Chapter 3

Mom, Dad, and my brother noticed I'd changed.

I'd turned cold. Selfish.

No matter how they tried to stop me, I went back and repeated my senior year anyway.

I ignored the growing cuts and bruises on Dad's body, ignored Mom's back she could no longer straighten, ignored my brother screaming that he wanted a phone.

My life ran on a schedule.

Except for meals, every hour of my day went to studying.

I was stunned to find that once no one was eating up my time, my very first mock exam came out surprisingly well. Top five in the class.

Just as I thought.

They were the ones dragging me down.

Without them I'd be doing better.

That day I came home from school to find my room turned upside down.

Every inch of it, inside and out, even the mouse holes had been dug through.

I said nothing, and Mom and Dad called me to dinner like nothing had happened.

Mom took one bite and frowned.

"Why does this food taste so strange?"

Dad chewed a few times, brow furrowing.

"Probably just old rice."

I let out one cold laugh after another.

"That's the taste of rat poison."

Their faces changed completely. One bolted for the bathroom, the other grabbed the trash can, and a moment later came the sound of retching.

My brother had gone pale, his chopsticks shaking loose in his hand.

I patted his head.

"It's okay. You didn't get in my way, so there's no poison in your food."

Just a tiny bit of poison. Not enough to kill anyone, only enough to scare them.

Dad, having emptied his stomach, rounded on me.

"What is it you actually want? You won't do chores, you won't hand over money. You're our daughter, our blood runs in your veins, you're supposed to obey. When I tell you to do something, you do it! Now hand over the money!"

He raised his fist and came at me. I wasn't afraid. All I had left was the courage of someone with nothing to lose.

I slapped the bank card down on the table.

"So what if your blood runs in me? You just have to bleed me dry, is that it? Ha. Fine. Take it, if you've got the nerve. But you'd better sleep with your eyes open tonight."

"Here. Take it!"

When he wouldn't, I forced the card into his hand.

Dad shrank away from me in terror.

He shoved Mom out in front of him.

Mom wasn't as revolting as Dad, so I softened my expression a little for her.

"Mom, you take it. This is our last meal together, might as well eat something nice."

Mom's hand shook like she had Parkinson's.

She was scared.

Scared that if she took it, it really would be the last meal.

"Aah!"

Mom shrieked, shoved the card back at me, grabbed my brother, and fled to their room, Dad right on her heels.

The house went quiet. Even my brother's crying was muffled behind the door.

I reported the result to the instructor.

He was silent for a moment, then asked,

"You used rat poison?"

I shook my head. As if I'd ruin my own future over trash like them.

"Just scraped off a little wall plaster. Though I did buy the rat poison, yes."

I meant it.

If they had the nerve to ransack my room today, tomorrow they'd have the nerve to break my legs to keep me from school.

I wanted them afraid. I wanted them to weigh the cost of crossing me.

In my eyes they weren't my parents. They were the enemy.

It worked.

I made Mom hand over her paycheck card, so that money wouldn't disappear into Dad's bottomless pit too.

She handed it over meekly.

I thought, I should have flipped the table long ago.

If I'd flipped it sooner, would I already be in college by now?

How did I let trash like them drag me down for so many years...