Chapter 4

My parents split up when I was just three.

Neither of them wanted me at first.

They kept pushing me back and forth for a long time, until they finally decided to take turns raising me. I was passed between two families for years, treated like worthless junk.

That was until I turned five. My dad died suddenly in a drunken stupor.

After that, my mom had no choice but to raise me on her own.

By then, she had already started a new family.

She'd even had an adorable daughter with that man.

When my little sister was three, she said she hated me. That was all it took for my mom to dump me, who had just turned seven, at some market in another city.

From that moment on, I had no family left in this world.

I thought I'd never see my mom again.

However, while I was waiting for my surgery outside the OB-GYN, I ran into Cynthia, who was there for a checkup too, with a middle-aged woman by her side.

That woman looked just like my mom.

Without thinking, I walked over to them.

Then I overheard the middle-aged woman say, "Cynthia, I can't believe you're really pregnant. This is perfect. Now that you're having his baby, Nicholas will have no choice but to dump that childless wife of his and marry you instead."

Cynthia gasped when she saw me, clutching her belly tightly.

"What do you want?" Cynthia glared at me. "Don't you dare try to hurt the baby Nicholas and I are having."

Before I could even react, my mom charged at me like a lunatic and shoved me hard.

"You bitch, don't you dare lay a finger on my daughter! She's having Nicholas's baby now. You're about to be tossed out of the house like yesterday's trash," she spat.

I stared at the woman, her face full of smug satisfaction, and for a moment, my mind went blank.

Tossing me out of the house like yesterday's trash? Just like what she did to me?

Seeing me stay silent, Cynthia looked even more frightened. She was shaking all over, like she was absolutely terrified of me.

My mom, acting like a crazed mother hen, rushed up and jabbed her finger at my nose, screaming, "You bitch, how dare you stay here and scare my daughter? If I were you, I'd get lost right now.

"My daughter is worth so much more than you—a woman who's been married for three years and still hasn't had a single child."

She actually said Cynthia was worth so much more than me.

A tear suddenly slid down my cheek.

My mom didn't seem to remember me anymore.

She had already forgotten me.

And she had a new daughter by her side.

She was even trying to help Cynthia steal my husband.

*****

Honestly, I really did love my mom.

Kids who grew up in families as messed up as mine would naturally turn into people-pleasers.

I learned to be considerate way too early.

When I was living at my mom's place after my dad died, I busted my ass doing chores, desperate to prove I was useful—just so she wouldn't hate me or toss me aside.

Back then, I wasn't even tall enough to reach the sink, but I'd stand on a stool to wash Cynthia's diapers, mix her formula, and spend all day carrying her around the yard, trying to calm her down—even though she was chubbier than me.

But even after all that, when Cynthia turned three, she pointed at me and said she hated me just because I secretly licked a piece of candy she didn't even want anymore. She even told my mom to throw me away.

And my mom really did it.

I would never forget that day.

It was just barely dawn when my mom yanked me out of bed.

After a long, bumpy bus ride, we ended up at a vegetable market in another city.

The market was filthy and crowded.

Scared, I clung to my mom's hand, but she shoved me away in disgust.

She told me to get out of her sight and stop dragging her down.

She tossed me aside like garbage, right onto the filthy, muddy ground of that crowded market. All I could do was stare helplessly at her back as she hurried away, desperate to leave me behind.

I screamed my heart out, "Mommy, I'll be good. Please don't leave me!"

But no matter how much I cried, she never looked back. Not even once.

From that moment on, I had no family. No home.

I had been all alone until I met Nicholas.

He was the only ray of light in my miserable life up to that point.

He gave me a real home.

But now, even the home and the only family I had were about to be snatched away by my mom and her beloved Cynthia.