Chapter 4

Half an hour later, the bathroom door was slammed open.

Mom burst inside and grabbed me viciously by the ear.

She dragged me out and shoved me into the center of the room.

My foot slipped and I hit the floor in a thump.

Stars exploded across my vision.

The spilled red wine on the ground coated my clothes in dark, hideous stains, leaving me in total disarray.

Mom pulled a diagnostic report for severe depression from her pocket and threw it in my face.

“Look at this!

“Haven’t you always held a grudge over us treating Daisy better? This is why!

“Playing pranks on you was to help lighten her mood. Not one of us can be happy while Daisy’s miserable.”Beside Mom, Daisy’s eyes were already brimming with hot tears.

“Please, she doesn’t need to know.

“She’ll feel burdened by it.

“It was all my fault. I shouldn’t have played jokes on her… To be honest, when she said she wanted to break off our friendship just now, my heart almost stopped.”

Bryan immediately turned to her with concern, checking to make sure she wasn’t about to collapse from a heart attack.

I let out a bitter laugh.

In order to make Daisy happy, they made a sport out of pranking me, watching me run around in circles like some circus animal. Was that really so funny?

“Depression doesn’t work like that, Daisy.”

I stepped forward and, for the first time in front of everyone, peeled back the watch strap on my left wrist.

Layers of raised, pale scar tissue were exposed.

“Depression is not something you just talk about. Why don’t you show everyone your proof?”

A brutal blow struck my face.

The sheer force of it made even Mom take half a step back in shock.

A violent ringing tore through my left ear, yet no tears came to my eyes.

Harry pointed a finger at me, his voice raw with fury:

“Wretched thing, you’re faking scars now!

“Which makeup artist did you hire to do those? They don’t even look real!”

Bryan’s friends began whispering snidely among themselves, and one of them even snapped a photo and posted it online.

“Idea for your next novel: girl paints fake scars to win family’s attention.”

In an instant, the post racked up twenty-five threads of hateful comments.

A flash of smug triumph gleamed in the depths of Daisy’s eyes.

Yet she buried it almost instantly.

She stepped forward with a display of concern, “Violet, even if no one else believes you, I do. Please stop acting so unhinged, okay?

“Come, apologize to your parents and brother.

“And to Bryan and his friends too—everyone came over to have fun, not for a scene.”

I smiled.

I swept my gaze across every face in the room.

“What about you all? When are you gonna give me the apology you’ve owed me for eighteen years?”

Mom stared at me in disbelief, her neck flushing red with rage.

“Violet Alder! How dare—”

Leaving her sentence half-finished, she seized a vase from the nearby table and hurled it at me.

I dodged the throw and bolted out of that house without looking back once.

After landing safely in Crestview, I took a page out of their book and sent a short text to the family group chat: “Just kidding earlier.”

Mom, Dad, and Harry all sat staring at the message, falling into a confused silence.

What on earth was the joke?

Early next morning, sick with worry, they rushed to the campus to look for me.

Yet after checking the roster and making a few calls, the guard turned to them with a confused frown:

“There’s no freshman named Violet Alder.”

Mom shook her head frantically, shouting:

“How is that possible? We all came here just yesterday! She even left her luggage here with you!”

The guard slapped his forehead as realization struck him.

Then he shook his head with a sigh of pity.

“That girl, she withdrew her enrollment yesterday.”

“Wh… What?”

Mom and Dad exchanged horrified looks, then collapsed on the pavement as their legs gave out under them.