Chapter 2
When I was twelve, Alice blew six million on gambling.
She smashed the piggy bank where I'd been saving for school, threatening me not to tell my father.
The only "compensation" she offered was a measly snack bought with my own money.
We stood in front of a greasy, stinking fried-chicken stand when I saw David walking out of a luxury store, his arm wrapped around his mistress.
And trailing behind them was Roxanne, their illegitimate daughter.
That day, Alice forced me to drink a whole bottle of pesticide, threatening to kill me if David didn't break things off with the other woman.
The pesticide was bitter and choking, and the surgical lights above me made me wish I were dead.
I had to have my blood completely replaced three times before David finally promised to come back to the family, forging a false semblance of unity.
Roxanne resented my not dying, the way I'd caused her mother to be cast aside, and the stigma of her illegitimacy that she'd had to carry—so much so that she longed to destroy me with her own hands.
In fact, I was present for every one of Alexander's grand, school-shaking confessions.
He was handsome and wealthy, throwing money around as if it were nothing more than numbers on a screen.
Roxanne reveled in the attention and the feeling of finally outshining me, so she always turned down his advances.
I was once consumed by the most bitter envy.
How I hated that it wasn't me—the girl bathed in roses, whose world ran rich with gold.
While I remained caught in poverty's grip, every desperate struggle only dragging me deeper into life's drowning quicksand.
One day, I posted on my social media: [Being abandoned is the original sin, and there's no excuse for it.]
As expected, it got under Roxanne's skin.
When Alexander landed a helicopter on the school playground, petals fluttering down like rain, I knew the show was about to begin.
"Hey, little beggar. Care to be my princess?" he asked with a wicked smile, reaching out his hand.
It was a hand that would drag me into hell.
That night, Roxanne posted on the school forum: [The so-called pure girl just hasn't been offered enough money.]
Yes, I wanted money. A whole lot of it.
Enough to build me wings to soar out of this muck-filled life.
My parents always said it was my fault they couldn't get a divorce.
But they were the guilty ones, and I was the one sentenced to death.
David would often come home drunk, beating me until I was covered in cuts and bruises before he'd collapse into bed.
Alice would search for money after her gambling trips, smashing my piggy bank time and time again.
She'd even lie on the floor to fish out a single dollar bill that had fallen under the bed.
I was sick of the moldy food, the garbage, and the endless abuse.
Whenever exam results came out, I'd imagine that bright A+ turning into wings to carry me away from this twisted and suffocating family.
On my desk was a well-worn romance novel where the prince spent a fortune on the broken girl.
I'd fantasized that maybe a prince would step out of the pages and transform my life.
I was a nobody, never likely to cross paths with Alexander.
That was, until Roxanne used herself as bait, turning Alexander into a weapon for her revenge against me.
He emerged from the pages of my dreams: from a prominent family, worth billions, with a face like an otherworldly being, and wherever he went, a crowd would cheer.
Best of all, he spent money without a second thought.
That was all I needed.
I was still 600 thousand dollars short. Once I saved enough to fly abroad, I'd leave this all behind.