My Holier-Than-Thou Sister and Mother

As soon as I jolted awake on the couch at home, I got a call from my mother. There was a reflexive spasm in my abdomen when I saw the word "Mom" on the screen of my phone. I tried to grit my teeth through it. But in the end, I couldn't stop myself from rushing to the bathroom to puke my guts out.

Mothers and daughters were supposed to have the most intimate bond, but for me, just seeing a call from her made me sick.

My phone rang three times before I finally took the call.

"Are you dead?" Mom screeched at me. "Why the heck did you take so long to answer the phone? You're bloody useless, you know that? Why are you always unreachable when something happens, huh? You might as well be dead for all I care!"

That was precisely what she thought of me. I was so useless that I might as well be dead. Thus, when my younger sister, Amy Lockwood, had kidney problems, she insisted that I donate my kidney to Amy.

Although I'd been reborn, that still didn't diminish my hatred for her vicious, cruel words.

Even now, I could still remember what happened as I lay on the hospital bed, barely alive after having had one of my kidneys taken out of me. Mom and my boyfriend, Eric Jackson, had both been accompanying Amy, fussing over her and showering her with tender concern.

As for me?

Well, Dylan Sloan, Amy's son, pulled out my oxygen tube. I suffocated to death.

What did Mom do then?

She hugged Amy and said tenderly, "Thank goodness she's the one who died. If anything happened to you, how am I supposed to carry on living?"

Eric chimed in, "Don't be sad, Mrs. Lockwood. You still have Amy."

Amy clutched her chest and cried her heart out, as if she were deeply sorrowful. "But Cheryl is gone! I miss her so much."

As Mom comforted Amy, she started ranting about me. "All she had to do was donate a kidney! I can't believe she died because of it. How useless. Of all the times she could've died, she had to pick now. Look how sad she's made you. Don't cry anymore, Amy. What if it affects your health?"

Everything was always my fault.

Ever since I was a child, if Amy felt even the slightest hint of discomfort, I would be wholly to blame for that.

It was my fault that Amy accidentally got a scratch on her hand when she stole my pencils. I was to blame for not putting my pencils away properly, so Mom threw all my pencils at the school gate and stomped on them until they broke.

Then, she left with Amy, leaving me to walk home in the rain alone.

When Amy stole my birthday cake but ended up choking because she ate too quickly, it was also my fault. I shouldn't have even tried to celebrate my birthday. Mom gave all the cake to Amy, while I was locked out of the house the entire night.

That was the last time the family ever celebrated my birthday.

It was also my fault when Amy wanted to steal my boyfriend. I shouldn't even have tried to snatch a guy from her. Mom forced me to break up with him and proceeded to break my legs to keep me from leaving the house.

And when Amy got sexually assaulted, of course it was my fault. I was the one who didn't keep an eye on her. Mom even cursed me, questioning why I wasn't the one who got violated instead.

In my previous life, I did everything I could to escape from them, but they haunted my every waking moment till the day I died.

Now that I had a chance for a do-over, I was determined to get rid of them for good. I was also going to make them pay for everything they did to me!

After checking the date, I found that today was the day Amy found out she was three months pregnant. And after Mom kept pressing her, she finally exposed the truth of how she got pregnant in the first place.

She'd gone clubbing with a classmate and ended up drinking too much, which was when the guy forced himself on her.

Mom was calling to demand that I go back there and come up with a solution for Amy's predicament.

"Your sister is in anguish right now, yet here you are having the time of your life outside! Get back here now and help Amy figure out what to do!"

In my previous life, I immediately took the day off work and went back to them. But the moment I set foot into the house, Mom slapped me.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? You know how upset Amy is, yet you bring a man to the house? Are you trying to make her die of sorrow? Can you be any more shameless? Why weren't you the one who got assaulted, huh?"

No one bothered to listen to my explanation then.

This time around, I cut Mom off to say, "I have a surgery scheduled today. I can't go back. If you want me to help call the police, I can do it now. If Amy wants an abortion, I can perform the procedure for her. Other than that, I can't help with anything."

Mom was livid, but I dropped the call before she could blow up at me.

I'd heard enough of her cruel rebukes in my previous life. I didn't want to hear a single word more now.