Chapter 5

After the doctor left, Nova tossed two thousand dollars in cash onto my face.

She could've sent it digitally, but she wanted to humiliate me.

I didn't even know if these two thousand dollars were my money or hers.

It didn't matter. Whoever earned it, it was all the same, equally dirty.

Nova had a job. She also worked as a hostess at a nightclub.

Back when I was still in high school, she came home around 3 a.m., reeking of booze and smoke.

Her chest was barely covered, makeup smeared.

Before she came home, I had to cook and leave dinner out for her.

But every time, she'd complain that my cooking sucked and then throw the entire table of food onto the floor.

She'd drag me out of my room, away from my homework, and force me to cook all over again.

She'd rip up my finished assignments and scream, "Study? What good does it do?! Do you think studying puts food on the table?! Go find some man to support you already. Stop wasting my damn money!"

She never used her earnings to pay off my dad's debts.

She blew it all on designer perfumes, Chanel bags, and luxury makeup.

I once asked her, "Don't you have money too? Why make me earn it to pay Dad's debts?"

She slapped me hard. "You think raising you was free? Now it's your turn to pay us back. We're not here to support you. You're here to support us. Got it?"

Nova said I was nothing more than a money-making tool.

The cash was scattered across the floor.

I lay motionless in bed, letting her spit poison at me.

"What did I do to deserve such a useless child? Can't do anything right. Maybe if you had a brain, you wouldn't have gotten yourself sick.

"You're just dead weight.

"You know what? You should just jump out the window right now and die. Save me the trouble of wasting more money on you."

I listened quietly as her words cut through me like knives.

I didn't say a word.

Seeing me stay silent, she started shoving me and then hitting me in a frenzy.

Covered in blood, I begged her to stop.