chapter 2
I took off my coat to wrap her soaked body, gently leading her out of the pool like coaxing a child. "Alright, I'll take you home, we'll play at home."
Back home, I started working overtime again.
To get Faith into a good rehabilitation nursing home, I have to work hard to earn money.
At 3 a.m., I received a text message.
It was from an unknown number, but I immediately guessed who it was.
[Excited? This is your welcome gift.]
The next second, someone knocked on my door.
The house here is shabby, and after a few hits, the door had a hole in it.
The person outside looked at me through the hole, their eyes gleaming with greed.
"My dear daughter, your mom and I have been searching for you so hard."
I froze all over and collapsed to the ground.
A strong smell of cheap perfume mixed with smoke and alcohol hit me.
It's Anna and Wyatt.
As soon as Anna walked in, she skillfully shoved the cigarette butt between her fingers into her mouth, while her other hand was already roughly searching my pockets.
She spoke impatiently. "Where's the money? Where did it go? I worked so hard to raise you, and now you avoid me. Is this how you repay me?"
"Where's the money? Cat got your tongue?"
She slapped me hard without mercy and scolded me loudly.
In my memory, she was never gentle with me.
Other kids came home to hugs and hot meals from their moms, but for me, it was always my dad, Bruce Nielsen, waiting.
Anna looked down on Bruce for being an unambitious painter.
She didnt like Bruce, nor did she like me, and she often cursed Bruce to die early behind his back.
That night, her curse really came true.
Bruce slipped while working overtime, fell from the scaffold, hit the back of his head hard on the ground, and died instantly.
Right after Bruce was cremated, Anna brought her lover backWyatt, the man standing before me.
Back then, I took Faith and fled through several cities to escape them.
But Nathan's casual remark made all my efforts go to waste.
What a grand welcome gift.
"Esther, listen to your mom, don't upset her," Wyatt said, leaning against the wall with a sly smile.
I looked at them, feeling utterly disgusted.
That year, Wyatt had just come to our home.
Although I was displeased, seeing how he obeyed Anna in everything, I thought he was a decent man.
The year I graduated from college, he said we should celebrate properly.
At the dinner table, he got Anna drunk, and he drank too much himself.
But at the moment I was showering, the bathroom door was suddenly opened.
That day, he tore off his disguise.
He brazenly stood in front of me, his gaze bare.
The strength between men and women is inherently unequal. I struggled, shouting Anna's name.
But she didn't respond, only the nauseating breath filled the cramped space.
I struggled, my voice almost hoarse, but Anna never heard.
He smiled at me and said, "Stop shouting, your mom took medicine, she can't hear."
That's when I realized, every time he would give Anna sleeping pills.
I begged him, I begged him to let me go.
But he had completely lost his mind.
The tears at the corner of my eyes merged tightly with the water stains on the ground.
It wasn't until dawn that he collapsed beside me, snoring away.