Chapter 3

"Couldn't you have come back later?! Is it really that hard to let me have one peaceful meal?!"

Slam!

The spoon in Mom's hand crashed onto the table.

The tension in the room plummeted to subzero.

I swallowed hard and took a timid step backward.

Innocent little Amy clapped her hands. "Hazel... eat... dinner."

My stomach burned with raw hunger, and I swallowed again just to ease the cramps.

Because I saw that there were no utensils set for me at the table.

I thought I had been obedient enough.

The next second, Mom picked up the steaming hot bowl of dinner and dumped it straight over my head.

My body was so frozen that it took several seconds to register the scorching heat.

Then, a bloodcurdling scream tore from my throat, echoing down the entire hallway.

Amy burst into tears, terrified.

Mom glared down at her, her voice icy:

"She's not like you. You're Mommy's good baby. She's filth from bad blood. She was dirty and vile from the day she was born!"

"Look at her pathetic state. She can't be washed clean no matter what. Great! Now nobody gets to eat!"

Mark sighed in frustration, trying to calm her down:

"Just let her in to eat. You can't leave her out in the hallway all night."

He gestured for me to come inside.

The moment I took a step forward.

Crash!

The entire dining table was flipped over. Plates, forks, and food splattered violently across the tile floor.

"Oh, great, Mark! Did that little slut seduce you too?!"

"Her father was a worthless scumbag, a monster, and he left behind this little parasite just to ruin my life!"

"And you're falling right into her trap! You're under her spell!"

Mark panicked instantly, scrambling to explain:

"No, no, that's not what I meant! I won't get involved anymore, okay?"

He turned and glared at me coldly. I pulled my hesitant foot back, retreating to the hallway.

Mom stopped attacking him.

Or rather, she was never really targeting him in the first place.

She grabbed the mop and scrubbed the entryway floor furiously, as if it could never be clean enough.

"I knew you were a tramp! Getting your period early, trying to seduce my husband. Is that what your father told you to do?! Two filthy roaches!"

"Keep it up, and I'll ship you back to his family right now!"

My heart skipped a violent beat.

I remembered two years ago when Mom found a white stain on my pants from spilled milk. She flew into a rage instantly.

No matter how I or my teachers explained, she insisted it was left by a "dirty man."

I didn't understand. I cried and shook my head, but she dragged me to the train station.

"Don't forget! Your deadbeat father is locked up in prison, but you still have his mother! Parasites like you belong in the gutter with the rest of them!"

I clung desperately to the train window as the engine started, terrified out of my mind.

If the transit police hadn't brought me back, I would have been dumped in some remote backwoods trailer park.

That memory haunted me, suffocating me on countless sleepless nights.

Even though I was dying, I didn't want to die alone in the middle of nowhere, chewed up by wild dogs. And I didn't want to die without Mom near me...

I bit my lip, my entire tongue numb. "Don't send me away... please..."

Mom lunged at me with the mop handle, jabbing it viciously into my body, forcing me backward step by step.

"You're just thick-skinned! You stay here on purpose just to torment me! I'm buying you a ticket right now, right this second..."

Before she could finish, a violent wave of nausea hit me. I threw up uncontrollably for several minutes, bile and blood spilling down the stairs...