But they still bought me in the end.
Because I was cheap.
Because…
That man, the one I was supposed to call my foster father, looked me up and down with lecherous eyes, squeezing my arms and legs.
40 Mon, Apr
“She’s not our real daughter,” he said with a grin. “Wait until she’s a little older.”
Most people forget their early childhood memories.
But not me. My memories are sharp, vivid, seared into my mind.
I remember pain.
Sometimes it was the pain of my foster mother hitting me for no reason.
Sometimes it was the pain of the family dog chasing and biting me.
Sometimes it was the gnawing pain of hunger, so sharp it was unbearable.
When I was eight, Liam came back.
Yes, Liam was their biological son.
That night, my foster mother kicked me out of the house and told me to sleep in the pigsty. That’s when I first saw him.
He wasn’t much better off than me–dirty and thin, but with eyes so beautiful, I couldn’t look away. They were just like hers.
I actually liked my foster mother.
Even though she beat me, she gave me food.
In my world, there was no such thing as kindness.
The person who fed me was the best person in my life.
I hated Liam.
After he came back, my foster mother stopped feeding me entirely.
I really did fight the pigs for food.
23:40 Mon, Apr 70
But later, Liam started sneaking me some of his meals.
“I’m your brother,” he told me.
I had never learned to speak properly, so I mimicked his tone, mumbling something
incoherent.
I hated Liam.
But I clung to him instinctively.
I felt like he had stolen everything from me, but at the same time, he was the only reason
I survived.
One day, I quietly reached out and took his hand.
I remember watching his pupils dilate in surprise.
He was thirteen then. I was ten.
I didn’t understand the kind of shattered, obsessive, and twisted feelings Liam held for
- me.
All I knew was that Liam was the top student in the county.
He was clean, unlike me.
I hated him even more for it.
But when that man smashed a beer bottle over my back, dragged me by my hair, and
slammed my head into the wall–when my body was covered in wounds that scabbed over, only to split open again–Liam was the one who pulled me into his room to treat my injuries.
His cold fingers brushed over the cuts on my back, and I looked up at the moon outside
the window.
That night, Liam held me in his arms.
I didn’t know that, at fifteen years old, my brother had made a decision that would change
23:40 Mon, Apr 7
73%
everything.
That tiny, filthy house in the middle of nowhere.
Every day was still filled with pain.
My foster mother started doing strange things, and my foster father would drag me out of my room to beat.me.
Liam stayed silent.
I only remember one day vividly.
My foster father beat me so badly I lost a tooth. It fell to the floor near Liam’s feet.
Mooked up at him and said, “Save me.”
His pupils trembled.
I hated him for doing nothing, but I didn’t understand back then.
Those were his parents.
He was on their side.
The first time I got my period, my foster mother was ecstatic.
“You can start earning money now!” she said, beaming. “Isn’t that exciting?”
By then, I think she had already lost her mind.
She spent her days locked in her room, snorting white powder.
My foster father had gone mad too.
He gambled away everything, selling anything of value in the house.
The world had twisted into something unrecognizable.
31 Mon Apr 7
Mon Apr 7 B
73%1
The only clear thing in that chaotic world was Liam.
He won a county–level award for outstanding academics.
He was so smart.
The only time I felt safe was when I was in his arms.
But I still resented him for not being able to save me.
I didn’t know he had been planning something for over a year.
When my foster father gambled away the last of their money, he mortgaged the house.
They planned to build a smaller one with the little money they had left.
That day, my foster mother was unusually gentle.
“Lila,” she said, “remember those pictures I showed you before? If you follow what they do, you’ll make lots and lots of money.”
“You’ll make enough to build a big house for your dad and me.”
I didn’t understand then what she meant.
I didn’t understand how humiliating, dangerous, and monstrous it was.
They knew I didn’t understand.
But a deep, primal fear began to rise within me when my foster mother pressed me to the floor and made me kneel in front of my foster father.
That drunk, leering man.
“Let’s see if you’ve learned anything,” she said, her voice sickly sweet.
“Unzip his pants with your teeth, okay?”
I struggled violently, panic flooding my entire body.
Mon Ap
The world turned upside down, drowning in black paint.
Pain exploded through me as my foster mother yanked my hair.
I thought I’d lost another tooth when my foster father smashed a beer bottle over my
head.
Everything was unraveling, tearing apart.
I didn’t understand.
Was the purpose of human existence just to suffer?
I wanted to scream, “Why me?”
“What did I do wrong?”
“It hurts! Don’t you know how much it hurts?”
But no one cared.
When Liam came home from school and opened the front door, this was the scene he
walked into.
My foster mother was forcing white powder up my nose.
My foster father was tearing my clothes off.
A broken beer bottle lay on the floor, my palm bleeding where I’d fallen on the shards.
The world wasn’t kind.
Not to me.
Not to Liam.
I don’t know when my foster mother let go of me.
2341 Mon, Apr 7
I don’t know when my foster father lowered his hands.
All I know is that the world turned red.
Warm liquid sprayed over my exposed skin, dripping down like rain.
Fireworks crackled outside.
Inside, the screams of two animals shattered the air.
I couldn’t feel anything.
I didn’t understand what they were screaming about.
Pain?
I felt pain every day.
I stared at Liam.
The axe slipped from his hands, blood dripping from its blade.
Warm, wet drops clung to my eyelashes, and blinked.
Liam’s face was expressionless.
“Step back,” he said calmly.
“I can’t let the cops find your DNA.”
His voice was so steady, it felt like he was asking me what I wanted for dinner.
That night, I washed myself clean and put on my favorite dress.
I sat at the dining table and scrubbed every inch of the house.
I placed a bouquet of flowers in a cracked vase.
In the kitchen, Liam mixed cement for the new walls.
日473%會
23:41 Mon, Apr 7
Everything had been dealt with.
Liam reached out and ruffled
my hair.
And in that moment, I knew.
The next day, I went to the police station in tears.
“Officer, my mom and dad have been missing for two days! I’m so scared!”
Had they disappeared?
Were they dead?
Liam and I didn’t know.
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- us.
That year, Liam was nineteen, and I was sixteen.
He told me he would take care of me, that he would make enough money for the both of
But he never told me that, just before walking through the door that day, he had taken his college acceptance letter and slipped it into his pocket.
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