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Home / The Sweet of Cake and Red of Tears / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of The Sweet of Cake and Red of Tears: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

11 Chapters

Chapter 1

My parents’ scolding overwhelmed my barely audible words as I made my wish. “You heartless creature, how could you still be in the mood for cake when your father and I are so angry?”A slap landed on me. I belatedly opened my eyes to see the hatred written clearly on Mom’s face.“What is it that we’ve failed to provide for you? Why did you have to fake an illness to scare us? Since you were already pretending to be depressed, why not make it more believable by just dying?”The heart I thought had been numb for a long time still managed to feel a pang of hurt.I looked at Mom and recalled her affectionate and encouraging words from just a few seconds before. “I will give you anything you want as long as you get better, Finley. I would die for you.”It was like a dream, and I had just awoken from it. Mom was back to her old ways, looking at me in distaste and with castigation. “Playing mute now that you’ve been found out, are you?”Dad frowned and sighed. “Your mother and I

Chapter 2

That short statement took nearly all the energy out of me. I fell into a pitiful heap on the floor. When he saw me, Caleb smirked sardonically and asked, “Putting on another show, are you?”I looked at his hostile face and could not help but recall something that had happened last month. Because of the psychosomatic symptoms of my depression, I would occasionally trip on thin air. When he saw the bruises from my falls, Caleb felt so bad for me that he instantly became misty-eyed. He started following me around like a shadow. The second I was about to fall, he would grip my hand tightly. If he could not stop my fall, he would get down and soften it for me. Yet, I had just fallen right onto the cake he had made me. Frosting splattered all over me, and I looked frightened. Caleb did not help me up. Instead, he hurled a thick journal right at me. The sharp corner of the cover cut my temple. Caleb did not seem to notice. He scoffed and said, “If Rhea hadn’t shown us you

Chapter 3

Rhea sounded extremely aggrieved as she said, “I know you’re jealous of me, but I don’t mind you getting all of Mom and Dad and Caleb’s love instead of me. We’re sisters! How could you think so badly of me?”I saw the malice shining in Rhea’s eyes. Was it not true that she was indeed as bad and mean-hearted as she was implying?Back when I had just been brought home, my parents noticed how thin I had gotten after living with my grandparents. I barely ate. They got tearful many times because of that. They hugged me and promised that they would make it up to me. Caleb had even given me a portion of his favorite fried chicken, swearing that he would protect me.But good things always came to an end. When Rhea came home from boarding school, she found an extra member in her family. She could not handle it and threw a tantrum. When her tantrums failed to get any results, she started to sabotage me. She claimed that she saw me killing Mom’s favorite plant by overwatering it, that

Chapter 4

After saying that, they all started ignoring me. They went back to their own business at Rhea’s advice. When the frosting started to crust on me, Mom finished cooking. She said, “Shouldn’t you clean up and come have dinner? Were you waiting for me to do it for you?”I was stunned for a moment. Then, I said hurriedly, “I’ll clean up now. You guys eat. I’m not hungry.”Because of my depression, I never really had much of an appetite. Before this latest blow, Mom would always cook my favorite food and sweet talk me into taking each bite. When she heard me saying I was not hungry, Mom threw her fork across the table and growled, “Everyone knows you’re faking now, Finley. How much longer will you put on this show?”I saw the tears shining in her eyes and did not dare to argue with her. All I did was quickly scramble into a chair. I shoved huge mouthfuls of food into my gullet. As I ate, I said, “Don’t be mad, Mom. Look, I’m eating.”The food tasted like cardboard and scraped my

Chapter 5

One moment, I saw the image of myself running after my parents’ car. They had dumped me at my grandparents’ house to have Caleb. The next moment, I recalled the winter of my twelfth year. Rhea had accused me of stealing money, and Mom had chased me out of the house. No matter how I tried to explain myself, no one would listen. Then, I remembered the Christmas of my eighteenth year. We had gone on a vacation. Because of one wrong word, I had been dumped on the highway. Because of my depression, the hauntings of the past would cause me to break down and start screaming. Every time this happened, Mom and Dad would hug me and comfort me. “Finley, don’t think of all that. That’s all in the past. We will treat you better from now on.”This time, when I could not help but cry out, Dad impatiently kicked my door. “What are you yelling about, Finley? Stop crying!”Distantly, I could hear Mom complaining. “Ignore her. Let’s go out. She’ll stop her howling once she’s alone at home.”Af

Chapter 6

There was an explosion of red when I hit the ground. However, I did not feel any pain. Instead, I felt my body get lighter. My vision went dark. When I opened my eyes again, I was a spirit floating above my body. I looked at my skinny and knobby body. My hair was a mess, and my clothes were covered in dried frosting. I looked like a dirty vagrant. When compared with the bright and sunny Rhea, I seemed more like a gross pervert. It was no wonder that our parents and Caleb did not like me. Suddenly, I heard Mom’s voice. My spirit had drifted over to my family without any conscious thought. “What fell?”Just as Mom tried to turn around in her confusion, Dad covered her eyes with a hand. He told Rhea and Caleb, “Don’t turn around. Someone jumped from the building.”As he said this, Dad looked up. I followed his line of sight. I saw our high-rise apartment building. Our unit was on the twelfth floor. Looking over from this distance, one could only see that someone had

Chapter 7

“Who would have thought she had been faking it all?”Mom’s sigh pulled me back from my thoughts. “But Finley really did a good job pretending. She even tricked the psychiatrist. If you ask me, she shouldn’t be studying medicine; she should have pursued acting instead. It would be a waste of her talent otherwise.”As Caleb said this, Dad suddenly patted him on the shoulder. He sounded displeased as he said, “Don’t talk nonsense. No matter what she’s done, Finley is your older sister.“Besides, she’s pursuing medicine because…”Dad trailed off and sighed. I knew what Dad was thinking. He knew that I had insisted on pursuing medicine because of his bad back. It hurt so much that he frequently could not fall asleep. No matter how many times he went to see a doctor at the hospital, there was never a solid diagnosis. When Rhea went abroad for university, Caleb had still been very young. Mom was busy working, so I was the one who accompanied Dad on his hospital trips. I always f

Chapter 8

When Mom got the pearl necklace from me, she immediately put it on joyfully. Seeing how much I loved Mom, Dad even praised me a little. However, the next day, Mom found that the money for groceries she had put into the drawer was missing. Just as she was wondering if a thief had broken in, Rhea suddenly covered her mouth and said, “Goodness, Finley just bought Mom a necklace, and now, there’s missing money? Could she have…?”Rhea seemed to want to say more but did not. Even so, my parents’ gazes had changed.Panicked, I tried to explain myself. “Mom, I didn’t steal any money. I made the money by working…”For the past two months, I had left the apartment early and only got home late. Everyone knew this. Even so, no one believed me.Mom had taken off the necklace and flung it on the floor. Dad sighed and said, “No matter how careful we are, we can’t defend against someone who’s already in the house.“We should lock up any valuables in the apartment now. Everything that need

Chapter 9

The world seemed to come to a stop at that moment. Dad’s mouth fell open, but he could not make a single noise. Tears started to fall from his eyes. His hand trembled, and his phone fell with a clatter onto the plate in front of him, shattering it. The shards shot around everywhere, startling the rest of the family. They started to complain. “Who was that, Edward?”“Be careful, Dad! That shard nearly cut me!”“It wasn’t Finley again, was it? What’s she done now?”When he heard my name, Dad suddenly came back to himself. Disregarding the sharp shards, he reached out to pick through the mess for his phone. “Edward, what are you doing? Don’t get cut!”Mom tried to stop him, but she was too late. Dad cut himself and started bleeding, but he still clutched the phone tightly. After a long moment, he said shakily, still crying, “Finley’s dead. It really was Finley who jumped…”Mom’s eyes widened in shock. In the next second, she slapped Dad. “What nonsense is this? Finley w

Chapter 10

It was probably when my grandparents forced my parents to have another kid, hopefully a son. It was probably when Mom lamented in tears that I was not a boy, forcing her to go through the pains of pregnancy again. Or it could have been when I was brought back to the family. Since Rhea stayed in a dorm, Mom gave me her room. When Rhea questioned that choice, Mom said she always felt that they owed me this and told Rhea to be more sensible. I did not know for sure when it began, but the outcome was the same. Rhea had started to hate me. Even so, seeing Rhea’s tears at that moment, I could not help but think that she had her regrets as well. But none of that mattered any longer. At that thought, I stopped looking at her. Instead, I got up and followed my parents to the hospital. I was looking at my body again. My body had been well cleaned at the hospital. I was wearing clean scrubs, and the blood and frosting had been cleaned away. My broken arm was placed neatly by my

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