Chapter 1

The water in the tank slowly reached my calves. I could hear Esther Kingston, my eldest sister, outside the door, pleading urgently, "Mom, please, just let Elmer out first! We can discuss the college application again later!"

She rushed up to Mom and grabbed her by the hand, her voice beseeching. However, Mom just gave her a side glance before scoffing coldly.

"There is no room for discussion. If you insist on going to a college out of state, then you can watch your brother drown."

She then took out her phone. I was in the center of her phone screen, curling up around myself at the bottom of the tank, my thin clothes all wet and soaked to the skin. The water was icy-cold and made me shiver relentlessly.

"Elmer! You're going to drown if you stay in there like that! Get out of there!" Esther yelled into the house.

I heard her and was just about to get up to push the cover off when I suddenly heard Mom yell, "Don't you dare, Elmer Kingston!"

I flinched and stopped at once, curling back around myself.

I didn't dare to go against Mom. I didn't dare to disobey any order she gave me.

If Esther and my second eldest sister, Emily Kingston, disobeyed Mom in any way, Mom would punish me so that they would feel guilty about it. But if I disobeyed Mom, I knew that she would kill me without any hesitation.

With no other choice, I just rubbed my hands and blew some hot breath on my palms to try and warm myself up.

"Mom…"

Esther's tears began trickling down her face. She gradually fell to her knees and said, "Mom, Elmer is innocent. You can't do this to him."

Mom replied nonchalantly, "I know that Elmer is innocent. But who told you to disobey me? It's only right that the youngest sibling bears all the punishment for what you did wrong."

Esther looked up at Mom with bloodshot eyes. "What do you want me to do before you let Elmer go?"

Mom lowered her head and handed her a brand-new application form for college. "Withdraw your current college application and change it to a local one nearby. I'll let Elmer out after you've done that."

Esther grabbed a pen and hesitated, her tears dripping onto the form.

I knew that Esther had been dreaming of going to that out-of-state college for a long time. That was her dream college.

However, when Mom saw her hesitating, she reminded her with a smile and said, "Not signing it yet? I don't think Elmer can hold out that long. After all, he's not had anything to eat in two days."

Two days ago, Esther had picked out the broccoli in her dinner, and Emily had also peeled off the skin on the salmon before throwing it into the trash. Mom's face darkened in an instant.

She didn't yell at them or scold them. Instead, she kicked me from the dinner table and told me that she was starving me to death.

Esther got a huge fright and hurriedly stuffed everything into her mouth. Emily also ran to the trash, rinsed the salmon skin under the tap, and ate it. However, Mom was still dissatisfied and said that she was going to teach them both a lesson.

And so, I hadn't had a bite to eat since then until now, two days later.

I could still hear Mom's voice outside the house. "I will only feed Elmer after you've properly filled out the form and withdrawn the other one."

Esther took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and did just as she was instructed. Then, she tossed the pen onto the table.

"Happy now?"

Mom glanced at the filled-out form and smiled in satisfaction. Then, she took out another phone and pointed the camera at the completed form.

"See this, everyone? This is the most effective way to communicate with your children about their college applications. You can try my method too. I promise it works all the time."

Esther caught sight of the phone screen, showing that Mom had been live streaming the whole thing the entire time. She clenched her fists in anger.

"Mom! Are you seriously live streaming this as well?"

However, she couldn't be bothered to continue arguing with Mom anymore. She grabbed the house key to open the door. But Mom snatched it away from her and threw it straight down the drain.