I asked my mom, "What's the deal with that little boy?"

My mom's eyes shimmered with hopeful light, "Little brother is our hope and future."

"No, that's not it. I mean, when did little brother appear?"

If he suddenly appeared, then I must be going crazy.

All of this is fake.

As long as I accept treatment, all of this will disappear.

I can become Mom and Dad's precious daughter again and sleep in the big bed in the bedroom.

My mom said, "Little brother was born when you were in school. Mom had a ten-month pregnancy."

How can this be such a reasonable answer?

Could it be that everything I experienced wasn't fake?

I broke down and said, "But I didn't even know you were pregnant."

Mom laughed and cried, as if everything was supposed to be this way, "Why do you need to know? These things have nothing to do with you."

"How could they have nothing to do with me? This is my family. You're going to have a little brother without consulting me in advance?"

"It's not like that, sweetheart." Mom told me seriously, "We didn't have a little brother for you. It's because we were trying to have this little brother that we accidentally had you first."