him like a freight train.
MOM!” he screamed toward the kitchen. “We need to get to the hospital RIGHT NOW! Emma’s-she’s-”
