“Forget it, forget it, you work, Mom will feed you.”

She picked up the vegetable soup with a helpless sigh.

I was just about to stop her when her hand turned, and the entire bowl of vegetable soup spilled, drenching the computer completely.

The whole team had been surviving on coffee for half a year. The leader had reminded us countless times that this was the company’s life-or-death KPI, a thirty-billion-dollar project proposal.

After a few flickers and buzzing sounds, the screen went black. Just like my brain, it crashed instantly.

The sticky smell of vegetable soup spread through the room, dripping along the keyboard grooves and soaking into my pants.

I seemed to hear the taut string in my head being plucked, releasing a sound on the verge of snapping.

“Sorry, Millicent, Mom was just afraid you were hungry. Don’t be mad, Mom will wipe it for you.”

She snatched tissues and rubbed the keyboard hard, pressing the vegetable soup deeper into the gaps between the keys.

“Mom!” My voice cracked. “Don’t touch it, I’ll do it myself.”

She stepped back, two steps away, her shoulders trembling slightly as tears began to fall.

“Are you blaming Mom? Everything Mom did was for your own good. I only had one daughter. Was it wrong for me to worry about your health?”

“For my own good”, those words pressed down like three heavy boulders, crushing me almost beyond breath.

I looked at her, then at the mess on the table, and finally at her tears.

From deep within surged that near-collapse, the dull pain I still had to suppress, like a whip with barbs striking my nerves again and again.

Even as I tried to steady my breathing, my trembling voice still betrayed the edge of breaking.

“I need to get this computer fixed right now. Stop bothering me, okay?”

Tomorrow was the final presentation. I had no time to fall apart.

Grabbing the computer, I called a friend who knew computers well, and after a long night of rescue, the data was finally recovered.

When I returned home, it was already six in the morning. Dragging my weary body, I set an alarm for an hour later and collapsed into bed.

The moment sunlight brushed across my face, I jolted up as if struck by lightning.

When I pressed my phone, the black screen of shutdown reflected my thunderstruck expression.

Mom pushed the door open, smiling proudly as though she had done me a favor.

“Millicent, you’re awake. Mom saw how tired you were, so I turned off your phone.”

My breath hitched, and I forced the words out slowly. “You turned it off?”

Her smile brimmed with motherly kindness.

“Of course. What nonsense job is this? Look at how exhausted you are. My heart aches for you. See? Since I didn’t wake you, you slept until ten o’clock.”

“Don’t worry, I already used your phone to warn your boss. If he dares to exploit employees like this again, I’ll complain about that black-hearted company. Anyway, it’s so late already, don’t bother going to work today. Go buy some outfits for your cousin. She’s going on a date this afternoon, it can’t be delayed.”

My throat burned, dry as fire. On the screen, dozens of missed calls and hundreds of frantic mentions in the WhatsApp group exploded as the phone came to life.

I sent only two words into the team chat.

“Ten minutes!”

The meeting had been set for ten. It was already 10:05. My teammates had fought me for ten minutes of delay, and I still had faith I could pull the situation back.

I dashed into the bathroom, splashed water over my face, still wearing yesterday’s clothes, grabbed a business jacket, and bolted for the door.

But before I could step out, my mom blocked me.

“Millicent, you can’t go. I already promised Kiersey that you would accompany her to buy clothes today. If you leave now, what about Kiersey?”

An absurd, searing fury roared through me, rising from my feet to the top of my head.

The last thread of reason stopped me from cursing aloud.

I yanked my hand free, holding back my temper before speaking. “Do you want to drive me to jump off the rooftop before you’re satisfied?”

Only then did she loosen her grip, murmuring, “Anyway, you’ll have to come back after a while.”

I was in such a rush to escape that I didn’t stop to think about those words.

When I stumbled into the meeting room, sweaty, one heel missing, and flipped open the computer, all I saw was the formatted blue initial screen.

I stood there, dumbstruck.

A cold wave of dread surged through me, numbing my fingers.

Only then did I realize what my mom meant by “after a while you’ll have to come back.”

“Millicent, where’s the proposal?”

My assistant, Athisa Serrano, asked in a trembling voice.

Clutching the edge of the table, I steadied myself against the dizziness clouding my head and whispered, “Bring me the initial draft.”

Her eyes widened, but at last she gave in and went to retrieve it

More than a hundred pages of proposal, I could recall the framework, yet the tangled, web-like details left me struggling.

As if the chaos wasn’t enough already.

The sharp buzzing of my phone suddenly broke the silence of the conference room.

I quickly declined the video call, flipped my phone facedown, and pressed on with the presentation.

The leader’s face grew darker with every vibration.

Feeling needles prickling my back, I snatched up my phone and shut it off completely.

I lifted the laser pointer, barely managing two words; this time, it was the leader’s phone ringing.

He stared at the flashing video call before handing the phone to me.

My head roared, my breath nearly stopped. I had no idea when my mom had added my leader on WhatsApp.

“I’ll give you five minutes. Handle your personal matters first.”

Swallowing the sting in my throat, I bowed again and again, apologized to the clients, and rushed out of the conference room with my phone in hand.

The video appeared on my screen. My mom was radiant, holding up a floral dress against my cousin. “Millicent, why didn’t you answer my video call? Look at this dress, doesn’t Kiersey look beautiful in it?”

My throat burned with fire, my temples pounded relentlessly, and I felt my strength slipping away, leaving only a hollow helplessness. “It looks good, buy it! If there are others you like, buy them too, I’ll pay. Just don’t call anyone around me ever again, okay?”

My mom stiffened, her eyes welling with tears as she cried out, “So now you think I’m annoying, don’t you? You promised Kiersey you’d buy her clothes, but you broke your word. I’m keeping her company for you, and yet you’re blaming me?”

I pressed my forehead, reminding myself over and over: That’s my mom, my real mom. Endure it, endure it again.

“Mom, I only slept four hours last night. I’m drained. Today’s project decides my entire career, and the proposal is already ruined. Please, I’m begging you, let me off this time, okay?”

Her eyes widened, and tears of grievance spilled at once. “Fine, fine, fine! You’re busy with work, making big money, and climbing high as an executive. And me, just an old woman living off her daughter, useless and worthless, of course, you despise me. I won’t call you again. Even if I drop dead this very moment, I won’t call you again. Rest assured!”

Before I could answer, the call ended, leaving only the hollow beep of the dial tone.

I leaned against the wall for a moment, gathering myself before stepping back into the conference room.

Thankfully, when it came to the crucial part of the core technology, I spoke with ease, and the clients’ tense expressions gradually softened.

With the company’s long-established trust and reputation in the industry backing us, today’s battle, full of twists and turns, was finally won, barely.

As the meeting ended, the leader cast me a displeased look.

“Work matters, but so does family. I don’t ever want to see today’s situation repeat itself. If this project succeeds, the position of project department director will be yours, provided no more mishaps occur.”

I nodded, agreeing to everything without hesitation.

Once he left, the strength I had been clinging to deserted me. My hand slipped from the table, and I collapsed backward, crashing into the chair before sliding to the ground.

“Millicent!” My assistant’s cry cut through the room.

I tried to wave it off and push myself up, but a stabbing pain in my lower abdomen robbed me of every ounce of energy.

Before I could utter a word, the world went dark.

The next thing I knew, violent jolts and bumps shook me awake.

And when my eyes focused on what lay ahead, I almost lost control of my expression.

My mom, together with my uncle Blake Coleman’s entire family, stood at the ER entrance, their voices echoing through the night.

“How can you call yourselves doctors? Don’t you even know how to diagnose? My daughter’s pain is in her lower abdomen; this is clearly gynecological! What does it have to do with the appendix?”

Blake shoved the doctor, his voice booming like a heavy drum.

“Don’t think I don’t see through you! You heartless doctors just want to squeeze money, claiming my niece has appendicitis, ordering piles of useless tests. When the tests show nothing, you force her to transfer! You bloodsuckers, do you find the suffering of common people so delicious?”

The doctor tried to stay calm.

“The patient’s pain is sharp and worsening in the right lower abdomen, accompanied by chills and high fever. This is a textbook case of acute appendicitis. Surgery must be performed at once.”

“Bullshit!” My Aunt Anne snapped, spitting right in the doctor’s face. “I’m a woman, I know women’s illnesses best. Millicent’s symptoms are clearly gynecological. My sister already said Millicent didn’t come home last night, so what does that mean? It means she went to a hotel with a man, got carried away, and now something down there went wrong. You think you can trick us with some appendix surgery? Dream on!”

The crowd thickened around us. My mind spun under the sharp grip of pain, but one truth rang mercilessly clear: if I didn’t give in today, even if I collapsed and died, no one would care.

With trembling fingers, I seized the doctor’s arm and whispered between gasps, “Please… help me register for gynecology.”

The bed was pushed through a long corridor. The lights above me flickered like ghosts, swimming in and out of my pain-blurred vision.

From somewhere far away, I heard my mother’s trembling voice, “Millicent, don’t be afraid. Mom won’t let anything happen to you.”

The moment her words fell, a male doctor hurried out of the gynecology office that had received the notice.

As he stepped forward to take the hospital bed, my mom suddenly raised her hand and slapped him across the face.

The doctor froze, stunned in disbelief. The nurse beside him instantly darkened her expression.

“Ma’am, why are you doing this? Why are you hitting people?”

My mom’s eyes blazed with fury as she pointed at him. “You bring a man to examine my daughter’s private parts, what kind of vile intentions do you carry?”

The doctor, as though already used to scenes like this, remained steady and answered calmly, “Ma’am, it’s the lunch hour now. I’m the only doctor available. The patient is in severe pain. I’ll only perform a simple exam first. I won’t touch her private parts.”

I no longer had any strength. Almost pleading, I clutched my mom’s sleeve so tightly that my knuckles turned white, yet no words could escape my lips.

All I wished was for a shred of mercy, any doctor would do, even a simple painkiller would have been enough.

The pain had nearly broken me.

But she only patted my hand, her eyes flashing with a strange smile I couldn’t understand.

“Millicent, don’t worry. Mom knows exactly what you want to say. Mom will never let you enter that examination room.”

The doctor, seeing me drenched in cold sweat and pale as paper, quickly motioned for the nurse to push the bed into the room.

My mom, noticing this, instantly ordered my uncle and aunt to hold the bed still, her screams echoing hysterically through the corridor.