On the day when my parents took my sister abroad for a trip, I was sent to a reform institution.

There, I experienced hellish torture.

They fixed me on a chair for a photo shoot till the second I died.

My mom yelled angrily through the screen, "Violet! You're so bold! How dare you hang up on me!

"If you can't get rid of your bad habits, rot in there!"

Little did she know, I had already died at that time...

——

My fifty-day reform period was about to end.

But I was forever stuck in this hellish institution.

After I died, my soul floated in midair as I watched them fix my body on a chair and make a video call to my mom.

In the video, I lowered my head with my eyes slightly opened and my fingertips holding a lit cigarette.

I looked no different from a rebellious teenager.

I wouldn't even let my mom see my face.

The coach looked guilty. "Don't blame her. We aren't good enough to teach her to be better."

My mom smiled awkwardly and thanked him for teaching me patiently.

Then she turned to me, looking disgusted.

She angrily shouted through the screen, "Violet, don't think anyone will think you're cool with you behaving like this.

"You'll only make people feel disgusted. If you can't get rid of your bad habits, just stay in there for the rest of your life! Forget about going to college. If you cause trouble someday, you'll be toast!"

She hung up the video call without any hesitation.

I felt bitter and cried uncontrollably, my tears falling to the floor.

I'm toast already.

I'm dead, aren't I?

I died because my family was so indifferent to me.

I died because this reform institution treated me as an animal.

I slumped to the floor from the chair.

The coach turned cruel again. He sealed and packed my body and buried it on the desolate mountain behind the institution's back door.

My soul began to wander on the streets.

Unconsciously, I returned home.

I saw my parents and my sister, Wendy Buckley, who had just returned home with suitcases in their hands.

After Wendy and I finished our exams, my parents took Wendy abroad for a trip.

Meanwhile, I was sent to a rehabilitation institution for corrective education because of bad behavior and psychological problems.

I was tortured by that human purgatory for a whole fifty days.

They, who were far away overseas, were laughing so happily and brightly.

The same thing was happening right now.

Wendy was wearing a precious dress and walking in front, while my parents were carrying suitcases with indulgences in their eyes.

"Sweetheart, slow down. Mind the steps."

"Mom, I'm already eighteen. I'm not a kid anymore. I won't be tripped easily."

Mom affectionately held her hand and passed through my transparent soul. "Even if you're twenty-eight, you will always be a little girl who never grows up in my eyes."

Dad, who was following behind, smiled happily and followed them.

See?

Without me, the three of them were so happy.

Yet in the next second, they stopped laughing.

When they opened the door, they ran into their neighbor, who brought me up casually. Their neighbor asked my mom, "Salena, you're back. Where's Violet? I heard she got some great grades this time."

Salena Ward was my mom. Her expression suddenly changed, and the indulgence in her eyes was replaced by disgust.

"I don't wanna bring her up. So what if she has great grades? Her character is questionable. I'm so unlucky. She causes trouble all the time!

"I spent 6,000 dollars to enroll her in an institution. The professionals will teach her a lesson.

"6,000 dollars for fifty days! I did it for her own good, and she complained about me. When I called her, she didn't even look at me.

"I gave birth to her, or I wouldn't have given a damn if she was beaten to death."

…

My mom always talked non-stop when I was brought up.

She wanted to show everyone that she was so aggrieved raising me.

The neighbor awkwardly smiled, "Well, she's your daughter, isn't she? Be tolerant. Perhaps things will get better after she comes back."

"Hope so. Enough about her. Wendy is going to college next month. We were abroad and didn't have time to throw her a party for celebration. Can you help me get a reservation at the biggest banquet hall in your hotel?

"I wanna throw my precious little girl a grand celebration party."

I was so upset that I could barely feel anything.

Wendy was her precious little girl.

And I was just a troublemaker in her eyes.

Wendy and I were twins.

Since birth, she had been smarter and more beautiful than me. Everyone loved her.

At the age of three, I couldn't even speak clearly, but she could already recite poems.

Yet Wendy got lost when the nanny took her out to play.

My mom was in agony.

She missed Wendy every day.

From then on, I had been enveloped in Wendy's shadow.

At first, I didn't remember that I had an older sister.

I asked foolishly, "Mom, why are there two toothbrushes in my room?"

My mom held me in her arms and said, "One of them belongs to a person who's very, very important to me."

Her eyes turned red, but I didn't think too much.

Because I was just a little girl back then.

Wendy was found back when she was thirteen years old.

When she came back, her skin was very pale, and she looked skinny and malnourished.

My mom held Wendy and cried until she fainted several times.

She swore that she'd spend her whole life making it up to Wendy.

To do that, she'd love Wendy wholeheartedly, which meant she'd stop caring about me."

"Violet, be good."

"Wendy has suffered so much. From now on, you should take care of her with us. She'll live in the room with the balcony because she likes it."

"You have a lot of dresses. Give Wendy this one. She likes it."

"Stop eating! You've eaten so much! Go. Take this plate to Wendy."

...

Later on, I became completely invisible in this family.

Wendy was the only one they cared about.

In high school, I burned her arm with a cigarette butt, leaving a scar.

I found someone to strip her naked, beat her up, and threaten her not to compete with me for our parents' favor.

Then I got my parents' attention again.

My mom slapped me hard a few times.

"Are you an animal? Wendy is your sister! How could you do that to her?

"Do you know how much effort we put in to find her? If you drive her away, you might as well kill me!"

But I didn't drive Wendy away.

I saw her hanging out with hooligans and walked over because I wanted to tell her to stay away from them.

But then I saw her smoking too while getting along with those people, laughing and joking.

Maybe she didn't want me to tell on her.

She burned herself and then staged a drama with her friends.

Then my parents knew about it.

My mom firmly believed in what she said.

On the contrary, in my mom's eyes, I was a total liar.

It was very cold that night.

I knelt in the corridor until midnight...

The reason why my parents sent me to a correctional institution this time was because Wendy had severe diarrhea and vomiting after eating the ice cream I gave her before her dance competition.

As a result, she missed the opportunity to win an award.

My mom slapped my face again.

She made me kneel and apologize, looking ferocious. "Violet, you disgust me!

"Wendy is way better than you whether she wins or not. You're nothing compared to her."

I refused to admit it, and I wouldn't apologize, and in the end, I was forcibly taken to the institution.

The institution claimed they could make teenagers' psychological problems go away.