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When Dad saw me covered in injuries, there wasn’t a hint of surprise in his eyes. Instead, he rolled them and looked absolutely gleeful. “You’re a girl who should be focusing on your studies, but all you do is cause trouble. How embarrassing!”
My wounds were still burning with pain, and I felt utterly wronged. Finally, I couldn’t hold back anymore, and tears streamed down my face.
“What happened?” Kathy had barely finished asking when the door was suddenly pushed open. Larry came in too, and he was also injured. Before I could say anything, he burst into loud sobs.
“Dad, Kathy, you have to stand up for me! Mia has always had it out for me, and this time she even got pe for me, and this time she even got people to beat me up. Look, my face is all messed up!”
I was furious. “Stop pretending! You’re the one who hit me!”
Dad immediately sided with Larry. “Larry would never cause trouble! You must have hit him! And you still won’t admit it!”
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. “Then let’s call the police. Let them investigate, and the truth will come out naturally.”
Kathy nodded in agreement. “Both sides have different stories.
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Stop arguing and just wait for the police.”
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The moment he heard about calling the police, Larry’s face went white as a sheet. “Call the police for what! None of you believe me, you’re all taking her side. Nobody cares about me anyway, I might as well just die!”
With that, he grabbed a fruit knife from the coffee table and held it to his throat. When Dad saw his precious son threatening suicide, he panicked and jumped up from the couch.
“Are you trying to drive Larry to his death before you’re happy!”
Dad grabbed my collar tightly and swung his arm in a full arc, slapping me hard across the face. The blow made me see stars, and I could taste blood in my mouth.
“If he’s innocent, why is he afraid of the police?”
I refused to back down and still held my phone, ready to call the police.
“Ah!”
A scream came from across the room. Larry had actually used the fruit knife to make a cut on his neck. Blood trickled down his throat but quickly stopped. Anyone could see he was just putting on a show. Only Dad believed it, trembling with fear, and gave me another hard slap.
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“If anything happens to Larry, I’ll make you pay with your life!”
Watching this whole charade unfold, Kathy remained unusually calm. She patted my shoulder and called 911 for an ambulance. Larry was taken away by the ambulance to the hospital. The wound was actually very shallow, and after the doctor casually bandaged it, they kept him for observation.
Dad still wasn’t satisfied and insisted on making a cut on my neck too, to make me bleed as revenge for Larry.
“You little brat! Look what you’ve done to Larry! You have to pay the price!”
He approached step by step with the knife, his eyes even showing murderous intent. At the critical moment, Kathy stepped in front of
- me.
“Stop it. Isn’t this mess big enough already?”
After a whole night of chaos, by the time we got back from the hospital, I was completely exhausted and collapsed into bed. Half asleep, I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe a pair of hands was choking my neck! I woke up startled to find it was Larry. His face was twisted with malice, his eyes full of hatred.
–
“Dear sister, just wait. Kathy’s going to go bankrupt soon, and you’ll be out on the streets begging. I can’t wait to see you down and out.”
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His gaze pierced my heart like a knife. An ominous feeling rose in my
chest.
Sure enough, within a month, Kathy’s company ran into trouble. Her business partner fled with the money and took a bunch of confidential documents with him. Company secrets were leaked, stock prices plummeted, and the cash flow dried up. Previous clients canceled their contracts one after another, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Kathy’s former friends all avoided her, afraid she’d ask to borrow money. To pay employee salaries, she sold all the houses and cars.
The luxurious lifestyle was over, and Dad immediately changed his tune, demanding a divorce.
“You think I really loved you? I was just after your money! Now that you’re broke, I don’t even want to look at you!”
He revealed his true colors, threw down a divorce agreement, and walked away. I’d never seen Kathy look so devastated. She sighed and said to me, “Mia, I’ve transferred money to your account— enough to get you through college. Take the money and go. I don’t want to drag you down with me.”
I shook my head firmly and hugged her tight. “Kathy, during this time, I’ve already come to think of you as my mother. I never experienced a mother’s love growing up, but you showed me that there are people in this world who will love me.”
Her eyes welled up with tears as she gripped my hand. “Are you
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really willing to weather this storm with me?”
da
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“Of course. I’m grown up now–it’s time to repay your kindness. Didn’t you transfer me that money? I’ll use it to help you make a comeback!”
Seeing my determination, hope finally flickered in Kathy’s eyes. “Alright, Mia. I believe in you!”
Having been influenced by her during this period, I’d developed a keen interest in stocks. I used all the money she’d left me to buy shares in one company. In less than two months, the stock price tripled. We made five million dollars overnight. I immediately sold the stock and used the money to help Kathy through her immediate crisis. But it still wasn’t enough to fill the company’s financial hole.
Then I thought of someone else–my mother’s current husband, Duke White. This man appeared honest on the surface but was actually a sick pervert. In my previous life, he not only abused my mother and me but also sexually assaulted me. Later I discovered he was a complete predator. He had a private album on his phone filled with videos of him violating other girls.
I hired a hacker to break into his phone and obtained evidence of his crimes. I used this to blackmail him into transferring ten million dollars to me: “Transfer the money or I’ll call the police. All this evidence will go straight to them, and everyone will know what you really are!”
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He transferred the money that very night. With this sum, Kathy finally stabilized the company. New projects were relaunched, and the company escaped bankruptcy. Three months later, when company funds were flowing again, we decided to return every penny of that ten million dollars. Then we called the police. Those girls Duke had hurt shouldn’t become pawns in our blackmail scheme.
After resolving the money issue, we turned over all the evidence to the police. Duke was arrested and now awaits legal judgment. The day he was taken into custody, police found my mother barely alive in the basement of his mansion. Ever since marrying him, my mother had become his punching bag, enduring daily beatings and torture. Duke’s arrest was also a form of liberation for her.
But what I didn’t expect was that instead of thanking me, she blamed me for ruining her life: “Duke’s in prison! His company’s gone under too! How am I supposed to live now? You little b*tch, are you trying to drive me to my death?”
She screamed at me hysterically, as if I were the criminal. But I was the one who saved her. In that moment, I finally understood that my mother was completely rotten beyond redemption. She lunged at me like a madwoman, gripping my throat with both hands as if she wanted us to die together.
I stopped holding back. Using all my strength, I shoved her away and kicked her hard. In that moment, I released all my pent–up grievances: “You’re nothing but a parasite! Can’t you
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survive without someone to leech off of?”
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I stared her down and said slowly but forcefully, “Then just go ahead and die!”
Without hesitation, I turned and walked away, leaving her wails behind me. Kathy was waiting outside for me, and when she saw me emerge, she smiled gently. “Mia, let’s go home.”
After the company’s resurrection, Kathy bought back the mansion and rehired our housekeeper Rachel. Having weathered this storm together, our bond had grown even stronger than before. When Dad heard the news, he predictably came crawling back like glue. Kathy and I refused to open the door for him, but he shamelessly refused to leave: “Honey, this time I really know I was wrong!
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