After My Family Broke Me, I Vanished with a Full Scholarship Chapter 03
My friends fell silent, visibly shaken.
Before they could finish explaining, Dad ordered them to leave.
“That’s enough.
You should go.”
He deliberately put on the wounded expression of a father betrayed by his own daughter.
“Lily Carter has already gotten into your heads.
Stay away from her from now on, or you’ll start believing her lies and turning against your own families too.”
Tears spilled down my face as I lost control and shouted at him.
“Why would you say those things about me in front of my classmates?
What did I even do wrong?”
“If you’re afraid of people finding out what kind of person you are, you shouldn’t have done those things in the first place.”
Mom immediately pointed at me and shouted, her voice almost gleeful.
“See?
This is what she’s like when she loses it.
I wasn’t wrong about her, was I?”
She looked as though she had finally found the proof she needed.
Seeing me break down only made her more triumphant.
My friends couldn’t bear to stay any longer, so they hurried out of the apartment.
Mom gave a cold laugh as though she had just won an argument.
“See that?
Even your friends can’t stand you.
Are you still going to pretend you’re not the problem?”
“It’s the two of you they can’t stand!”
I shoved past her and ran for the door.
I had barely reached it when I heard Mom rush after me.
She grabbed the back of my collar and yanked me to a stop.
“Stay right there.
What did you just say?”
Her lips trembled with rage.
She had just raised her hand when a neighbor’s door opened.
Her arm froze in midair.
A second later, she slapped herself across the face.
“What did I do to deserve this?
Why am I being punished like this?”
Several neighbors immediately hurried over to stop her.
“Calm down.
Don’t hurt yourself.”
Mom instantly cast herself as the victim, tears streaming down her face.
“Tormenting me at home wasn’t enough for her.
Now she’s bringing her classmates here to accuse us and claim we abuse her.
I can’t take this anymore.”
“We’ve bent over backward for her for years.
If it weren’t for her, I would’ve ended this marriage a long time ago.”
Still sobbing, she leaned into Dad’s arms.
Dad pointed at me and deliberately put on a deeply disappointed expression.
“She’s driving us out of our minds.
All we’ve ever wanted was for her to be healthy and happy.
Why does that have to be so difficult?”
At that moment, every sound around me became muffled and distant.
The neighbors’ accusations and my parents’ tearful insistence that they were the real victims blurred into meaningless noise.
I couldn’t make out any of it.
I broke down sobbing and struck my own face again and again.
My parents only watched me coldly, as though I were putting on another act.
The last thing I heard was someone screaming.
Then I collapsed.
When I woke again, I was lying in a hospital room.
Mom was outside making a phone call.
“She lost control again.
I’ve suffered so much because of her over the years.
But she’s still my daughter, so what else can I do?
I know.
I know how much you worry about me.”
When the call ended, she looked as though she had finally received the sympathy she wanted.
A few seconds later, she called her sister, Kate.
“Kate, you have no idea.
I really can’t keep doing this.
I’ve given up so much for her.”
“She’s the only child in this family who grew up with both of her biological parents, and she still thinks we haven’t done enough.
No one understands how much this hurts me.”
She repeated the story of her suffering while Kate continued to comfort her.
At last, Mom relaxed and ended the call with a satisfied expression.
Then she turned and saw that I was awake.
The smile vanished from her face.
She walked into the room coldly and began packing our things at an unhurried pace.
White light from the hospital corridor spilled into the room, making her expression look even colder and more distant.
“Lily, pretending to lose control isn’t going to work.”
I said nothing.
She turned to face me.
“Given how unstable you are, you’re not taking the exam this year, not when it could determine whether you get into college or qualify for a scholarship.”
My eyes widened, and fear hit me all at once.
She smiled.
“I’m doing this for your own good.
What if you get into college and hurt someone?
Then the consequences will be even worse.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
Before leaving, she made a point of telling the nurse not to let me leave the room on my own.