My father, David, and my stepmother, Linda, forced me to drop out of school and work to pay for my stepsister Chloe's college tuition.

It wasn't until I discovered that Chloe was just pretending to be a top student that I realized their plan: once I got into college, they were going to have Chloe take my place.

Once I knew the truth, I just gave up.

They tried everything they could think of to convince me to keep studying.

I was less than six months old when my mother passed away. After that, I was sent to live with my grandmother for many years, only returning five years ago when she passed away.

My father had moved on with a new partner, and he also had a stepsister, Chloe, who was a year younger than me. He showered her with love, and my arrival was not exactly welcome. I was treated unfairly and with blatant favoritism.

I endured it all in silence, hoping to escape by getting into college, working hard to prove myself.

We were both daughters, but when I was born, my father called me a financial burden, while Chloe was his “gift from heaven.”

Chloe lived in a grand Disney Princess-style room, while I was stuck in a small, cramped storage room.

My father and Linda kept a close eye on Chloe's studies, never once bothering to care about my grades.

Then one day, they called me into their room.

“Maya, there’s more than one way to succeed in life. You don’t have to rely only on your studies.”

After giving me a few suggestive glances, my father cleared his throat and continued.

I clearly remembered them telling Chloe that studying was the only way out of our small town.

Regardless of whether they were right, their double standards were undeniable.

I responded coldly, “Studying is my only way out. I want to continue my education.”

“You…” My father was so angry that his face turned red. He raised his hand to slap me, but Linda quickly pulled his arm down.

Then, for some reason, she grabbed my hand and lightly stroked it. “Look at your hands, Maya. You’ve got calluses from all the studying. It must be so hard for you.”

“It’s not that your father and I don’t want you to study. It’s just that you’re struggling. It’s already your senior year, and you’re still falling behind. You’ll never get into college. You’d be better off coming with me to the factory and becoming an apprentice. At least you’d start making money sooner.”

I yanked my hand away from hers, glaring at the fake sympathy on her face. I let out a cold laugh. “Linda, you make a fair point, but you’re advising the wrong person.”

“I have great grades.” I pulled out my report cards from previous years, smiling as I handed them to her.

Linda’s face twitched when she saw them. Her hands began to shake as she stared at me in disbelief. “You… Chloe has shown us your grades before. Are these real? Or did you make these up?”

She questioned me, but deep down, she knew the truth. She knew I wasn’t someone who liked to boast about my achievements.

After all, I had never shown them a report card before.

My father, too, was visibly uncomfortable. Trying to maintain his authority, he glared at me. “Your grades should speak for themselves. Don’t falsify them for the sake of vanity. Otherwise, you’ll never get into college.”

With that, he dragged Linda out of the room.

I nodded quietly as they walked away.

They were right about one thing: Chloe, who had been faking her top grades all along, didn’t deserve to get into college and certainly wouldn’t!

After our conversation, Dad and Linda discovered that their pride and joy, their daughter, was actually a poor student. They couldn’t bear to confront me directly, so they decided to investigate the reasons behind my failing grades in secret.

As usual, I hid in my storage room after school to continue my studies. Outside, the noise grew louder, and soon, it was right by my door.

There was a knock.

“Maya, come out!”

Unable to concentrate with all the noise, I reluctantly opened the door and stepped out.

A hand grabbed me and dragged me into the living room. Pointing at a pile of papers on the table, Chloe shouted, “These are all for Maya. She’s hiding them here so no one would find out. I’m totally being framed!”

“You’ve ruined me!” Chloe not only slandered me but took advantage of my distraction to pinch me hard.

Dad scanned me up and down, sneering, “You’re still underage and already know how to mess around with men? What kind of shameless person did we raise?”

“Don’t say things like that. She’s your daughter, too,” Linda feigned sympathy, then switched gears and came over to “comfort” me. “Everyone has different aspirations. Some want to be college students, while others want to be housewives. We need to respect people’s dreams.”

“Well, if Chloe wants to be a housewife, we’ll help her drop out.”

She neatly folded the letters and shoved them into my hands, as though I desperately needed them. There was a hidden threat in her tone. “As long as you quit school, we won’t object to you dating.”

Dad finally caught on, nodding in agreement. “Forget it, forget it. You’re not focused on your studies. You might as well get married early and save us the trouble.”

So, these two were trying to decide my entire life for me?

“Burn it. School is more important.”

I glanced at Chloe before tearing up the letters in my hands and tossing them into the mosquito-repellent dish.

Chloe’s eyes welled up with tears, and she reached out. “Don’t…”

When she saw that everyone was looking, she quickly retracted her hand and pouted in frustration.

Seeing her so pathetic, I couldn’t help but sneer.

Their precious daughter, who they hoped would soar to great heights, was nothing more than a love-struck fool. The future was bound to be full of problems for her!

Seeing that I wasn’t causing a scene or fighting back, they had no more reason to scold me, so they simply went back to their rooms.

I glanced at Chloe’s room and shook my head.

She was using my name to cover her tracks and was dating someone secretly. That’s why it was so easy for her to pin the blame on me today.

From the content of the letters, it was clear that she and her boyfriend were very close. Chloe would definitely go to their date tonight, right?

I returned to my room and waited until midnight before slipping out with Chloe.

Before leaving, I intentionally made some noise near Dad’s room to alert them. They thought they might catch me doing something, so they followed me.

Once we arrived at the destination, I hid. I managed to lose Dad and Linda, and then I watched as Chloe and her boyfriend, thinking the night was quiet and empty, openly embraced each other in the hallway.

Dad and Linda quickly noticed their figures and, mistaking them for me, waited for the couple to part before rushing over.

Slap—

Dad grabbed Chloe and pulled her over, slapping her hard across the face. “You’re shameless! Sneaking out to elope in the middle of the night! Forget about school!”

“Maya, how can you be so disobedient?” Linda added loudly, her voice filled with exaggerated outrage.

Chloe, caught off guard, covered her face with her hair, hoping to hide from them.

It seemed like Dad and Linda were trying to make a scene. The noise got louder, attracting the neighbors, who came to watch the drama unfold.

We lived in a community of relocated houses, where most people knew each other.

“Maya’s running off with some guy in the middle of the night, disturbing everyone.”

“We failed to manage our daughter. We didn’t make her focus on her studies.”

Each of them had a turn, practically broadcasting our “family scandal” for the whole neighborhood to hear. They were trying to use this as an excuse to force me to drop out.

The neighbors began to gossip.

“She’s so young and already messing around? What a disgrace.”

“Running off with a man at this hour? Maya must be out of her mind.”

“I’ve heard her stepmother say Maya is hard to teach—rebellious, always at odds with her family.”

“…”

I noticed the sly smile tugging at the corner of Linda’s mouth as she enjoyed the scene. Rubbing my eyes, I walked into the crowd and, acting clueless, called out, “Mom, Dad, why are you here? Weren’t you asleep? What’s going on?”

“You… What are you doing here?” Dad looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. He shoved through the crowd and yanked at Chloe’s hair, his face pale with fear. He collapsed onto the ground in shock. “Chloe, how is it you?!”

“Chloe…” Linda froze, her face pale as she almost fainted at the sight of her precious daughter.

Everyone's attention immediately shifted when they saw Chloe's face.

“So it’s Chloe sneaking around with someone? I thought she was all about academics and being a model student. What’s she up to now?”

“Every time I hear those two rave about Chloe, I thought she was the perfect daughter. I guess I was wrong.”

“From now on, I’ll just ignore everything those two say. Maya seems like the more dependable one.”

“...”

Dad and Linda's forced smiles finally faded. In unison, they yelled at Chloe, “Get back home now!”

Reluctantly, Chloe let go of her boyfriend, lowering her head as she followed her parents out.

Watching the three of them slink away, the spectacle was over, so I headed home to study.

Knock, knock, knock—

The sound of frantic knocking on my door echoed through the room. Before I could even ask what was going on, a frustrated voice rang out from the hallway.

“Don’t go running around embarrassing us!”

Wasn’t it their precious daughter making a fool of herself out there?

I bet they were just worried I might be praised, making their precious daughter look bad in comparison.

Ignoring them, I kept reading. After venting their frustration on the other side of the door, they eventually left.

The next day, as usual, they had milk and eggs prepared for Chloe.

I sat down in the usual spot, where a bowl of porridge was waiting for me, and dug in. Someone suddenly nudged my shoulder.

“I thought about it, and it’s not fair to let Chloe have all the eggs. From now on, you’ll get one too.”

Looking at the so-called “egg” in Linda’s hand, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Wasn’t this a failed egg from an attempt to hatch chicks?

Back home, we called these lost memory eggs. They say if a young child eats too many, they might start forgetting things.

Glancing up at the expectant faces of Dad and Linda, I took the egg and ate it without hesitation.

Rather than focusing on what others might think of me, it seemed more productive to keep an eye on Chloe…

After Chloe's poor grades had gotten to them, Dad and Linda, still unable to scold their precious daughter, spent a lot of money on extra tutoring for her. Every night, they stayed late with her, helping with her studies.

During these few days without them around, things had been quieter, and my study efficiency had definitely improved.

There were only three months left until the college entrance exams...

Aside from meal times, I only interacted with them when I needed them to buy exercise books—something I hated having to do.

“Mom, Dad, we need to buy study materials for school.”

After dinner, Chloe was the first to bring it up.

Worried they’d refuse, I added quickly, “The school is ordering them in bulk. We have to buy them.”

As usual, Chloe’s request was met with no resistance. They handed her the money without a second thought.

When it came to me, Linda exchanged a glance with Dad. He responded, “Your mother and I don’t have much money left. You’re good at school, so it doesn’t matter if you use these materials or not.”

In the past, they would’ve put up with this for the sake of appearances, but now, with the fear of me surpassing their precious daughter, they were determined to block my progress.

Unable to change their minds, I quietly found a part-time job to earn the money I needed for the materials.

With the heavy schedule of senior year, I had no choice but to skip some of my easier classes and work extra shifts to make up the money faster.

On my last day of work, as I waited for my boss to pay me, I thought I might finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. But instead, I encountered a storming Dad and Linda.

They had brought my homeroom teacher, Mr. Thompson, along. They stormed into my part-time job, clearly prepared, but acting as though they were caught by surprise and were deeply upset.

“Do you have any idea how hard we’re working to support your education? And here you are, skipping class to work?” Dad scolded, glaring at me, then turning to Mr. Thompson to continue, “We tell you to focus on your studies, but you just want to work. What’s next? Dropping out to work full time? You’re getting impossible to control…”

Linda, playing the good cop, chimed in, “She’s a teenager, you know? Her mental state is fragile. If she can’t do what she wants, she might get really upset.”

“If she truly doesn’t want to go to school, we shouldn’t keep forcing her. We don’t want her to have a breakdown over this.”

After hearing them out, Mr. Thompson seemed to buy into their narrative that I didn’t want to study. He tried to offer some gentle advice, “You’re such a bright student. It would be a shame to drop out. After school, you can always work!”

“I want to study, Mr. Thompson, I just...” I started to explain, but my dad’s shout cut me off.

“If you want to study, then why are you skipping class? Are we short on food or drink here? Do we need you to work?”

Once those words left his mouth, I knew I couldn’t explain myself truthfully.

They’d probably already secretly paid for my study materials, using that as an excuse to convince Mr. Thompson that I skipped class because I simply didn’t want to study.

And now, they had a reason to force me into quitting school without facing any consequences…

Knowing them too well, I wasn’t about to follow their script. I took Linda’s hand, mimicking her manipulative tone, and said with red eyes, “I don’t want to stop studying. I just wanted to save up to buy a gift for Linda.”

“Her birthday is coming up, and I’m not good at expressing myself. I’ve often been misunderstood as having issues with Linda, so I wanted to buy a gift to show my appreciation.”

Mr. Thompson let out a relieved sigh, patting Linda on the shoulder. “Maya may have been a bit hasty, but she’s truly a good daughter. You’re lucky to have her!”

“Better than a real daughter!” she added.

Linda’s smile wavered, stiffened, and she gave my hand a forced squeeze, gritting her teeth, “We misunderstood you, Maya.”

“Yeah, Maya’s a great kid,” Dad added, offering the weakest compliment of all.

With that, they led me away from Mr. Thompson, but just a moment later, their faces dropped.

I silently followed behind, eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Great, we paid for her materials and now she’s got a reputation for being a filial daughter. What a loss!”

“We’ve already spent so much on extra lessons for Chloe. She’s much smarter than Maya, so she’ll catch up in no time.”

“Once Chloe catches up to Maya, we’ll have the perfect reason to put her down and force her to quit school!”

I couldn’t help but snicker behind them.

Can they be this blindly confident? Chloe, with her love-stricken brain, is having enough trouble focusing on her studies—there’s no way she’s catching up to me…