My mom seemed incapable of understanding human speech. I had stayed up late preparing a proposal and told her I had an important meeting in the morning.
Yet she slipped sleeping pills into my milk and secretly turned off my phone. When I woke, it was already 10:30 a.m.
“Which daughter doesn’t deserve to be cared for? I just wanted you to sleep a little longer.”
There was no time to argue. I turned on my phone and found hundreds of messages from my boss and colleagues urging me.
Luckily, the company was nearby. I grabbed my laptop bag and rushed downstairs to see that the electric bike’s tire was flat.
“You complained that the tire had no air the other day, so I kindly pumped it for you. I forgot to screw the valve cap back on.”
With no time left to argue, I ran to the company, panting, and forced a smile as I opened my laptop.
No matter what I did, the laptop was soaked, dead, and refusing to turn on. I was fired and sent home, and Mom still wore that heavy look of disappointment.
“You said last night your laptop was dusty. I thought, it’s just dust, why not wash it clean with water? So I did.”
Anger hit me so hard I blacked out. When I opened my eyes, a strange, one-eyed old man stood over me, moving in a way that made my stomach twist.
“You’re in your thirties and still jobless. I kindly found you someone. How can you blame me?”
Rage took over. I grabbed a knife, ready to fight Mom to the end, but Dad, my brother, and the neighbors wrestled it from my hands. Their voices turned on me, calling me ungrateful.
In the struggle, the knife slipped. A sharp pain shot through me as blood spread beneath me. I fell.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that sleepless night, working on the proposal, as if none of it had happened.
——
When I saw the thick stack of planning files on the screen, I pinched myself hard. The sting was real, and tears of joy rolled down my face. I was truly alive again!
Back on the night that had wrecked my whole life, every memory came rushing back. If I really had a second chance, I swore I would never let myself fall into that same powerless trap again.
This time, those who once called me ungrateful would taste the full weight of Mom’s so-called kindness.
As I quietly cried in front of the glowing screen, Mom walked in holding a cup of milk.
“Eleanor, look at you, working so long your eyes are red.”
“Mom feels bad, come, drink some hot milk and rest,” she added, reaching for the power switch without asking.
I quickly hit Save and snapped the laptop shut.
“No, there’s a mistake in the report. The boss told us to work overtime.”
“I probably won’t be back tonight. I’ll have to stay at the office all night.”
I couldn’t stand being in that house another second; I had to get out fast. But just as I reached for my coat, Mom blocked me with a quick, firm move.
“You’re my everything. After working late for half a month, do you still want to go? How could I let you?” she said, her eyes full of fake concern.
“Give me your phone. I’ll tell your boss you’re not coming in, let’s just rest at home!” She reached for my phone.
Ever since I started working, whenever Mom wasn’t happy with my hours or tasks, she would grab my phone and complain to my boss. Because of that, I had been scolded again and again, forced to change jobs over and over.
I valued this job, especially this proposal. If it went well, I could get promoted, earn more, maybe even transfer to the Palmer headquarters, finally breaking free from this family.
Thinking of that, I held my phone tight and pushed Mom away.
“Enough! I’m an adult, not a kid!”
“I work for what I earn. Stop bothering my boss!”
The push I gave wasn’t hard, yet Mom collapsed to the ground as if she had no bones, her body soft and fragile. When Dad and my older brother Martin stepped out of the bedroom, she was already crying, dabbing at her tears.
“Eleanor, I’m your real mother. How could I ever mean you harm? How could you treat me like this!”
I didn’t get a chance to speak before Dad’s hand slapped across my face.
“You heartless thing! Your mom loves you more than her own eyes, and this is how you repay her?”
Martin kicked me, glaring and shouting, “ungrateful wretch,” before rushing to help Mom to her feet.
“Don’t scold Eleanor anymore, it’s my fault. I just love her too much,” Mom said, still wiping at her tears, sighing endlessly.
“I know, Eleanor just thinks I’m old and useless, so she doesn’t take my words seriously. She even thinks I want to harm her deliberately!”
Watching her pitiful display, I couldn’t help but feel it was laughable. I had worked tirelessly since childhood, yet every major moment of my life had been sabotaged by Mom’s so-called kindness.
During my high school entrance exams, Mom kindly prepared a lavish seafood feast, which left me vomiting and bedridden with diarrhea for three days, making me miss the provincial key high school.
During my college entrance exams, she kindly booked a hotel the farthest from the exam site, claiming it would keep me undisturbed. But on the day of the exam, the long distance and traffic jams made me late, costing me my dream university.
When I began job hunting, Mom kindly altered my résumé, falsified my education, and sent it everywhere. That landed me on HR blacklists as a dishonest liar, shutting the doors of countless companies in my face.
Every time I argued with her, she would cry and apologize, insisting she only meant well, claiming she had made mistakes.
In the past, like Dad and Martin, I had been brainwashed by her over the years, mistaking it all for love. Even in anger, I never thought to resist or escape.
But now, having already been harmed to death by Mom once, I vowed I would never make the same mistake again.
While Dad and Martin were busy comforting Mom, I grabbed my laptop and phone and dashed out the door.
Downstairs, the e-bike tires were still full. Clearly, in my previous life, Mom had tampered with them while I slept, but this time she hadn’t had the chance.
Hearing chaotic footsteps echoing in the stairwell, I dared not delay. I twisted the throttle and sped out of the neighborhood.
When I reached the company, I slipped a pack of cigarettes to the security guard and pleaded repeatedly with him not to let my family in.
Even so, disaster struck during my project presentation. First, a colleague’s phone buzzed incessantly. Then my boss’s. Finally, even the client’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
Confused, the client answered immediately. “Who is this? Why do you keep calling me?”
Mom’s voice rang from the receiver. “I’m Eleanor’s mom! This child stayed up all night. This is all your fault, you heartless capitalists!”
“Eleanor must be so overworked she hasn’t even had breakfast. Let her come downstairs right now! I’m waiting outside with soy milk and fried dough sticks!”
The entire meeting room froze in stunned silence. I snatched the phone and shouted, my voice sharp with anger:
“If you interfere with my work again, from now on, consider me no longer your daughter!”
Without waiting for her reply, I hung up and blocked her number.
Perhaps the threat had worked, because for the rest of the presentation, Mom didn’t cause a single disruption.
My boss and client were highly satisfied with my proposal, yet when the meeting ended, he still fined me 800 dollars for breaking meeting discipline.
He looked at me with seriousness and said, “This project was a great success. Your transfer to the Palmer headquarters can basically be finalized.”
My heart leapt with joy; this was the chance I had longed for, the opportunity to leave this family and begin a new life. But then his tone shifted.
“But you must first settle the matters at home.”
“This time I fined you 800, not because I truly wanted to, but to silence those who are eyeing your position.”
“If your family keeps causing trouble and it affects your work, next time I won’t be able to cover for you.”
Of course, I understood, and I quickly nodded. “I understand. I’ll definitely resolve this problem.”
Leaving the company, I exhaled a long, heavy breath. Although the project’s success gave me hope for freedom, the thought of the chaos at home still pressed heavily on my heart.
When I returned and stepped through the door, I immediately heard Mom sobbing in the living room, as if the world had wronged her in the cruelest way.
My brother sat next to Mom, gently trying to calm her. “Mom, don’t cry. Eleanor just doesn’t get it yet.”
“She’s still young. Once she gets married and has kids, she’ll understand your good intentions.”
Dad sat on the sofa, smoking with a dark look on his face. When he saw me come back, he crushed the cigarette in the ashtray, stood up, and started scolding.
“So now you’ve grown bold, huh? You dare ignore the phone?”
“Do you know how many times your mom called you? She was so worried she couldn’t eat or sleep!”
Mom lifted her tear-streaked eyes. “Eleanor must think I’m annoying. Maybe I do worry too much sometimes and just want to care for her more, but I never thought…” Her voice broke off as she wiped her tears again.
Martin shot up, his voice sharp. “Eleanor, aren’t you going to apologize to Mom right now?”
“Look how upset you’ve made her!”
I looked at the three of them, a heavy wave of helplessness crashing over me.
This was my family: always on Mom’s side. No matter what she did, I was always the one in the wrong.
But now, I couldn’t afford to fight head-on. All I wanted was to get through this quietly, and once I moved to Palmer, I’d never have to deal with them again.
With that in mind, I gave a quick, clear apology.
“Mom, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have ignored your calls. I promise it won’t happen again.”
Hearing this, Mom’s crying slowly eased.
“Eleanor, Mom only does this for your good. You’re a girl, working so hard outside, I just can’t help worrying.”
Martin gave a cold sneer: “So now you know you were wrong? Better remember it next time.”
Dad leaned back on the sofa, his tone a little softer.
“Alright, since Eleanor admits she was wrong, let’s leave it here. But it can’t happen again.”
I nodded over and over, and only then did they look satisfied. Back in my room, I dropped onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
The next day, I locked myself in my room, throwing all my focus into preparing for the tests and online interviews for the headquarters transfer.
This was my chance to leave this family, and I couldn’t afford even one mistake.
But Mom kept knocking on the door.
“Eleanor, let Mom clean the floor for you. Your room is such a mess. How can you focus on your interviews like this?”
I had just turned her down when she knocked again, not long after.
“Eleanor, Mom made soup for you. You need to eat well; studying uses up a lot of energy.”
I opened the door, frowning, and said clearly, “Mom, I can’t be interrupted right now. Can’t we do all this after my interview?”
The moment she heard that, her face fell, her eyes quickly filling with tears.
“Eleanor, Mom just feels sorry for you.”
“To make this soup, I got up at four in the morning. Look, I even burned my hand.”
As she spoke, she held out her hand, the small red blister clearly visible.
Dad, hearing the noise from the living room, rushed in and blew up at me.
“Eleanor, your mom worked so hard for you, and this is how you treat her?”
“Hurry and apologize to her, then drink the soup!”
I looked helplessly at the sea cucumber floating in the bowl. “I’ve been allergic to seafood since I was a kid. I can’t eat this.”
But Mom didn’t budge.
“That’s only because when you were little, we were poor and you didn’t eat enough, so you developed that allergy. If you eat more now, you’ll be fine. Mom is only doing this for your good.”
Hearing this, Dad’s anger flared even more.
“Your mom got up so early to make this soup for you, and you’re still being picky? Drink it quickly, don’t be ungrateful!”
Seeing the stern displeasure in Dad’s eyes, I knew arguing further was useless.
“Mom, thank you. It’s my fault.”
Only then did Mom break into a smile through her tears.
“Ah, that’s my good daughter. Quickly drink the soup, it won’t taste good once it cools.”
I carried the soup into my room, and after closing the door, I quietly opened the window and poured it into a bowl on the windowsill, luring in a stray cat outside.
The stray must have been starving; before long, it had lapped up the soup completely.
A few days later, the project was successfully completed. Thanks to my outstanding performance, I smoothly obtained the recommendation letter from the company.
That afternoon, I hurriedly finished the online interview. The entire session went smoothly, and I felt confident in my performance, only waiting for the final good news.
When I stepped out of my room, I froze. Mom sat on the sofa in the living room, wearing reading glasses, her eyes fixed intently on the recommendation letter in her hands.
No wonder she hadn’t been bothering me as usual; she had found a new target.
“Mom, the recommendation letter has the company seal. Once it’s opened, it’s invalid!”
“If that happens, I may not be able to report to headquarters!”
Mom, however, looked completely unconcerned, even self-righteous.
“Eleanor, Mom is only doing this for your own good.”
“I was worried your company leader might say bad things in the letter, to make trouble for you.”
“How was I supposed to know I couldn’t open it? Can’t I just reseal it?”
I stomped my feet anxiously.
“Mom, this is regulated! You can’t just reseal it as you please!”
“Once this recommendation letter is opened, it loses all validity. All these years of hard work could be wasted!”
But Mom remained stubborn, unwilling to listen to a single word of my explanation.
As Mom spoke, she wiped her tears again, muttering, “Mom only wanted to help, to check things for you. How did it end up being my fault?”
The moment her sobs grew louder, Dad stormed out of the study.
“Eleanor, isn’t your mom doing this for you?”
“You can’t submit without a recommendation letter? Then this company isn’t worth it!”
“Rules, rules, sounds like they’re just giving you trouble on purpose!”
He walked over, grabbed the recommendation letter from my hands, and ripped it to pieces.
Still not satisfied, he went on scolding.
“If you were really capable, why would you even need a recommendation letter? The truth is, you’re just not good enough!”
“You’d better get married early instead of running after work, so we won’t have to worry about you all the time!”
I watched the scraps of paper flutter across the floor, yet my expression remained calm.
“Dad, I hope your ability is good enough. That was your promotion recommendation letter from your workplace.”
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