Chapter 2 - THE FIGHT THAT LASTED FORTY-THREE SECONDS
Madison still wanted the match.
Maybe because backing down in front of the crowd felt worse than losing.
Maybe because she truly believed Erin would go easy.
Erin did.
At first.
Madison rushed forward awkwardly.
Erin stepped aside.
Madison swung.
Erin caught her wrist, turned her, and put her on the grass without striking once.
The crowd gasped.
Madison screamed:
“Get off me!”
Erin released immediately.
Madison got up furious.
“You cheated!”
“How?”
“You wrestled me.”
“You agreed to fight a wrestler.”
Madison rushed again.
This time Erin caught her around the waist, controlled the fall, and pinned both shoulders.
“Yield.”
“No!”
“Madison.”
“Get off!”
“Yield.”
Madison struggled for five more seconds.
Then:
“Fine! I quit!”
Erin stood.
Forty-three seconds.
No blood.
No injury.
Just reality.
Susan ran to Madison.
“You humiliated her!”
“She accepted.”
“You knew she couldn’t beat you.”
“Yes.”
Susan froze.
Erin picked up her gown.
“That was the point.”
Madison started crying.
“You’re such a bitch.”
Erin looked at her.
“You asked me for a Lamborghini five minutes after my graduation.”
Then she turned to Susan.
“Now explain Dad’s money.”
Susan’s face closed.
“Not here.”
“Here is where you mentioned it.”
“Erin.”
“No.”
Her friends were listening.
Family acquaintances too.
Susan lowered her voice.
“We used some of the money after he died.”
Erin felt cold.
“What money?”
“Education accounts.”
Plural.
“You told me there weren’t any.”
“I told you there wasn’t enough.”
“No. You said Dad left debts.”
“He did.”
“Did he leave money for me?”
Silence.
Erin’s stomach twisted.
“How much?”
Susan looked away.
Madison suddenly said:
“Mom.”
Susan snapped:
“Not now.”
Erin turned toward her sister.
“You knew?”
Madison’s face changed.
That was answer enough.
The graduation lawn seemed to disappear.
“How much was mine?”
Susan whispered:
“About two hundred thousand.”
Erin laughed in disbelief.
She had worked night shifts.
Taken scholarship interviews while sick.
Skipped trips.
Shared apartments with three people.
Because Susan said there was no college money.
“What happened to it?”
Susan said:
“We kept the family alive.”
Maybe.
But then Erin looked at Madison’s dress.
At Susan’s jewelry.
May you like
At the car service waiting near the curb.
And for the first time, she wondered when “family survival” had become something only she was expected to fund.
