Chapter 4

Willow didn’t seem to notice anything unusual. In her mind, she was still thinking:

“I’m so badly hurt, Mom and Dad must be heartbroken. If only Alice could just die! Why should she enjoy life here when I suffered so much out there? Unless I chop her into a thousand pieces, I won’t appease my hatred.”

“What’s with them? Why are they all staring at me? Are they retarded? Well, yeah, if they weren’t idiots, they wouldn’t have confiscated my phone back then and gotten me abducted to the countryside, making me suffer so much. It’s all your fault, I hope you all die a terrible death.”

“Mom’s slap on Alice was too light. Was it really that hard to knock out all her teeth with two slaps? Dad was more effective, though. Looks like my trick of feigning injury worked. Ouch, it hurts so much. If I’d known it would hurt this much, I wouldn’t have been so hard on myself.”

The house was deadly silent. Willow’s mental curses against our entire family echoed exceptionally loud. Mom stared at Willow in disbelief, still unsure if those vicious inner thoughts had truly come from her. Dad’s eyes were red-rimmed with anger. Both my brothers looked at me, their faces full of shame and guilt.

I was expressionless. The pain throughout my body made me feel utterly hopeless. Dad still seemed to think he was hallucinating. He asked Willow, uncertainly, “Willow, was it really your sister who abducted and sold you all those years ago?”

Willow quickly nodded. But after glancing at me, she shook her head in feigned terror. “No, I don’t blame Alice. It must have been something I did wrong for Alice to sell me. It must have been my fault…”

Her words undeniably sealed my fate. Dad’s anger, which had finally extinguished, flared up again. He seemed to think my beating just now was not undeserved. But soon, I heard Willow’s thoughts again:

“Hmph! I’m not stupid. How could I tell them I basically sold myself for a crappy phone? It’s all Alice’s fault for not stopping me back then, she’s useless. Today, I’ll make sure she takes the blame fully.”

“But Alice, that idiot, is quite pretty. Maybe I’ll find a chance to sell her to some rural area. Butch, that pig, still needs a wife. Just thinking about him defiling Alice, hahahaha, it’s so satisfying!”

Mom let out a shout of anger. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Dad stared at Willow with a complex expression, and my two brothers quickly rushed to help me up. Everyone came to my side, shielding me. The hatred and resentment they had felt towards me moments ago were now replaced with guilt and self-reproach.

I shook them off and walked to my bedroom without a word, my heart cold and desperate.

“Alice,” Dad called out to me, his voice soft. “We’re a family. There’s no misunderstanding that can’t be cleared up. I’ll take you both to the hospital first. We can talk about everything else later.”

On the way to the hospital, our entire family’s faces were grim. Mom sat between Willow and me. She looked at me, then turned to glance at Willow. After a moment’s hesitation, she finally reached out and pulled Willow into her arms.

But to my surprise, Willow was ranting wildly in her mind.

“So fake! Why didn’t they just kill Alice? What’s the point of going to the hospital? Was that beating for nothing?”

“Ugh, my stomach hurts so bad. Mom’s cooking is still as disgusting as ever, like pig slop. A family of taste-blind idiots, how can they swallow this? To be stuck with a mom like this, what a total downer!”

“Dad’s gifts are ugly too. And the bedroom my brothers decorated, pink? Seriously? I’m the Queen of Revenge, are they treating me like a three-year-old? Annoying!”

Willow continued her mental rant. Mom’s face was grim. She released Willow and turned to look at me. I angrily turned my face away, refusing to look at her. No one had expected that all their painstaking efforts to make amends to Willow were, in her eyes, completely fake and worthless.

The doctor examined my injuries, and Mom immediately arranged for my hospitalization. In the hospital room, Mom hugged me with tenderness, apologizing. “I’m so sorry, Alice. I never thought Willow would use such a method to frame you. Our whole family was used by her. I’m so sorry, sweetie.”