All Chapters of Sorry, Mom. I Can’t Be Your Perfect Daughter: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

“I told you there was nothing wrong. You're my daughter. Don't you think I know you?”On the drive home, Mom took a picture of the report and sent it to our family group chat.She circled “Normal range.”“Took Charlotte for an assessment today. She's fine. Her dad and I can finally stop worrying.”The replies came in one after another.My aunt said, “I knew it couldn't be depression. She's your only child. You've given her the best of everything.”My uncle said, “She's a pure-blooded Alpha. How could she have an illness that only affects Omegas? Don't let all that stuff online get to her.”Dad replied last.“Glad she's okay. Charlotte, listen to your mother. She'd never hurt you.”Mom put her phone down, looking pleased.“See? Everyone cares about you.”“I know your herb and potion classes aren't easy. But you can't think you're sick every time something gets hard.”I stared at the screen and nodded.“Yeah. I'm fine.”Mom paused. She probably hadn't expected me to agree so quickly.She

Three days after they took my door away, the academy held a meeting for parents.Mom arrived half an hour early.The moment my teacher brought up the students' mental health, she raised her hand.“That's exactly what I wanted to talk about.”She took the report out of her bag.“My daughter said she had depression recently too. I took her for an assessment. They found nothing wrong.”The classroom was full of parents.Mom grew more worked up as she spoke.“Everything online tells children to label themselves. Fail a potions exam, and it's anxiety. Don't want to do physical training, and it's depression. If parents are a little strict, we're hurting them.”“They're not even adults yet. Their wolves haven't awakened. This is when they need us to guide them.”“We can't let them think they're sick until they're too scared to do things they already know how to do.”Several parents kept nodding.Someone asked, “How is Charlotte now?”Mom smiled at me. I was standing at the back of the room.“

Mom was still holding my hand when the ambulance arrived.“She was fine just a little while ago. She had two helpings at dinner yesterday.”“She's just exhausted, isn't she? Please save her.”She spoke in a rush, as if a nod from the doctor would be enough to make me open my eyes on the stretcher.At the hospital, they rushed me into a resuscitation room.But I'd already left my body. I was a ghost now, following Mom.I said softly, “Mom, I wasn't lying.”She couldn't hear me. She'd never really heard me when I was alive, either.The first time I couldn't breathe at the academy, I hid in the bathroom and called her.“Mom, I feel like I'm dying. Can you come get me?”She came right away.She held me and kept rubbing my back.But once she heard I wasn't injured and had only started feeling sick during an exam, she took my hand and led me back to the training field.“I'll be right outside. You can do this.”After that, whenever my heart raced, my first thought wasn't to ask for help. It w

Mom wouldn't let go of my hand.When the nurse told her it was time to take me to the morgue, she stood in front of the bed and refused to move.“She gets cold. You can't take her there.”“She's only asleep. If I talk to her a little longer, she'll wake up.”She pulled up my blanket and smoothed my hair with her fingers, just as she used to before taking me to the academy.“Charlotte, there's no training today.”“Sleep as long as you want. I won't wake you.”Dad tried to hold her, but she looked up.“Why didn't we take her for more tests?”“She kept throwing up. She nearly fainted during training. Why did we only ever tell her to keep going?”Dad lowered his head. His tears fell to the floor.“We thought we were doing what was best for her.”Mom went still.She'd said those words so many times.They'd been a shield. No matter how much I fought her, she could hide behind them and believe she was right.Now Dad had said them back to her, and they offered no comfort at all.“What was best

I sat across from her.I'd sat beside her during the assessment, too.She'd been so close. All she'd had to do was look up to see me.But she'd kept her eyes on the form and changed my answers, one by one.Now she'd finally gotten them right. It was just too late.Later, Mom deleted every video.She wrote a long message to the parent group. She admitted she'd changed my answers on the form. She admitted she'd led me through every word I said in the video.She also admitted that her belief that “only Omegas get this illness” was nothing more than prejudice.My Alpha blood hadn't made it hurt any less.She gave her written account to the academy and the head of the pack's medical team. She stopped using the report marked “Normal range” to defend herself.Some people tried to comfort her. They said she'd only gone about parenting the wrong way. She shouldn't take all the blame.My aunt called and begged her to stop torturing herself.Mom only answered in a flat voice,“If she could come b