Chapter 2: Blind Faith

Once we got home, Sylvia gushed, "Leo, Mommy spent so much on you and sacrificed everything. You’d better repay me when you’re all grown up."

I sneered to myself.

Our parents, who only had Sylvia and me, had planned to leave the family home to me. After they died, Sylvia and Vince shamelessly seized it. "Tessa, you’re young," they claimed. "What do you need a house for? We’re a family of three, so we need it more."

They even added, "If you ever end up homeless, we’ll take you in. We're family, right?"

In my past life, I was naive enough to believe them, only to end up utterly betrayed.

Leo, rubbing his aching eyes, completely bought into the "blessed soul" story. "Of course!" he boasted. "I was holy in my last life, so I’m going to be huge!"

Sylvia patted his head, presenting the perfect picture of a loving mother and son—if you ignored what they were truly capable of.

From then on, whenever relatives came to visit, Sylvia bragged endlessly about her "holy" son. When people hinted that Leo’s eyes looked sick and urged her to see a doctor, she just scoffed, assuming they were jealous. She would glance at me, fully expecting me to back her up.

I smiled. "Sylvia must’ve been truly blessed in a past life to have a holy son like Leo."

She glowed with pride, praising Leo’s future greatness while casually dismissing my degree from a "second-tier university." She loved to say that I should support Leo, since his "holy" success would eventually "lift me up."

Lift me up? Yeah, right.

Some of the older folks around here think any school outside Stanford or Cornell is a less prestigious institution. I just let it slide.

Thanks to Sylvia’s stubbornness, people eventually stopped trying to advise her, leaving Leo’s cataracts to steadily worsen.

I was in my junior year of college when Vince called me during class.

Sylvia had fallen for Vince at sixteen. He was a rough-around-the-edges guy who had "saved" her from a bad boss at a local diner. She defied our parents, got pregnant while still a minor, and married him anyway. His family disowned him for it, but Sylvia acted like she had won the lottery.

Fools will always be fools.

I ignored his call and focused on my lecture, but he kept dialing. After class finally ended, I answered.

"Tessa, Leo says his eyes are blurry and he can’t see well at night," Vince demanded. "Take him to the city for glasses, got it?"

I smirked. Just like always, they were trying to offload Leo's problems onto me, preaching about "family ties" in that bossy tone of theirs. Funny how they never mentioned stealing my house.

Glasses? That wasn't nearsightedness—it was his cataracts progressing.

Twirling my pen, I said casually, "Vince, you know Leo’s a special kid. He's going to achieve great things! His eyes? Maybe it’s just part of his spiritual awakening. Holy souls have to face trials, right?"

He paused. "Really?"

I smoothly dodged the responsibility, softening my voice. "They say blessed souls endure hardships before they succeed. But I’m no expert—maybe you should take him back to Mama Cleo?"

After all, I'm just a clueless college kid. What do I know?

Vince grumbled about Cleo charging so much for a "holy" kid’s charms.

I raised an eyebrow. Three thousand dollars for some folded paper? Only suckers buy into that.

In the background, I heard shouting—probably the couple fighting again. Sylvia hadn't worked since they got married, relying entirely on Vince’s construction wages. Spending three grand on fake charms? No wonder they were at each other's throats.

I hung up, completely unbothered.