“I scored first in my exams,” Lily was saying. “In maths, Chinese, and English. Miss Catherine says that my marks are strong enough to guarantee me a spot at Diocesan Girls’ School—”
“Your teachers are foreigners. Foreigners know nothing about what the world is really like. You’re not going to university, Lily. You’re a girl. Girls belong to their fathers until they’re married, then they belong to their husbands.”
“Times have changed, Ma. People don’t think that way anymore.”
“I know just how people think. I know more people than you do, young lady. All you do is go to school. You can’t imagine what I’ve sacrificed for you to have a good future.”
“What do you care about my future? You send me away to boarding school so you don’t have to see me, you lock me in my room—”
“All for your benefit,” Sai Ma interrupted. “Now that your skin has gotten lighter, if you only took off those spectacles, you might actually be pretty.”
“I don’t want this,” Lily burst. “I’ve done well, ask my teachers. I’ve been good, I’ve even made friends.”
“You want to become a man’s secretary? That’ll be your future if you keep on like this.”
“Better than a man’s property.”
The slap came singing against Lily’s check. My sister gasped, and I almost let go of my breath. One of Sai Ma’s rings had cut her.
“Stop crying. You have no idea how lucky you are. My father would have beaten me for acting the way you do.
“Beginning next month, you will live with your fiancé’s parents. The Tsangs have a library. You can read to your heart’s delight.”
“Please, Mama, don’t send me away.” Lily’s voice dropped to a painful whisper. “I’m your daughter. What have I done to make you not want me so?”
My throat swelled. Waves of heat rolled across my body, threatening to snuff out my invisibility.Lily,I thought.Don’t listen to her.
“Stop sulking.” Sai Ma rose from the bed. “Talking sense into you gives me a headache.”
She stalked away. I flattened myself against the wall and prayed she wouldn’t see my shadow, an inky puddle in the corner.
Once she was gone, I entered Lily’s room, turning visible once I closed the door. She’d taken off her dress and lay on her bed in her underclothes, unmoving, with a volume ofTheDream of the Red Chamberover her face.
I picked up the book. Lily’s eyes were welded shut, a thin trickle of blood streaking down her cheek. As I dried her with a cloth, she rolled onto her side.
“I tried,” she said between her sobs. “I tried so hard for her to love me.”
“I know you did.” I gathered her up in my arms. She was so small I could still lift her easily. “It isn’t your fault.”
It pained me how much Lily loved her mother when she’d done nothing to deserve that love.
“During the war, I used to see babies by the roadside,” I said. “My mama would take them in, feed them as best as she could. A few times, their mothers came back looking for them. But other times...” I let my words drift. “Not everyone is meant to be a mother, Lily.” I stroked her cheek where it was starting to swell. “I hope one day you’ll stop blaming yourself for that. Until then, know that I love you. I’ll make sure she doesn’t send you away.”
“Her mind’s made up.” Lily closed her eyes again. “There’s nothing you can do.”
But was there? I hesitated. Mama had warned me not to share my secret with anyone; look what had happened to Mr. Zhou after he’d seen me disappear.
Little devil,he’d uttered,does anyone else know what you can do?
Months later, those words still made my hackles rise. He was a wicked man who’d deserved his wicked end. I utterly believed that, just as I believed that my curse had helped deliver him that fate. So maybe it could help Lily, too.
After all, Lily wasn’t simplyanyone.She was my sister.
I knelt at her side. “Watch.”
With a touch of showmanship, I sucked in a long breath. I’d gotten better at understanding the signs before I went invisible. Disappearing always started with the cold. An icy draft swept across my body, its chill twining deep into my bones. My skin then tingled, shimmered. The rest happened quickly. In a blink, I was gone.
Spooked, Lily poked the air with her finger. “Gah Jeh?”
