Chapter 1
My mom had a talent for playing the victim.
If it got her what she wanted, she'd do anything.
She once held a knife to her own throat at my school, crying that we were too poor—just so I could get scholarship.
Everyone thought I was the manipulative one and bullied me until I dropped out.
At home, even when I was depressed, she chopped off her own finger to force me to start working.
Left with no choice, I finally found a tutoring job, only to end up assaulted by the man of the house.
I thought she'd feel sorry for me. Instead, she barged into his mansion, screaming, "You think you can use my daughter for free? She's ruined now. I want at least 300 thousand dollars."
She cried, wailed, and threatened to hang herself, attracting the neighbors.
Some even filmed everything and put it on the internet. By the next day, I was being doxxed and torn apart online by netizens who didn't know what truly happened.
Then the man's wife showed up at my door. She broke my leg with her own hands.
In utter despair, I slit my wrists.
When I opened my eyes again, I learned my mother's tactics. This time, I'd beat her at her own game and force her to watch.
*****
"Sweetie, if you want that scholarship for financial aid, you gotta turn up the sob story even more.
"Just put down something like, 'My mom was an orphan...'" my mom said, already brainstorming how to make it sound even more tragic.
Watching my mom edit my pity speech line by line, I realized I really had come back to life.
Back in my previous life, she'd pressed a kitchen knife to her throat and cried, "Leona, can't I at least get some scholarship money for this miserable life of mine? If I can't, then what's the point of living?"
Her words left me no way out. I was forced to put on a sob story for everyone at school.
Later, my classmates realized my family wasn't actually poor. The school bully, Leia Stewart dragged me into the bathroom, made me drink from the toilet bowl, and beat me until I was black and blue all over.
When I got home, my mom was showing off in her brand-new clothes, bought with scholarship money, of course. My dad was there, eating steak with his flashy new gold watch. Both of them were having the time of their lives.
I was so furious, I just flipped the table over.
My mom, eyes red and puffy, pulled off her new dress, putting on her best damsel-in-distress act.
She whined, "After all these years, I finally got to enjoy a little of my daughter's success and wear something decent, and now you're giving me attitude? Why does life have to be so hard for me?"
I was so furious, I grabbed a pair of scissors and slashed her new dress to shreds, yelling, "Can you just stop with the act already?"
Before I could even finish, my dad hurled a bone at me and followed it up with a slap across the face.
After the whole scholarship scandal blew up, I got kicked out of school and ended up stuck at home, sinking deeper and deeper into depression.
My mom grabbed a hammer and, right in front of me, smashed one of her own fingers. "Is this karma? I raised you all these years, and now you just laze around at home, freeloading of me. Maybe I'd be better off dead."
With nowhere else to turn, I got forced into tutoring rich kids my mom had found, just to scrape together a little cash.
But then the wealthy father raped me, tearing me apart down there.
But my mom acted like she was the one who'd been wronged. She bawled her eyes out, collapsed on the bed, and went three whole days without eating or drinking.
It wasn't because she cared for me. She was furious that I'd let the guy have his way without being paid a dime. Moreover, I refused to go demand money from him.
She ripped open my tattered clothes, grabbed my breast, and spat, "You look cheap and easy. How can you let him do whatever he wanted and didn't even get a cent out of it?"
My dad, instead, tried to "comfort" me. "Leona, just think about your poor mom. Why not just be his lover? He'll pay you every month, and that'll help cover our family's expenses."
Later, I dragged myself home, battered and broken, only to find the rich guy's wife at my door with a gang of thugs.
Trying to save their own skins, my parents shattered my leg with an iron bar.
My mom, with tears streaming down her face as she hit me, wailed, "Leona, we have to survive. We can't let you ruin us all."
In the end, I dragged myself into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and tried to end it all by slitting my wrists.
When I came to, I thought, 'If blood ties mean nothing, then screw it. I don't need a family.'
But this time, I was going to force my parents to watch me put on the ultimate pity act. When it came to acting, my mom had got nothing on me. I actually majored in it.
The next day, I went through the motions, reciting my speech like I was on autopilot.
After snagging the scholarship as I had expected, I didn't rush home.
I went straight to Leia and handed over every cent as protection money.
In this life, if I couldn't dodge her, I might as well pay her off and buy myself some peace.
I didn't care about everything else but I wasn't about to let this crap mess up my acting competition next month.
If I could take home the gold prize, I'd get a spot at the International Film Academy.
Escaping this place and everything in it was the only thing that mattered.
After that, I headed home with a makeup job so convincing it looked like I'd just been through hell, thanks to Leia's handiwork. Her skills were almost like special effects.
I figured I could finally sweep this whole mess under the rug and get some peace for a while.
But as soon as I got to the door, I heard Mom wailing inside.
The window was wide open, and she already had one foot on the ledge.
My dad was trying to hold her back, terrified she'd actually jump.
"I can't take it anymore. What kind of miserable life is this?" Mom sobbed. "What's the point of raising a daughter who can dance if she won't even perform on stage for me?"
Standing at the doorway, I checked my phone and found out the girl next door just married a sixty-year-old sugar daddy who'd already been divorced once.