I Canceled The Banquet And Let Their Plan Burn Chapter 05
By the time the train pulled into the station, it was already two in the afternoon.
Ruby’s Aunt Lillian was waiting for us right outside the arrivals gate. She was a woman in her early forties, dressed in a simple knit sweater and wide-leg trousers, radiating a very comforting, grounded aura.
“You must be Nadia! Ruby literally talks about you every single day. She says you’re the smartest girl she’s ever met.” Aunt Lillian smoothly took my suitcase, offering a warm, motherly smile. “Come on, let’s get you home and fed. My husband Jude spent the whole morning making BBQ pork ribs to welcome our future superstar tutor.”
Her home was located in a charming historic neighborhood right outside Aethelgard, a pristine
ten-minute walk from the western gates of Eldridge University. The apartment was spacious,
boasting a classic three-bedroom layout that felt incredibly cozy and lived-in.
The dining table was practically overflowing with food. Uncle Jude, wearing a kitchen apron,
emerged from the kitchen carrying a final platter of fresh seafood, grinning warmly at me. “Make
yourself at home, Nadia. Don’t be shy.”
Sitting at that table, watching Ruby playfully wrestle her aunt for the meatiest rib, and watching Uncle Jude pour a glass of juice for Aunt Lillian, a sudden wave of emotion hit me, making my eyes
burn.
So, this was what a normal, healthy family looked like.
There was no passive-aggressive tension, no blatant favoritism, no single person forced to constantly yield, and no single person endlessly taking without ever giving back.
After we finished eating, Aunt Lillian led me to the bedroom they had prepared for me. It wasn’t massive, but it featured a beautiful, south-facing window that let the afternoon sunlight flood across the wooden desk. The bedsheets were brand new, folded with crisp perfection, and there was
even a single fresh daisy resting gently on top of the pillow.
“I wasn’t entirely sure if you’d like the color scheme, sweetie. If you don’t, we can totally go out and
pick out a new set tomorrow,” Aunt Lillian said softly.
I shook my head, my voice catching slightly in my throat. “No… I love it. I really love it.”
Aunt Lillian gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Get some rest then. You can meet my son
Jonah tomorrow-he’s currently at an intensive SAT prep class and won’t be back until late
tonight.”
The door clicked shut quietly behind her.
I sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling the pillow into my arms and burying my face into it. Finally, the tears I had been holding back for days came spilling out, dripping silently onto the
fabric.
It wasn’t out of sadness.
It was simply because, for the first time in my life, someone was being genuinely kind to me.
On my third day in Aethelgard, my phone buzzed with an explosive sequence of texts from Ruby.
“NADIA!!! OPEN TIKTOK RIGHT NOW!!! THAT TOXIC BRAT LYRA JUST COMPLETELY CRASHED
AND BURNED!!!”
“OH MY GOD I AM LITERALLY DYING OF LAUGHTER!!! YOUR BROTHER IS FRANTICALLY TRYING
TO SCRUB THE INTERNET AND DELETE MESSAGES, BUT THE SCREENSHOTS ARE ALREADY
EVERYWHERE!!!”
“LOOK AT THIS!!!”
Following her texts was a rapid-fire sequence of over a dozen screenshots.
I opened them, completely stunned by what I saw.
The story unfolded beautifully-on the day of the graduation party, because I hadn’t shown up and the mainstream newspaper had canceled their coverage, Lyra had grown desperate for attention. She had secretly hired three independent digital media creators to publish pre-written press
releases framing her as an ‘Inspirational SAT Comeback Girl,’ complete with heavily airbrushed
photos.
In the narrative she constructed, she painted herself as a resilient, optimistic heroine who had been ‘sabotaged by a jealous older sister who hid her admission ticket’ but still managed to fight through the adversity.
But her little scheme hit a catastrophic snag-while The Daily Chronicle had canceled the official feature, a young intern journalist from the paper had accidentally shown up at the venue anyway.
The intern recognized Lyra immediately, but not for the reasons Lyra wanted. The journalist had spent the previous evening researching the district’s top performers and had memorized my academic profile-District Top 10 Scorer, a near-perfect 1580 on the SATs, and a National
Academic Decathlon Gold Medalist.
Yet, the scores Lyra was actively bragging about to the crowd of relatives at the venue were mine.
“Our brilliant Nadia managed a phenomenal 1580, she’s practically a genius… but she’s feeling under the weather today, so she couldn’t make it,” my mom could be heard telling the guests in the background.
The relatives, entirely oblivious to the truth, showered the family with congratulations. The intern journalist, sensing something incredibly fishy, quietly hit record on her phone.
That very night, an exposé titled “The Inspirational Sister Who Accused Her Sibling of Sabotage Just Stole Her SAT Scores at Her Own Party’ went live on a prominent local news forum.
The article was written with clinical, unassailable restraint, simply laying out the cold, hard facts:
- Lyra’s actual certified SAT score was an 820, not the glorious 1580 she was implying.
- The graduation party was originally funded and organized to celebrate Nadia, the true 1580 scorer, who was completely absent from her own event.
- Nadia was a recognized elite scholar who had received a personal invitation for a profile feature due to her exceptional academic status.
At the bottom of the article was an audio snippet where Lyra’s voice ringed clear as day over the ambient noise of the party: “Our brilliant Nadia managed a phenomenal 1580…”
Worse yet for Lyra, the article included screenshots of her burner TikTok account-specifically the post captioned [I might have lost the SAT battle, but I won the war of family love,] along with her pinned reply to a commenter: [My sister was so jealous of me that she hid my admission ticket, which is the only reason I ended up with an 820.]
Overnight, Lyra didn’t just stumble. Her entire online persona utterly collapsed.
