Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 10

The moment I wrote the last word, the door was kicked open from the outside. Mom stood at the threshold, looking at me coldly. "What are you doing here?"I instinctively closed the tin box. "Nothing." She didn't buy it for a second. She strode over, snatched the tin from my hands, and dumped all the birthday cards inside onto the floor. 18 colorful cards scattered around her feet. Mom casually picked one up. It was one I had written when I was seven. "Mom cried for three hours today. From now on, when Dad picks me up from school, I'll get out at the entrance to the neighborhood so Mom won't see me." After reading it, her expression hardened. "Why did you write these? Are you planning to show them to other people so everyone will know I'm a terrible mother?" I hurriedly shook my head. "I wasn't going to show anyone." "In that case, why are you keeping them?" She lifted her foot and stepped on the cards, grinding them under her shoe. "I knew you were calculating, Danica La

That afternoon, Dad snuck into my room. He stuffed a debit card into my hand. "There's 50,000 dollars in here. Stay somewhere else for now. Once your mom's condition stabilizes, I'll take you to the hospital." He lowered his voice, as if he was afraid someone might hear him. I looked at the card and suddenly remembered my childhood. Every time Mom beat me, he would secretly slip me some money. At times, it was 50 dollars. Other times, it was 100 dollars. The most he had ever given me was 500 dollars.He always told me to buy something I liked, as if money could hug me in his place and apologize to me on his behalf. "Dad, will you really come after me?" He hesitated for a moment. "I will." "When?""Once your mom gets a little better." I had heard those words for 18 years.Once Mom got a little better, Dad would take me to the amusement park. Once Mom got a little better, we would take a family portrait. Once Mom got a little better, she would slowly come to love me.

As soon as their words fell, Dad froze as if someone had pressed the pause button on him. He held his phone to his ear and froze in place for what felt like an eternity. Mom was still at the dining table with a plate of spaghetti Grandma had specially made for her, sitting in front of her. They were supposed to celebrate her getting rid of me and starting a brand new life. She wound a forkful of spaghetti around her fork and fumed, "Is it Danica? Has she already regretted leaving us after only a few hours? Listen here, you're not allowed to bring her back!"Dad's lips quivered. "The cops said… Danica's dead."The dining room fell pin-drop silent. Grandma's spoon slipped from her hand and fell into her bowl, splashing grease across the surface. Mom froze for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. "Do you actually believe her? She was talking back to me just yesterday. How could she possibly be dead today? She must've paid someone to put on an act to force us to take her b

My body was taken for an autopsy. Mom refused to let the staff cover me with the white cloth. She insisted that I was just asleep. After the doctor made it clear that there was no way I could recover, she collapsed in the corridor, as if all the strength had been drained from her. The cops wanted to know what had happened before I left home. Dad remained silent for a long time before handing them the household separation agreement. Grandma immediately stopped him. "This is a family matter. There's no need to tell them everything." The female officer in charge of the interrogation frowned. "The deceased clearly expressed suicidal thoughts before leaving home, yet you didn't take any action. This is no longer just a family matter!" Mom jerked her head up as if she'd been stabbed. "She never explicitly said that. She just wanted to manipulate us emotionally!"The female officer flipped open her notebook. "What exactly did the deceased say at the time?" Silence fell over the

Mom was admitted to the psychiatric department. Dr. Campbell went through her medical records from the past 18 years and reorganized them. On the day of the family interview, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma all came. I sat beside Mom and heard Dr. Campbell ask, "Ms. Sanders, on the tenth day after you gave birth, the hospital recommended that you be transferred to a specialist for treatment. Why did you refuse?" Mom looked at Grandma in confusion. She had been frail back then and couldn't remember much of what had happened. Grandma's eyes darted around. "Evelyn isn't a lunatic. Why would she need to see a psychiatrist? She just had a baby and was in a bad mood. She just needed to go home and rest." Dr. Campbell flipped to the next page. "When your daughter was three, Ms. Sanders threatened to hurt herself with a sharp object for the very first time. The doctor once again recommended that she be hospitalized, but her family refused." Dad explained quietly, "My company had just gone