Chapter 4

I ignored their taunts. I looked at Ryan, my face a blank canvas.

"Are you going to let me play, or are you afraid I' ll take your money?"

The challenge hung in the air. Ryan' s face tightened. He couldn' t back down now without looking weak in front of his family.

"Fine," he spat. "Don' t say I didn' t warn you."

He stepped back, crossing his arms. The show was on.

I pulled out my wallet and placed three hundred dollars on the table. It was all the cash I had on me. A pathetic stack of bills compared to the mountain of chips they had amassed from my father.

Jennifer sneered. "That' s it? That won' t even last you a hand."

"Let' s play," I said, looking directly at her. She was the dealer.

And so it began.

I played like the amateur they expected me to be. I made obvious, predictable moves. I' d check when I should have bet, fold when I should have called. I let them see me bite my lip when I was nervous, my eyes darting around the table.

I lost the first hand. And the second. And the third.

Small amounts, but the pile of chips in front of me dwindled quickly. With each loss, their confidence grew. The uncles started making jokes at my expense. Jennifer dealt the cards with a lazy, arrogant flick of her wrist. Ryan watched from the sidelines, a smug look on his face.

My parents were a nervous wreck. My father kept trying to catch my eye, to tell me to stop. My mother just sat there, her hands clenched in her lap, her face pale with worry.

I was bleeding money, and they were loving every second of it. They thought I was a fool, a rich girl playing a game she didn' t understand, driven by a desperate, misplaced sense of family honor.

They had no idea they were the ones being played.