Chapter 2

The smell of smoke and oil from the kitchen drifted into the living room.

In the end, Clark brought the fish to the table.

I took a seat in the very corner. Since breathing had become increasingly hard for me, I could only take shallow breaths.

The paraquat had begun destroying my lungs.

Whenever I breathed, it was like I was swallowing countless needles.

The entire family sat together happily, and celebrating that the video had passed a hundred thousand likes.

Olivia held her phone and smiled so brightly that she did not even bother to eat. “Mom, I got sponsors! The prank video just now went viral, and advertisers have come to negotiate contracts with me!”

My mother smiled brightly and put a large slice of fish on Olivia’s plate. “I just knew that you’re a capable person, unlike someone, who can’t even take a joke.”

She did not hide her disdain toward me in the slightest.

Seth lifted his wine glass and toasted Clark. “Clark, when you pushed Ninian forward, you were like a true actor. Everyone online is calling you a piece of trash.”

Unbothered, Clark took a sip of wine. “Let them. Bad publicity is still publicity. As long as Olivia becomes famous, getting insulted a bit is nothing.”

He made himself sound so righteous.

But I watched him quietly.

Seven years ago, his business failed, and he was saddled with a huge mountain of debt. I worked three jobs to clear his debt.

I still remembered how he had held me and cried like a baby on the day he cleared his debt.

He had sworn that he would never let anyone hurt me, but when our lives were under

“threat,” he had been the first to push me right into the lion’s mouth.

“Why are you daydreaming, Ninian?” Olivia suddenly pushed her camera in front of my face. On it was a licensing agreement. “The video went viral, and the platform is asking for everyone in it to sign a contract to allow them to use your image. Sign it.”

I looked at the stream of clauses on the screen, and my vision started to blur.

The poison was flowing to my nerves through my blood.

I held the stylus, but my hand trembled nonstop.

Olivia clicked her tongue, annoyed. “Are you doing this on purpose? Why is your hand trembling so badly? If I lose this advertisement deal, you’re compensating me!”

I sucked in a deep breath, and a sound akin to a torn bellows rose from my chest.

I held the stylus tightly and signed my name crookedly on the screen.

Satisfied, Olivia put her phone away. “At least you have some sense.”

Clark then put the fish tail, bones and all, on my plate. “Eat it, Ninian. Once you do, apologize to everyone, and we’ll put this behind us.”

I stared at the fish tail on my plate.

Since I was a child, whenever we had fish, the fish meat itself would always go to Olivia and Seth.

I could only have the fish tail and fish head. “Why should I apologize?”

I stared at Clark.

Those words caught him off guard, and he scowled. “Give it a rest already. Everyone is celebrating Thanksgiving happily, but you’re pulling a long face. Olivia only wanted to liven the mood. You’re her sister. Can’t you be more tolerant?”

I could no longer stop the blood from rising up my throat.

Quickly, I turned to the side, and I spat out a mouthful of gastric juice mixed with black blood into the trashcan beside me.

Silence fell on the dining table for a brief moment. Then, my mother slammed her cutlery on the table. “Ninian, that’s disgusting! Everyone’s eating! Why did you have to vomit at this moment?”

Seth pinched his nose in disgust. “You just ruined the mood. If you didn’t want to eat, just say so. You’re seriously something else to do something so disgusting.”

Clark grabbed some tissues and threw them at me. “Go clean up in the bathroom. When have you become so unreasonable?”

Not a single one of them was worried about why I vomited.

In their eyes, even me being sick was a tool I used to buy their sympathy.

I slowly got up from the table, but it was as if my legs were filled with lead.

With the tissue in hand, I wiped my mouth.

“Fine, I’ll get out.”

I turned around and dragged my feet to the bathroom.

Behind me, those people soon started laughing again.