Chapter 2

2.

Three years old. My first major viral hit.

I tripped in the living room and hit my forehead on the corner of the coffee table. Blood poured from above my eyebrow, blurring my right eye.

The nanny screamed and rushed to pick me up.

My mother's first instinct was to grab her phone.

"Don't move! Don't wipe it! Stay at that angle!"

She crouched down, pointing the lens at my bleeding wound.

"Look, fellow moms! This is how you handle a toddler emergency! First, don't panic! Second―"

The nanny was crying while holding me.

My mother was busy filming.

The video was titled "My Baby Split Her Head Open and This Is What I Did." It got twenty-seven million views.

The comments were full of: "Mom is so strong," "I learned so much," and "Mommy Eileen is the best."

No one asked why she didn't take her child to the hospital first.

After she finished filming, she finally drove me to the ER. The nurse at the station looked at my wound and asked why we were so late.

My mother smiled and said: "I had to film a quick video. It delayed us a bit."

I still remember the nurse's look. It wasn't just anger. It was total confusion.

She couldn't understand how a person could do that to their own child.

I got three stitches. My mother sat outside the exam room editing the clip, adding filters and music.

Every thirty seconds, she checked the view count.

"Clara, look! It hit a million!"

"It hurts," I whispered.

"Just hold on. Mommy will buy you ice cream later."

I never got the ice cream.

On the way home, she thought of a new hook: "Daughter's first meal after stitches. Mommy made her favorite!"

She stopped at the store and bought a box of frozen mac and cheese. In the video, she wore an apron by the stove.

The steam rose gracefully as she played a soft piano track in the background.

I ate two bites. I spat the third one out because it was still cold in the middle.

She told me we couldn't retake it because the lighting was gone.

I ended up eating a bowl of instant ramen for dinner.