Chapter 2

Andrea's weak yet self-righteous voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Alice, I've been diagnosed with uremia, some sort of kidney disease. And I've already finished the special medicine the doctor prescribed. Hurry up and transfer 1,000 dollars to me. I need to collect my prescription from the hospital."

When Mom heard that, she immediately chimed in and said, "Heard that? Your sister is sick! Hurry up and give her the money!"

I looked at Mom's self-righteous face. The bit of living expenses covered by my college scholarship had all been taken away under the guise of "keeping it safe for my future". Yet, she'd gone and spent it all on the latest gaming laptop for my brother, Austin Fletcher, instead.

I went up to the coffee table, where Andrea had placed several bottles of the expensive medication she'd bought beforehand. Then, I picked up the bottles, uncapped them, and poured them straight into the trash can right under Mom's eyes.

Mom widened her eyes at once, screaming as she ran up to me.

"Are you crazy? Those meds cost more than 1,000 dollars!"

I kicked the trash can away and laughed at Andrea, who was still on the phone.

"What's the point of taking the medication, Andrea? It's such a waste of money. Mom taught us from a young age that it's a virtue to be frugal instead of a spendthrift.

"Don't you know that your kidney disease is just due to toxins in your body? You just need to drink more water and sweat a little more to flush it out of your system. That's all it takes to detox.

"I bet that husband of yours would praise you as soon as he found out just how thrifty and frugal you are."

Andrea hung up on the call in anger. Mom raised her hand to cuff me, but I shook her hand off.

"Don't you think that the medication is just too expensive, Mom? It's just throwing money at the hospital. Didn't you say that the hospital was nothing but a scam? I'm just trying to save you money."

Mom trembled with anger, pointing a finger at me, but she couldn't manage to say another word. I'd used her own words against her, after all, and there was nothing she could say to retort.

I just turned on my heels and locked my room door behind me.

My plan to escape this family had already begun.

…

The next day, I had to undergo the ultimate stress test from the company's job interview. This was the final hurdle to securing my million-dollar job there, and I knew my family would never let me have a moment’s peace.

Just as I expected, there was a loud banging on the door early in the morning, with Dad yelling incessantly outside.

"Get out here right now, Alice Fletcher! How dare you not pay for Andrea's treatment when she's sick! You've gone overboard this time!"

I just put on the noise-cancelling headphones I'd saved up half a year of my tuition fees to buy, just to keep their voices out of my head and stop them from disturbing me.

The sunlight outside my window reminded me of my first love in college, whom Mom had personally ruined.

A guy had a crush on me, and he scrimped on eating instant noodles for a month just to save up enough to buy me a floral dress.

That was the first time in 20 years that anyone had ever treated me like a woman.

But after Mom found out about it, she thought that the guy was a good-for-nothing spendthrift. So she stormed into the college cafeteria one day and threw the dress in his face, humiliating him in front of everyone there and demanding that he return the dress.

"Who the hell do you think you are, trying to get close to my daughter? Don't you know how to look at yourself in the mirror? Did you really think you deserved someone like her?

"Don't you know how much minced meat I can buy with 100 dollars? Go return this dress and give me the money instead!"

And so, my first love and my dignity were shattered into dust while she smugly counted the stack of money in her hand.

I closed my eyes, suppressing the pain deep inside.

The pounding on the door soon stopped. Then, the Wi-Fi went off.

Austin cackled hysterically outside my door.

"We'll see how you take the assessment without the internet! Get your ass out here right now and go make some money instead!"

I chuckled coldly.

I had already purchased two more massive data plans yesterday as backup. So I turned on my phone's hotspot, and the exam continued as smoothly as ever.

Several foreign executives were looking at me seriously through the screen as they invigilated the assessment.