Crippled by My Own Family, Saved by a Secret Uncle

The day my acceptance letter arrived, I got into the Ivy League school I'd worked so hard for.

On the way home from celebrating, a car ran me down and broke both my legs.

Crying, I clutched the doctor's hand and begged him to save them.

If they were truly ruined, I wouldn't just lose the ability to walk. I'd lose my place at the university too.

The doctor sighed and told me the odds of success were low, that I should prepare myself.

Hearing that, the grief was too much, and I passed out.

When I opened my eyes again, my stepmother and my father were whispering somewhere close by.

"Roger Henson, was it you who had Victoria Henson's legs broken?"

"I had no choice. Silvia didn't even make it into a decent college, and she's been eating herself alive over it. Then Victoria gets into an Ivy League school, and Silvia was so torn up she tried to jump off the building."

"Thank God I caught her in time. But she said if Victoria actually goes off to that school, she'll be a joke to every relative we have, and she'll try to kill herself again."

"So I steeled myself and had Victoria's legs crippled. All I want is peace in this house!"

To save her daughter, my stepmother chose to back my father.

Lying in that hospital bed, my face was already streaked with tears.

So the old saying was true. A stepmother turns your own father into a stepfather.

Fine. Then I don't want their so-called family love either.

...

1

"But doing this, I've wronged my dead wife, and I've wronged my daughter lying in that bed."

"Getting into an Ivy League school should have been something to make the whole family proud. But it just had to land the same time Silvia failed."

"Silvia sees her sister do so well, and she can't even get into college. Of course it eats at her."

"To save Silvia, and to keep peace in this house, I had no choice but to cripple Victoria's legs."

Hearing that, I clenched my fists so hard it hurt, the unfairness welling up until I nearly sobbed out loud.

To get into that school, I studied. I refused to waste my days.

That honor was something I earned with my own effort. And my stepsister?

She never once put her heart into schoolwork. She loafed around and played all day.

Why should I be the one to atone for her failing to get in?

It wasn't fair to me. It wasn't how a real father should act.

I was about to sit up and confront them when the doctor came in and spoke with my father.

"We managed to set her bones. But whether she'll be able to walk properly, I can't say."

"You'll have to ask her that once she wakes up."

My father nodded, wearing his grieving face.

The moment the doctor left, my stepmother panicked.

"Roger, they actually set her bones? If she can walk again, doesn't that mean she'll go back to that university?"

My father's face went calm all at once, and only I, who had stayed by his side all these years, knew what that so-called calm meant.

"If she really can walk, I'll cripple her a second time."

His words drove into my already bleeding heart like a knife and twisted hard.

The pain was bleak and hollow, so sharp I couldn't breathe.

I started thinking about my mother. If she could see how they were treating the daughter she'd left behind in this world, how much it would break her heart.

And my stepmother, a mother herself, treated it as if it were only natural.

Her face was twisted with fury, as if she'd wipe out anyone who threatened her daughter.

I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I wanted to walk again and go to that university, but reality seemed set against me.

"Don't say anything in a moment. Let me watch her and ask about her legs myself."

I knew I couldn't keep faking sleep for long, so I opened my eyes.

Seeing me awake, my father put on his kind-father face.

"Victoria, you're awake?"

"The doctor's already set your legs. Now it's just whether you can walk properly again."

My stepmother squeezed out a strained, ugly little smile too, and the sight of both their faces sickened me.

Meeting my father's gentle, hypocritical face, I knew that however much I hated them, I couldn't let it out now.

"Dad, so what if they set them? I'll still walk with a limp for the rest of my life."

"I'm not going to that university anymore!"