Chapter 2

Before getting married, Mom and Winston signed a prenup stating that she would never have children with him. She wanted nothing distracting them from their private world as a couple.

Winston was a gym trainer making only a few hundred dollars a month, but he was lucky to meet Mom not long after starting the job. Armed with his eight-pack abs and smooth tongue, he succeeded in sweeping her off her feet.

Just three days after Dad's funeral, Mom dragged Winston into the city hall to marry him.

My grandparents strongly objected when they found out.

"Hobert isn't even cold in his grave, yet you've lined up your next man! He worked himself to the bone to build a multi-million dollar business, only for you and your lover to live off it!"

They stood there with hunched backs, their voices hoarse and raspy as they argued with Mom. Looking at their deeply wrinkled faces and gray hair made my heart ache.

They had been farmers their entire lives. They had sacrificed everything to raise Dad, their only child, into a successful man, only to be left with nothing.

When I told them that I wanted to leave and move back to the countryside with them, they gently talked me out of it.

"You'll have good food and nice clothes if you stay in the city with your mom, but if you come with us, you'll only suffer.

"Besides, schools in the countryside can't rival the educational resources here in the city. Stay here, be your mom's little princess, and grow up to become someone who contributes to society!"

What they didn't know was that in Mom's eyes, I was no longer a little princess.

To me, Winston was nothing but a homewrecker who barged into my life out of nowhere and seized everything I had ever owned.

For their third wedding anniversary, Mom booked dozens of tables at a luxury hotel. Her family and Winston's relatives sat crowded around the tables, chatting and laughing as if they had known each other for a lifetime. They had endless topics to talk about.

Meanwhile, I sat expressionless in the far corner, feeling like a complete outsider.

Suddenly, Winston's older brother walked over and patted me on the shoulder.

"Your mom and dad have been married for three years now, but you still call him 'sir.' Since we're all celebrating today, why don't we change that? Let's hear you call him 'Dad'!"

All eyes in the room immediately locked on me.

Mom urged, "Go on. Say it."

Fighting back my disgust, I indifferently looked at her and said, "I can't bring myself to say it."

Slap!

I could immediately feel my cheeks burning in pain.

Mom's chest heaved with pure rage. "It's been three years. How are you still hung up over your dead father?"

Her words hurt like a knife cutting through my heart.

I immediately stood up and walked out, just to hear Winston complaining to Mom behind me. "I don't mind if she doesn't call me Dad, but she shows such a poor attitude toward my family. You need to teach her some manners."

That night, I dug out all our old family albums and cut "Mom" out from every photo we had taken together.

My tears soaked the bedsheets as I told myself to study harder. Only when I reached the very peak would people looking down on me finally bow their heads.