Chapter 2

My parents had always been unhappy about my reticence, because they felt that it made me unfit for company. They often hit me and scolded me because of it.

They also frequently used Arabella as an example to lecture me.

Arabella had been cheerful and perky since she was a child. She liked laughing and playing around, and she would always cling to me, saying that I was the pure white moon while she was a shining sun.

However, everything had changed two years ago, after she returned from attending a cocktail party with my parents.

She no longer squeezed into my bed to sleep with me, nor did she whine playfully to me anymore.

Instead, she looked at me with hatred and jealousy in her eyes.

"I'm the child our parents like best. How can you compare yourself with me?"

She was becoming better and better at gaining favor with our parents. She was effortlessly confident in social situations, and she had snatched away the last remaining vestige of my parents' care for me.

She had cut her own finger, but my father had hit me so hard that my nose was bleeding, and I was locked in my room. I was not allowed to eat.

When she got back from school and said that she had been bullied, my mother slapped me in the face at once and demanded to know why I hadn't protected my sister and hadn't been the one who had gotten hit.

Even when Arabella sulked, my parents would come and scold me, "Did you bully your sister again? What are you plotting in silence all the time? Why do you have such a malicious heart?"

In their eyes, I wasn't just a quiet daughter who could not make them proud.

I was an evil, recalcitrant troublemaker.

Therefore, when Arabella said that I could be sent off to a reform center, they agreed without even thinking twice.

The day they sent me off, my mother had examined the reform center very excitedly.

It was filled with girls who were all smiling brightly. They bowed meekly and were extremely obedient to all the instructors' commands.

My parents were delighted.

They flung down a card and pushed me toward the main doors, which were covered with an electric grid.

They got into their car without looking back, leaving me screaming in fear on the spot.

What they didn't know was that an instructor had stuck a hand up my skirt while covering my mouth tightly with the other. In the end, I fainted from lack of oxygen.

When I woke up again, I was in hell.

Although it was called a reform center, it was actually a converted asylum.

My hands were tied, and I was on a leash. I was forced to crawl on the floor.

If I didn't obey, I would be stripped naked and pushed onto a high platform for everyone to see. I ate slops and tainted food every single day.

If I didn't eat or resisted, I would be beaten up until I was covered in bruises.

One day, I could no longer stand it. I grabbed the chance to run out through the doors.

However, I was hit by a taser. I convulsed on the floor and lost control of my bladder. When I woke up, the instructor said that he was going to teach me a lesson.

He pried my mouth open and made me kneel to be a chamberpot for him.

When my mother said that she was going to send me back, I immediately thought of those shameful memories, and I knelt on the floor.

I instinctively clasped my hands behind my back and licked my mother's diamond-encrusted high heels like a dog. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I was wrong. Forgive me. I'll never do it again."

My mother pulled her feet back in horror and stared at me as if I were a stranger.

She couldn't understand why her proud and aloof daughter would do something so demeaning.

I was terrified, and I crawled forward on my knees. I grabbed the shattered wine glass on the floor and stuffed it in my mouth. "I'll clean it up, I'll clean it up. If I eat it, then it'll be clean. I'll eat it."

There was a dead silence.

My parents seemed frozen in place as they watched me swallow the glass shards and vomit out a huge mouthful of blood.

Despite this, I continued to stuff my mouth with the broken glasses, as if I could feel no pain.

Someone screamed, and everyone recovered at once.

My father yanked me aside.

My mother grabbed me and made me stop eating the glass shards.

Someone called the hospital, and an ambulance came. Someone started to take photos.

There was chaos.

I looked up and saw the dark look in Arabella's eyes as she stared fixedly at me.

She seemed suspicious, while also surprised.

However, I felt nothing except an intense pain in my throat.

My head lolled back, and I fainted.