Chapter 4

I lunged forward in one swift motion, and the floor seemed to tremble beneath me.

Grabbing the cake in front of Freya, I smashed it straight into her face, then forcibly stuffed all the potato chips into her mouth.

Freya tried to fight back, but her scrawny frame was just no match for me at all.

"You're just an adopted daughter! You think just because the Graham family adopted you, this is really your home? Was the lesson I gave you this morning not enough? You seem to lack basic manners. I guess you need me to teach you those, too!"

Then, several heavy, resounding blows landed on her face once again.

It wasn't until Walter and Ingrid rushed downstairs that they finally managed to pull the already hysterically sobbing Freya out of my grasp. By that point, her face was already covered in cake crumbs and bits of potato chips mixed with her own blood from my slaps.

Her face was terribly swollen, she was missing a few teeth, and her speech was slurred. "I don't care what it takes! Get rid of that bitch! I want Dakota out!"

The moment she finished shouting, I charged forward and slapped her across the face again.

"Mom, Dad, do you see what a foul mouth Freya has? She doesn't know how to behave and has no respect for the rules. Leave her to me! I'll teach her a proper lesson! We don't want her upsetting you in the future!"

With that, I grabbed Freya by the collar and started dragging her toward the basement.

She was instantly terrified and began shaking all over. Clinging desperately to the leg of the couch, she begged through sobs, "No! I don't want to go down there! Save me!"

Finally, Walter and Ingrid could no longer stand watching their real daughter being treated this way. They stepped in and scolded me sharply.

"That's enough! Even though Freya used to be a maid in this house, we've adopted her as our daughter, so she's your adopted sister now! This is her home now, and she can do whatever she wants! On the contrary, how can you be so cruel toward your own sister?"

Hearing this, I sneered inwardly. I was being cruel? Well, what about them? In my previous life, they'd watched me grow so fat that I wished I were dead. Had they not treated me cruelly, too?

I had been bedridden, unable to even control my own bowels and bladder, and every day, I could smell a sickening stench coming off my own body.

Even the maids who were supposed to care for me could casually hit and curse at me as they pleased. I had been treated no better than an animal, barely clinging to life.

Overwhelming hatred instantly consumed me. Fortunately, the last shred of reason kept me clear-headed.

I laughed coldly and turned to go upstairs. But instead of going straight to my room, I hid around the corner on the second floor and listened to the conversation between Walter, Ingrid, and Freya.

"Mom, Dad, I don't care about the consequences anymore. I really want Dakota dead! How dare she hit me? I can't even talk properly now!"

Walter said in a low voice, "Calm down. At the rate things are going, she'll soon be too fat to walk. Once she's stuck in bed, she'll be completely at your mercy!"

After their conversation ended and I heard them coming upstairs, I quietly slipped back into my bedroom.

Based on how things went in my past life, I had three more months left before I would be too fat to walk. This time, I'd like to see who was rendered immobilized first!

To lose weight more effectively, I planned several different workouts the next day. But even though I had already come to an agreement with the owner of a weight-loss class, they suddenly changed their mind and refused to take me when I showed up.

Even the gym I had booked in advance made excuses about their trainers being too busy and turned me away.

Over the next few days, I went to several places, and the same thing happened every time.

By evening, I returned home exhausted and completely out of breath, having accomplished nothing. I walked in to see Freya and Jonah together. She held her head high arrogantly, looking at me provocatively while stuffing various high-calorie foods into her mouth.

"Did you run around for nothing again, Dakota?" she taunted.

Jonah looked at me with disdain and openly fed Freya right in front of me. "With the way you look right now, you should just give up on trying. You're never going to lose all that weight!"

I knew then that all those gyms and weight-loss centers rejecting me were their doing. But I didn't care. Their smug, triumphant smiles weren't going to last very long.

…

One morning two weeks later, a piercing scream shattered the early morning silence.

I had just opened my door, ready to go out for a run, when I saw Jonah stumbling out of Freya's room in utter terror, backing away in fear.

"Don't come near me! Stay away!" he shouted.