3

BANG!

The door was smashed open.

My mother came in but didn't see me.

"You damn brat, where the hell did you go?" my mother screamed.

I clung desperately to the wall, not daring to move a muscle.

I even subconsciously held my breath.

'I can't let my mother know I'm here. I can't repeat the mistakes of my past life.'

That was the one thought consuming my mind.

Just as my mother's footsteps drew closer and closer, I saw someone.

The guy next door.

He'd gone to the same high school as me, but he always had a bad reputation. My mother said he was a punk and told me to stay away from him.

Before, I had always followed my mother's words without question.

But now, I had no choice.

I reached out to him, and he pulled me over his balcony and into his apartment.

"What happened? I heard banging from your place first thing this morning," Silas Kane said, looking at me with curiosity in his eyes.

I quickly put a finger to my lips, shushing him.

My clothes were soaked through with cold sweat, and the stray hairs on my forehead were plastered to my skin. I must have looked an absolute mess.

Silas Kane got the message and fell silent, listening with me to the commotion next door.

My mother couldn't find me anywhere.

So she started begging Mina Rhodes. "Sweetie, you've always been Mommy's favorite, haven't you? Just take Mommy's place this once, okay? Mommy will buy you candy."

Next door, Mina Rhodes's screams could be heard throughout the entire building.

I closed my eyes. I felt no relief, only terror.

A family like that... it sends a chill down your spine.

"It was her! It's all her fault!" a voice rang out from next door again.

It was my mother's voice, pointing the finger. The mob must have broken in.

"How could it be me? I'm just a student! My mother did all of this! Every debt has its debtor. If you want someone, go after my mother!" my sister's voice was so shrill with terror it was about to break.

Just moments ago, she had been so self-righteous when trying to convince me to take our mother's place. But now that it was her turn, it was a different story.

"Look at me, I'm already an old woman! What man would possibly be interested in me?"

My mother was so desperate to pin the blame on my sister that she'd say anything.

Next door, the people who had violently broken down the door were starting to get confused.

"Sis! Which one of these two is it?" a gruff voice called out.

Even through the wall, I knew who that was.

The woman's younger brother.

He was stout and brawny, and he was the one who had called in their whole crew.

And because he had some special connections, he was able to arrange things so no one could call for help.

"It's her!"

"It's her!"

Two voices shouted simultaneously from next door.

It was my mother and Mina Rhodes.

They must have been restrained, and now they were frantically blaming each other.

"Two of them?" a woman's voice asked.

A chill ran through me instantly.

In my past life, when I was paraded through the streets in shame, this was the voice that gave the order.

She was one of the main culprits.

"No, it was just one person! This whole thing was my worthless daughter's doing," my mother interjected again, trying to get her word in first.

But then, to everyone's surprise, the woman said, "If that's the case, then they can both be paraded through the streets. Anyone who could raise a daughter like that can't be a good person, either!"

: Found

4

I had to agree. If my mother were a good person, she wouldn't have done something like this. People wouldn't have come to our door, and today's tragedy never would have happened.

The commotion next door gradually subsided.

My strength gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor.

Finally, the tragedy of my past life wouldn't happen to me again.

Silas Kane brought me a glass of water. He handed it to me without asking any questions.

I was grateful for his silence. It felt like he was leaving me with one last shred of dignity.

I didn't dare leave his apartment for the entire day.

The slightest noise from outside made me tremble with fear.

"Don't worry. I live alone," Silas Kane said, making a point to tell me when he brought me a meal.

I hadn't interacted with him much in my past life.

'Thinking about it now, I really did rarely see his parents.'

"Thank you." Now that they were long gone, I finally dared to speak, my voice hoarse.

"No need. I'm just worried you'll fall to your death and tank the local property values."

...His heartless words instantly extinguished the gratitude I'd just felt.

'Maybe his sharp tongue was part of the reason people didn't like him.'

I rested for a bit. As soon as my strength returned, I immediately left his place to go home.

I hadn't brought my keys, but since my mother hadn't been the one to throw me out this time, the lock had been pried open by those people.

The kitchen knife my mother had tried to attack me with was still by the door. I kicked it aside, pushed open the door she had hacked to pieces, and pulled my suitcase out from under the bed. Then I started stuffing my clothes inside.

I couldn't stay in that house a moment longer.

I took all the money I had. It wasn't much—just $1,005.

But it was far safer to be out on my own than to stay in that house.

I bought a ticket to the next city over. It wasn't that I didn't want to go farther, but the little money I had forced me to find a place to hide nearby.

That night, my mother and sister blew up my phone.

I didn't dare answer a single call. They just bombarded me with frantic voice messages, screaming accusations at me.

The two of them blamed me for all the humiliation and strange looks they'd endured that day, acting as if I was the root of all their problems.

I didn't want to hear it, so I just blocked their numbers.

The world fell silent, and I felt alive again.

I went out and found a job. After two months, my financial situation had stabilized. I thought I had finally escaped the tragedy of my past life.

But then, my mother showed up at my door.

She was wearing a face mask and, very obviously, a wig.

'I knew why. It was what those people did to me in my past life when they dragged me outside—they took a pair of scissors and hacked off all my hair.'

''Why bother covering up? Scared of people looking at you now?' the woman had sneered, slapping me across the face.'

'My face had been red and swollen. My hair, which I had painstakingly grown for five years, was chopped into a mangled mess.'

'And none of it had anything to do with me.'

'Yet all the insults had been hurled straight at me.'

Even though it hadn't happened to me this life, the memory was too deeply ingrained. I could never forget the humiliation of being paraded through the streets.

In my past life, my own mother broke both my legs, handed me over to them, and even joined in on their abuse. Compared to that, the fact that she could stand before me now, perfectly fine except for a mask... her fate was far better than mine had been.

I barely had a moment to think.

The moment she saw me, my mother lunged forward and grabbed a fistful of my hair.