Chapter 3

The more she talked, the angrier she got.

She slapped me twice more, hard.

Dylan clapped nonstop. "Good one, Mom!"

This time.

I didn't fight back, didn't struggle, didn't cry.

It was like the soul had been pulled clean out of me.

I just watched them, my face blank.

Until she wore herself out cursing.

When she let go, my father glanced at his watch and said flatly, "Don't waste time on her. Time to take our boy out for a steak dinner."

"Hmph."

My mother shot me a vicious glare.

She went to her room and threw a few things together.

Then the three of them left.

Maybe it crossed their minds that I was, after all, their own flesh and blood.

They couldn't very well let me actually starve to death.

Before they left.

My father turned back and told me, "You've been on an IV all day, you're too weak. We won't drag you along."

"We'll box some up and bring it back for you."

"Don't worry, this time there's meat!"

I didn't say a word.

My mother spat. "All that studying's rotted your brain."

"Guzzling that toxic feel-good garbage online every day."

"You actually think knowledge changes your fate?"

"You don't know your place!"

After they left, I dabbed a little medicine on my swollen face myself.

When they got back from their meal.

Sure enough, they'd boxed up meat for me.

But this meat... it looked like someone had already been chewing on it!

And when I looked closer.

These few lumps were nothing but the kind of gristle you can't bite through!

"Sis."

"Mom and Dad brought this meat back just for you."

"No excuse not to eat it this time, right?"

Dylan looked at me, smug all over his face.

My mother frowned. "Well? Eat it."

I didn't say anything.

But I let my actions speak my silent protest.

I dumped the scraps in the box straight into the trash.

Dylan let out a screech. "Sis, why'd you throw it out?"

"That meat's expensive."

"I didn't even want to waste it on myself."

My parents' faces changed in an instant.

"You little brat, have you lost your mind?"

"We went out of our way to bring that back for you."

"And you just throw it away?"

I didn't have the strength to argue with them.

I only asked back, quietly.

"Brought back just for me?"

"This is the stuff you couldn't finish, couldn't even chew through, isn't it?"

"I'm your daughter."

"I'm not your dog!"

Nobody expected it from me, the one who always took it lying down, who never once protested or talked back.

That I'd dare to challenge them now.

"So your wings have hardened, have they?"

"You dare to defy us now?"

My father glowered at me, his face dark.

My mother's eyes went cold as ice.

She fetched the electrical cord she often used to beat me and said in a chilling voice, "Let's just see how tough your bones really are!"