Chapter 1

In the third year since I was diagnosed with severe depression, my parents still don't dare to leave me alone.

Three years ago, my adopted sister stole my photos to date someone online, but the man on the other end turned out to be a stalker.

He mistook me for her.

After it happened, my parents threw my sister out of the house.

My mother nailed every window in the house shut, and for three years she never let me near them.

My father quit his job to stay with me full-time, and he even locked away every knife in the kitchen.

Until three years later, when my sister came back holding a licensed counseling certification.

She knelt at the door and cried, saying that everything that happened back then was her fault.

She'd spent those years studying psychology as hard as she could, all so she could come back and cure me, and apologize to me in person.

In the end, my parents let her in.

My sister said that keeping the windows sealed for three years would only make me more and more depressed.

So my mother pulled the nails out of the windows and pushed them all wide open.

My father took the kitchen knives he'd locked away for three years and put them back in the kitchen.

"You have to learn to push those bad thoughts down yourself."

Until the last exposure therapy session.

My sister brought back the man from three years ago.

I pounded on the door, begging them to let me out.

Through the door, I heard my sister say quietly:

"Just get through this one more time, and everything will be fine."

My parents sighed.

"That's right."

"Once this is over, everyone will finally be free."

With tears in my eyes, I slowly let go of the door.

Looking at the open window, I gave up struggling entirely.

Section 1

The door finally opened, and the man put his clothes back on, taking his time.

Before he left, he glanced back at me and smiled with malice.

"Back then you kicked up such a fuss you got me sentenced to ten years, but in the end your parents signed a letter of forgiveness, and I got out anyway."

"Looks like they treated you too well three years ago. After all this time, you still thought of me and wanted me to come back."

He pinched my waist, already bruised purple, and narrowed his eyes with satisfaction.

"I told my buddies the whole situation, and they were dying of envy."

With that, he laughed loudly and shoved the door open to leave.

The next second, my parents rushed in almost immediately.

The first thing my mother saw was me sitting on the edge of the bed.

My clothes were in disarray, and every patch of bare skin was covered in wounds.

But I didn't cry, and I didn't make a scene.

I just stared blankly at the window she had reopened with her own hands.

The color drained from my mother's face in an instant.

She hurried over to me, her voice trembling.

"Gertie?"

"Why are you… why are you so quiet?"

I didn't answer.

But my sister suddenly clapped her hands behind me.

"It worked!"

She looked at our parents, her face full of delight.

"This proves the exposure therapy is working!"

"My sister can face the trauma from back then calmly now; she's accepted what happened!"

"She's recovered!"

My mother froze for two seconds.

The fear that had just filled her eyes slowly dissolved, replaced by a wild, relieved joy.

"Really?"

She let out a huge breath.

"Thank goodness. These three years, you've dragged us down so—"

She cut herself off mid-sentence, as if she'd suddenly realized something, and shut her mouth.

The room went silent for a moment.

But my father acted as if he hadn't heard, and patted my shoulder with relief.

"It's good that you've come through it."

"Since you can face the past calmly now, and it really was your sister who cured you, let's leave the old business here."

He glanced at my sister, whose eyes were red.

"She hurt you back then, but now she's saved you again, so that makes you even."

"From now on, no one is to bring up what happened three years ago again."

"And don't you keep dwelling on it, making her live with guilt for the rest of her life."

I kept my eyes down and said nothing.

My sister's eyes reddened all at once.

She bit her lip and looked at me carefully.

"Sis, you still haven't forgiven me, have you?"

"If seeing me makes you suffer, then I'll leave today."

"I'll never come back, and I'll never appear in front of you again."

She turned to go as she spoke.

My mother panicked at once and grabbed hold of her.

"What are you talking about!"

My father immediately looked at me too, his brows drawing together.

"Gertie, back then we were afraid that seeing her would make you remember that incident, so we drove her out for three whole years."

"She had a home she couldn't return to. She's toughed it out alone all this time—that's suffering enough."

"Now that you're better, what is there that can't be put behind us?"

My mother gripped my sister's hand tightly and pressed me:

"Hurry up and tell your sister you don't blame her anymore."

Something was slowly crushing my chest, piece by piece.

I suddenly remembered three years ago.

When they threw my adopted sister out of the house, my mother held me and cried all night.

She said:

"I only kept her to give you a companion. I never imagined I'd raised an ungrateful snake who would hurt my own precious baby."

"Gertie, I will never forgive her as long as I live."

My father locked all the kitchen knives in the cabinet, and he said too:

"I want you to live well. I swear I will never let you be hurt again as long as I live."

So it turned out a lifetime was only three years.

I slowly raised my head.

My sister waited for my answer with red eyes.

My parents watched me nervously too.

As if, as long as I didn't speak, this family could never truly be whole again.

I looked at them for a long time.

In the end, I numbly tugged at the corner of my mouth.

"Fine. I forgive you."