My mom was a ghost.

She had been by my side for fifteen years.

Once again, she started crying and wailing, “They’re only being nice to you because they want to turn you into your stepmother’s backup blood supply!”

I finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Mom, I wasn’t as naive as you!”

She looked shocked. “You… you can see me?”

I nodded, and her eyes widened even more.

I watched as my dad slapped my stepmother hard, twice, and yelled, “Go donate blood for my daughter, right now!”

——

When I was fifteen, I won a national gold medal for my essay.

I ran back to the villa, waving the magazine and excitedly calling out for my parents.

A woman floated beside me, circling in excitement.

But when she read the essay, she suddenly burst into tears.

“Sienna, you foolish child, wake up!”

“They’re only being nice to you because they want to turn you into your stepmother’s backup blood supply, so they can drain you whenever she needs it!”

Her anger was so intense it almost messed up my hair.

I finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Mom, stop it!”

“You really think I’m as naive as you?”

She looked stunned. “You… you can see me?”

I just smiled and threw myself into my dad’s arms as he stood waiting at the door.

My stepmother smiled sweetly beside him, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“Sienna, you’re amazing! Your dad should reward you properly!”

“How about giving you the ‘Tears of Love’?”

I quickly waved my hands. “Oh no, I couldn’t!”

“That’s the keepsake Dad gave you. You never even wear it!”

My words hit a nerve, and she could only force a smile.

But my dad beamed. “Sure, you can wear it for your next piano performance. It’ll look perfect with your dress!”

My stepmother’s hand, which was peeling an apple, froze for a moment, and she struggled to keep her composure.

I skipped back to my room, eagerly putting on the ‘Tears of Love.’ The smooth white pearls were delicately accented with red agate, like snow and red beans, love and longing.

I styled my hair just right and slipped into a long white gown.

In the mirror, I looked just like my mother, who died in the delivery room.

It took my dad a moment to snap out of it, and then he awkwardly changed the subject.

“So, what was your award-winning essay about?”

I pretended not to notice my stepmother’s hateful glare as I walked over to her with a big smile.

“I wrote about how amazing my mom was! How she raised me, even though she wasn’t well, and how she still donated blood, especially since she had Rh-negative blood...”

As my stepmother’s face darkened, I quickly reached out to grab her hand.

“Mom! Don’t be upset! I just combined a classmate’s story with your experiences for some creative flair...”

Suddenly, I screamed.

“Ah!”

The fruit knife in her hand had accidentally slashed my arm.

A long cut immediately started bleeding, badly.

And I had taken aspirin earlier.

The blood wouldn’t stop.

I collapsed weakly into my dad’s arms.

“Don’t blame Mom! It’s my fault. I made her upset again!”

“Are you crazy? Why are you taking it out on the kid?” My dad glared at my stepmother and rushed me to the hospital.

As expected, the hospital struggled to find Rh-negative blood quickly.

Panicked, my dad blurted out, “Tanya, you need to do it!”

My stepmother stared at him, tears welling up in her eyes.

“No!” I cried, tears streaming down my face.

“Dad, am I going to die? But I can’t drag Mom down with me!”

“You love Mom the most. I don’t want you to be sad! It’s okay if I die. Mom can have another, healthier child to love you both for me!”

My stepmother hesitated, her face pale.

Maybe my trembling hands threw my dad off because suddenly, he stood up.

I gave a subtle nod, and my mom, floating nearby, looked stunned.

With two sharp slaps, my dad hit my stepmother across the face.

“This is what you owe her!” he yelled.

“Now go give my daughter your blood!”

I fingered the necklace around my neck, smirking as I asked,

“Mom, happy now?”

The ‘Tears of Love’ necklace was indeed a token of love between my dad and mom, my real mom, the one who was now a ghost.

My stepmother had tried to coax it out of my dad so many times, but he never budged. Today, she was testing him again, and well...

I do love watching them play their little games of mistrust.

My mom’s ghost floated over, trembling slightly.

“Alright, you win,” she said.

“But I don’t want you hurting yourself just to prove a point!”

Now that’s something only a real mom would say.

I’d been able to see her since I was born, always floating around like a fairy.

She was always smiling.

“My Sienna, you’re going to grow up happy and healthy, okay?”

Whenever I pouted and asked for a hug, she’d immediately try to hold me, only to pass right through me.

Then, she’d end up crying even harder than I did.

But Tanya Cook, my stepmother, would stop my dad from comforting me and say,

“A child shouldn’t be spoiled. She needs to learn to stand on her own.”

Tanya only got really worked up when I actually got hurt. She’d fuss over me like she cared.

“Oh no, you’re bleeding! I told you to be careful! Didn’t you listen to me?”

She even told my teachers that I had some rare hereditary condition that made me bleed easily. And of course, she mentioned that I had Rh-negative blood.

The other girls envied me for getting out of gym class. They all thought I had the best mom ever.

But I knew the truth. I didn’t have any hereditary disease.

The real issue was Tanya.

She didn’t care about me, but just the blood I lost.

And she definitely wasn’t my mom.

My real mom’s name was Bella Fuller. She visited me every night, sitting by my bed and telling me stories.

Even as a little girl, I had already started plotting my revenge.