Chapter 1

On the day of our family island vacation, my sister, Chloe, climbed over the safety railing just to take a photo.

She slipped. In her panic, she dragged me into the ocean with her.

The rescue guard was about to save me first since I was closer to the shore.

But Mom suddenly pulled a faded, yellowed piece of paper from her wallet and threw it toward me.

"Mya, let Chloe get on the rescue boat first!"

"This is our last wish!"

When I was seven, I didn't have money to buy birthday gifts for my parents. So, I hand-drew a hundred "Wish Coupons."

Each one said:

[With this coupon, Mya will unconditionally grant Mom and Dad one wish.]

When Chloe wanted my bedroom, they used one.

When Chloe wanted to be an only child, they used another. From then on, I was only allowed to call them Mr. and Mrs. Miller, never Mom and Dad.

Even the college tuition I saved from working part-time for three years was taken by them. They used the ninety-ninth coupon to pay for Chloe's intensive dance academy.

Now, this was the last one.

I looked at the floating coupon on the water and suddenly stopped struggling.

I slipped the only rescue rope onto Chloe and pushed her toward the rescue boat myself.

Mom and Dad were too busy wrapping her in blankets and checking her for scratches. No one noticed that my leg had already cramped up. I couldn't even hold onto the floating board anymore.

As the rescue boat sped toward the pier, Mom only had time to look back and yell:

"Mya, hang in there! We’ll be right back!"

I watched their retreating figures and let out a self-deprecating laugh.

When I was seven, I thought that if I fulfilled all one hundred wishes, my parents would love me just as much as they loved Chloe.

It wasn't until the freezing seawater filled my lungs that I finally understood.

Those one hundred coupons didn't buy me a single shred of their love. They just used up my entire life.

......