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!"

For an instant, delight flashed in my father's eyes. He hid it fast, but not fast enough. I caught it.

Afraid I'd notice, he rushed into that fake, syrupy tone of his.

"Why give up on the university?"

"Once your legs heal, you can still—"

"Even when they heal, I'll be walking with a limp for the rest of my life."

"I don't want to go anymore."

To protect myself, I had no choice but to make up reasons in front of them, buying whatever time I could.

And since my father hadn't picked up on the fact that I knew their secret, he let his guard down.

"Good girl. You've really had a hard time of it."

"If you don't want to go, then don't. With your grades you can still get into a decent school right here in the city."

I used being hungry as an excuse and sent them out to buy me some food.

Once they left, I checked again and again that they were really gone, then quickly called my boyfriend, Herbert Mason.

The moment the call connected, everything I'd been holding in broke loose.

Hearing me cry, Herbert panicked.

"Vic, what's wrong?"

"Did someone hurt you?"

I cried for a long time before I could steady myself, because Herbert was the last person I could trust.

"My legs are broken. My father hired someone to run me down."

Tears slid down my face and into my mouth, bitter, so bitter it filled me with despair for my whole life.

On the other end, Herbert went quiet for a moment, then spoke with anger in his voice.

"Vic, are you absolutely sure it was him who had someone break your legs?"

"He said it himself."

"Damn it. Even a vicious animal doesn't devour its own young. Why would he destroy you?"

"Because I got into an Ivy League school!"

"What the hell? Getting in like that should've made him proud of the whole family."

"Because my stepsister got eaten up with jealousy. She couldn't even get into college, so she wasn't about to let me go to a place like that."

"So she threatened to kill herself unless my father broke my legs. Once I can't walk, there's no way I'm going to that university."

Herbert cursed, full of fury, then poured out a stream of words about how much it hurt him to see me like this.

But all I wanted was for him to pull me out of this hell. I would go to that university, but only after I made sure my legs were safe.

Herbert said he'd come get me the moment I was discharged, that he wouldn't let me go back to that cold, suffocating house.

After the call ended, Silvia Henson pushed the door open and walked in.

The second she saw me, she put on a mask of fake sympathy. "Oh dear! Sister, whatever will you do now?"

"You worked so hard for so long to finally get in, and who'd have thought, one little celebration and you get hit by a car."

"If you can't walk, you can't go. Just thinking about it, how painful."

"So you see, people really ought to keep a low profile. You mustn't get too full of yourself."

Then she covered her mouth and snickered.

Whenever no one else was around, this was always how she treated me.

In the past I'd have blown up at her on the spot, but it always ended the same way, with my father siding with my stepmother, both of them ganging up to scold me for being immature, for picking on someone younger.

Now I was completely alone. I couldn't afford to go head to head with them anymore.

I said nothing. I closed my eyes and lay back down.

But Silvia wasn't about to pass up such a perfect chance to mock me.

"Tsk, tsk. Are you angry?"

"I'm only telling the truth."

She was about to say more when Herbert arrived.

"What are you two talking about?"

Herbert?

I forced my eyes open and pushed myself up. When I saw who had come, my nose stung with tears.

Herbert looked at me and quickened his steps.

"Vic, don't move!"

"Are your legs any better?"

I shook my head. If Silvia hadn't been in the room, I would have told him one thing plainly.

Because the moment my father learned my legs could heal, he'd cripple them a second time.

I reached out and held on to him, like someone who'd fallen into a pit and finally found a way out.

Silvia called out, "Herb, sis is going to be fine. Don't worry."

She walked over, her eyes fixed on Herbert with open longing. As if I couldn't tell she wanted my boyfriend too.

"Silvia, you can go now."

"I don't want to see you. Before he got here, you were laughing at me in the most mocking tone."

Silvia's face crumpled with hurt. "I did not. Why do you always slander me, sis?"

"We may not be sisters by blood, but I never once laughed at you!"

She'd barely finished when my father and stepmother came back with a tray of plain porridge and side dishes.

Silvia quickly wiped her eyes and squeezed a meek little smile onto her face.

"Daddy!"

"Silvie, why are you crying?"

Diana set down the porridge and hurried over to hold her.

"I'm only crying because I feel so sorry for sis."

My father nodded, satisfied, then reached out and stroked her head.

"I've always known you're a good girl."

I couldn't stand another second in the same room with them.

I gripped Herbert's hand and looked up at him, pleading. "I want to be discharged. But I don't want to go home."

"You could take me to your place—"

"Vic, you're a girl. You can't live with a man before you're married."

I turned my head and looked at my father, cold. Whether he cared about my reputation or had something else in mind, we both knew the truth.

Herbert tightened his hand around mine, and the warmth of it gave me strength.

"Sir, Victoria Henson is the only woman I'll ever want in this life. There's nothing here that could ruin anyone's reputation."

"She'll be my wife sooner or later. My home is her home too."

In that moment, the emotion pushed the grief clean out of my heart.

Silvia, hearing Herbert's words, went dark and twisted in the face.

With Herbert saying that, my father could hardly object.

The weight on my chest finally lifted, and hope for that Ivy League place began to come back to me.

After ten days in the hospital, I was finally able to leave.

My left leg could bear weight with a crutch, but the right one was worse and still needed time.

Herbert told me to rest and heal without worrying, said he'd get in touch with the university's dean, and that once my legs were better I could go back to school.

When I heard that, I cried from happiness.

When my father and the others came to see me, they kept staring at my legs.

It scared me enough that I shrank behind Herbert, and afraid I'd start panicking again, he quickly had a bodyguard help me back to my room to rest.

I thought I'd finally have some peace. I didn't expect Silvia to push the door open and walk straight in.

"What do you want? Get out!"

"Oh please. You think having Herbert around gives you a spine?"

"Let me tell you, it won't help you."

Then she lifted her head and swept her gaze around my room, the greed in it impossible to hide.

"Victoria Henson, everything you have right now is just a dream."

"Because very soon, I'll be taking your place. Not only will I be Mrs. Mason, I'll get Daddy's company too."

Seeing how sure of herself she was, unease rose in my chest.

But then I thought of how much Herbert loved me. He would never throw me away.

She read exactly what I was thinking, and laughed out loud.

"What an idiot."

"Facing an opponent as brainless as you, I've lost even the urge for revenge."

With that, she left.

But I only grew more uneasy, so I took my crutch and went to find Herbert.

I never expected that at the door of the study, I'd hear him talking with my father.

"If you'd been a little more ruthless last time, you could have snapped her legs clean off."