Chapter 3

The neighbor felt sorry when she saw me wearing patched-up grown-up clothes, so she gave me a bag of clothes from her daughter.

The faces of the family of three twisted oddly. Once inside, they almost started arguing over where I would sleep.

The place had just two bedrooms and an open kitchen-living room.

Ryder wanted me to share a room with Marian. Dora said Marian liked things clean and insisted I sleep on the couch.

She added that her couch was way better than my bed back on the farm and that I should be grateful.

Marian disagreed. She said, "She can't sleep on the couch. I'm sitting there. She's so dirty."

Quietly, I took my bag of belongings out to the balcony.

In my previous life, I'd stayed there under the clothesline until I graduated high school.

"I'll sleep here," I said.

Dora glanced at me with pure annoyance. Marian snorted twice and casually shut the glass door between the balcony and living room.

Ryder felt a bit guilty and the next day built me a small bed out of wooden boards. That was basically his whole "dad duty" done.

Marian went to a private elementary school that cost six thousand a year. Naturally, Ryder and Dora wouldn't pay for me to go there.

Dora didn't even care whether I could go to school or not. I knew it was punishment for defying her.

"I'm tired every day. How am I supposed to run her around school? If she's so capable, she can figure it out herself." Dora had told Ryder exactly that.

Her eyes shot a sideways glare at me.

I spoke up. "No need. The folks in the community have already helped me get everything set up."

Being an orphan made things surprisingly easy. In my past life, it was my parents' status that blocked so much.

Meanwhile, the community also helped me apply for five hundred dollars a month for welfare, but I kept that secret.

Still, someone had noticed the money.

The year I took the entrance exam for middle school, three hundred dollars Dora had stashed disappeared.

Marian accused me of stealing it and even pulled a thousand dollars out of my backpack.

Then Dora slapped me hard across the face. She shouted, "I always knew you were no good."

All those years of built-up hatred finally had an outlet.

When Ryder came home from work, Dora raked it over again with even more venom. He slapped me too.

Ryder snapped, "Ever since you stepped into this house, nothing's been calm. Now you've even learned to steal."

His slap was strong, and my head hit the coffee table, blood immediately flowing.

Everyone was shocked; no one dared move. Quietly, I got up and walked out the door.

Neighbors passing by saw my bloodied face and their eyes filled with furious anger.

I told one neighbor. "Ma'am, could you please help me call the cops? Their money's missing."

At the mention of the police, Marian clearly panicked. She tugged at Dora's sleeve. "Mom, it's only three hundred dollars. Do we really need cops? What if Julia gets arrested? That would be so sad."

Dora, having finally caught something to blame me for, wasn't about to let go.

The cops arrived quickly.

"Officer, it's her," Dora said with a cruel smile, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Such a bad kid, you need to lock her up and teach her a lesson."

Too bad for her, this time my money had a perfectly clean source, even community proof.

Instead, Marian's phone showed over three hundred dollars in purchases—money spent on boosting some star's album sales.

There were also chat messages where her friends praised her for being capable and generous, all of which could be used as evidence.

"Should we lock Marian up for a lesson?" the cop asked.

Dora quickly shielded Marian behind her, angrily saying, "How could my daughter be stealing from me? Mind your own business."

Neighbors glanced over, whispering.

"They're quick to accuse Julia and want her locked up, but when it's Marian, they protect her like that."

"They look so much alike. I actually wondered if Julia was really their biological daughter. Turns out, she's not."

"You're imagining things. A real mom wouldn't do that to her own kid."

Amid the neighbors' gossip, Dora slammed the door shut.