Chapter 7

"Why have you slapped me, Mom?" Christy asked, her voice coming out in a shaken whisper. Chloe stood beside her mom, her hands folded on her chest, eyes glaring at her.

"You stupid fool! Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Diane spat, and gripped her daughter's hair. Her mom was slightly taller than her, which gave her an advantage to hover over her. Confused, Christy tried to struggle but avoided hitting her mom.

For a moment, Christy couldn’t believe the hands pulling her hair belonged to her own mother. The pain on her scalp barely registered compared to the shock in her chest.

The system appeared again.

SYSTEM UPDATE: HOST IN PAIN

WARNING: WOULD YOU LIKE TO ARM YOURSELF?

Her mother's face was now so close to Christy's that she could feel her hot breath fanning her face. She tried to remember if something like this had ever happened in her previous life, but no memory of it came forward. She remembered her mother hating her, but she had never resorted to physical assault.

"It hurts, Mother," Christy tried to speak calmly. She remembered her children upstairs, and she would hate for them to see her like this.

"She's so jealous of me, Mom. Christiana always wants to see me hurt. Look how calm she is after stealing my land from me," Chloe pouted, raising her hands to her face, wiping away invisible tears.

"I didn't steal anything. Daddy promised that land to me," Christy said, she felt that familiar frustration rising in her chest. No matter what she said, Chloe always knew how to make her look guilty.

"Oh please, you think snitching to Dad about Mom is enough to make him leave the piece of land for you? I guess your dark heart was shattered when he left it to me," Chloe spat, her eyes glaring hatefully at her.

Christy wanted to stay calm. She wanted to let them have the last laugh, like she had always done. Her mother, Diane, would always take her sister's side, even when she was not in the wrong. Most of the things Chloe told her mother hadn't happened the way she said they did—she was the dark-hearted one. The reason Christy refused to go anywhere near Chloe was because Chloe always looked for a way to paint her black.

But that was in her past life. she had spent years swallowing her words just to keep the peace. She had lost too much in her previous life to keep living like that. She wasn't going to sit and fold her hands while they trashed her out the way they had in her previous life. Dying had made her realize one thing: there's actually little to no time in life to let people treat you the way they want.l

"My heart wasn't broken. The only person with a dark heart here is you, Chloe. You wished to be me so much that you told Father about Mom's crush on Alex Norman. You ruined their marriage and made it seem like it was me. It was so easy to tell that you stole Daddy's inheritance document too."

Chloe went pale but hid it as quickly as it came. Christy caught it. It was only for a second, but it was enough to make her suspicious.

"What are you talking about, Christy?" Diane asked, her voice shaky.

"Don't listen to her, Mother. I didn't tell Daddy about you and Alex. You know that." Diane immediately nodded her head, taking Chloe's words at face value.

"Mommy?" Taby's voice reached them from upstairs. Christy's neck snapped towards the stairs, Her heart dropped. The last thing she wanted was for her children to see their grandmother pulling their mother’s hair. So she immediately pulled Diane's hands from her hair and gently placed them on her own shoulder, as if they were having some mother-daughter chat.

Diane glared at her.

"Hey, baby."

"Grandma!" Taby called, excited to see Diane.

Diane flashed the kids a smile. "Hey, my smart Taby," she said while gritting her teeth at Christy.

Before her mother's hate, there was once a time when her mother had loved her dearly and treated her and Chloe equally. In those days, Diane had spent some of her days caring for her granddaughter while Christy worked at the hospital. It had been five years since things took a turn for the worst.

"Look who's here, the she-devil's bastard," Chloe muttered under her breath, but it was enough for Christy to hear.

Christy’s fingers curled into fists. She had swallowed years of insults, but hearing Chloe speak about her children that way made something hot and vicious rise inside her.

"Taby, take your brother upstairs," Christy said, flashing her baby a smile.

"Okay, Mummy. Goodbye, Aunt Chloe and Grandma," Taby said innocently, waving at Chloe and Diane.

She waited till the kids disappeared around the corner of the stairs. Christy didn't know how she did it, Her body moved before her mind could catch up. One second she was standing beside the stairs, the next, Chloe was against the wall.

"What did you say?" she asked Chloe.

Chloe rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.

"What do you think you're doing, Christiana?" her mother yelled as she approached them. But—

[Host Physical Strength Heightened.]

Her fist suddenly felt different—stronger, almost unnaturally so. She didn’t have time to question it.

Bang!

Christy threw a punch at the wall behind Chloe's ear, making her tremble, her eyes closed tightly.

"What did you say, Chloe? Don't tempt me!"

Anger coursed through Christy; she could feel her blood boiling. She ignored her mother, her eyes staring intently at Chloe, who was sweating profusely, her gaze moving from the blood-stained wall near her ear to Christy's bleeding fist.

"Nothing. I said nothing."

"Let go of your sister now!" her mother yelled. This time she pushed Christy away, protecting Chloe with her own body.

Christy looked away, tears threatening to rush out, but she sniffled them in.

"Mother, am I really your daughter? Are my children your grandchildren?" Christy asked.

She saw something flash across her mother's face, but maybe she was just imagining it. Diane opened her mouth to say something, but Chloe started crying.

"Mom, you see how she intends to kill me? She didn't even care you were here, and she pinned me against the wall. Let's assume you weren't here today."

Diane looked at Christy disappointment written all over her face. She wondered what she had done to make her mother look at her that way.

Christy noticed how her mother's eyes stared tiredly at her; she seemed to have aged more since the last time she'd seen her. Wrinkles that had only shown on her face now appeared at the corners of her eyes.

"I wish I never had you, Christy. I wish you were never my child." Diane whispered, but it was loud enough for Christy and Chloe to hear.

For a second, Christy forgot how to breathe. The words left her completely still. Somehow, hearing them from her mother hurt more than the slap. It felt like a dagger struck at her heart, but she had watched her children die; what more heartache could there be than a mother losing her child in a brutal way in her presence? She held herself from crying, from screaming how tired she was, how unfair the world was to her. She held it all in with a sniffle.

Christy nodded. Only nodded.

"I know, Mom," Christy said, throwing a glance at her mother before turning around.

She didn’t have the luxury of wasting another day on family drama.

“That is why I'm offering three hundred thousand dollars for the land."

Chloe's mouth fell open, shocked at her offer. Diane looked shocked too, disbelief written on her face.

Christy noticed how Diane and Chloe were panting from the shouting and dragging. As for her, she wondered why it was only her emotions that were everywhere.

Christy absentmindedly ran her bloodied hand through her hair. She hated how soft she got, but these people were her family. With the apocalypse drawing near, she needed them off her back, and if it meant paying for her peace, then she wouldn't mind losing some of her money.