Chapter 3

When Dad and I boarded the last bus to the city, Mom's first question was,

"Where's the money from the pig and chickens?"

She was asking Dad, but her hawk-like eyes were fixed on me.

I pulled out three hundred dollars and gave it to her.

"I know you don't want to raise me, and bringing me back was a burden. This is for this month's rent and utilities. I'll take care of my own food and tuition."

Mom's face twisted into a strange expression.

But she took the money.

"To avoid anyone saying I'm freeloading, please give me a receipt."

That clearly offended her.

She glared at me, as if she wanted to swallow me whole.

Our neighbor, seeing me at the door, curiously asked who I was.

In my past life, Ronnie forbade me from telling anyone at school that I was her sister.

Mom forbade me from calling her "Mom" in public.

Dad didn't care about anything and pretended I didn't exist.

I tried to please them all, but they just saw me as pathetic.

This time, I wouldn't be a doormat.

I said confidently, "My name is Jenny. I'm an orphan. My grandma, who raised me, passed away, so I'm here to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson."

The neighbor, filled with pity, saw my patched-up adult clothes and gave me a bag of her daughter's clothes.

The three Johnsons' faces changed.

Inside, they almost had a fight about where I'd sleep.

The apartment had two bedrooms and a combined living and dining room.

Dad wanted me to share a room with Ronnie, but Mom said Ronnie liked things clean and I should sleep on the sofa.

She said her sofa was much better than my bed back in the village, and I should be grateful.

Ronnie, however, disagreed. "She can't sleep on the sofa! I need to sit there! She's so dirty, I'll get lice…"

I quietly took my burlap sack to the balcony.

In my past life, I slept under the clothesline until I graduated high school.

"I'll sleep here."

Mom glanced at me with disgust.

Ronnie snorted and pulled the glass door between the balcony and the living room shut.

Dad felt a little guilty and built me a small bed out of wooden planks the next day.

With that, he considered his fatherly duties fulfilled.

Ronnie attended a private elementary school, with tuition of $18,000 a year.

My parents wouldn't send me to a school like that.

Mom didn't even care if I went to school at all. I knew this was my punishment for defying her.

"I work so hard every day, I don't have time to deal with her schooling! She's so capable, let her figure it out herself!"

That's what she told Dad.

Her eyes darted towards me.

"Don't worry, the community center has already helped me enroll!"

Being an orphan made everything incredibly easy. In my past life, it was my parents' status that prevented me from doing so many things.

The community center also helped me apply for a $500 monthly financial aid grant, but I wouldn't tell them that.

But someone had their eye on that money.

The year I took the middle school entrance exam, a thousand dollars went missing from Mom's stash.

Ronnie said I stole it and even "found" a thousand dollars in my backpack.

Mom slapped me across the face.

"I knew you weren't any good!"

Years of resentment finally found an outlet.

When Dad got home from work, she exaggerated the story.

Dad also slapped me.

"Ever since you came into this house, there's been nothing but trouble! Now you're stealing money!"

He hit me hard, and my head slammed into the coffee table, causing a gash.

The three of them froze, shocked.

I silently got up and walked out.

A neighbor, seeing my bloodied face, was furious.

"Ma'am, please call the police. Their money's missing."

Hearing about calling the police, Ronnie panicked.

She tugged at Mom's sleeve. "Mom, it's just a thousand dollars, do we really need to call the police? What if Jenny gets arrested and goes to jail? That would be so awful!"

Mom, finally having something against me, wouldn't let it go.

The police arrived quickly.

"Officer, it's her. She's so young and already learning bad habits! You should take her away and teach her a lesson!"

A smug smile played on her lips, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Unfortunately for her, this time would be different.

My thousand dollars had a clear source, even with proof from the community center.

Ronnie, on the other hand, had a $1,000+ charge on her phone for buying albums for her favorite boy band.

There were messages in her group chat praising her for being generous and supportive, all of which could be used as evidence.

"Should we take Ronnie in for a lesson?" the officer asked.

Mom quickly shielded Ronnie, shouting, "My daughter using my money isn't stealing! Mind your own business!"

The neighbors stared.

"When they suspected Jenny, they couldn't wait for the police to arrest her. Now it's Ronnie, and she's protected like this…"