Chapter 3

The next morning, I was up before 5:00 am and the first person to arrive in class.

Pulling out my math notebook of past mistakes, I began reworking every question again until my math teacher, Lucia Whitaker, walked in and interrupted me.

"What's gotten into you, Alera? I used to tell you to work on your math, but you'd just shrug it off and say it didn't matter if you were a little weak in one subject."

"That was before, Ms. Whitaker. I know how important math is now. I need to make sure I rank first in the city for every single subject."

Ms. Whitaker was briefly stunned by the pure determination in my voice.

After a few seconds, she gave me a look of sympathy and said, "You've grown up a lot since your dad died.

"Here, take my number. Text me anytime if you ever run into a problem you don't understand."

My nose stung, and I was deeply moved.

Back then, my classmates and I made fun of her behind her back, calling her a heartless tyrant and the most hated teacher in school.

But from that day on, I reached out to Ms. Whitaker every night to go over the toughest concepts. Those study sessions became some of the few moments of genuine happiness in my life.

When I turned 15 years old, I aced my exams with the highest score in the entire city and earned a spot at a prestigious high school. Friends and relatives came by with gifts to congratulate me.

Maybe because I made Mom proud, she started treating me a little better.

At dinner, she would share some of the steak or ribs with me. She stopped making me wear my cousin's old clothes and took me to the local flea markets to buy cheap shoes and outfits instead. They weren't Adidas or Nike, but I was content that they were new.

At night, I could still hear her and Winston fooling around while grinding through practice exams. But now, she would remind him, "Let's go to sleep early so we don't disrupt Alera's studying."

A small, victorious smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I knew that I had re-earned Mom's attention through hard work.

But these days didn't last long. Winston finally lost his patience about two weeks later.

It was a Saturday, and the three of us ate dinner in silence as usual. Suddenly, Winston slid his foot up Mom's dress as his eyes scanned my body from head to toe with a repulsive, evil grin plastered on his face.

"You're all grown up now, Alera, so you should know your mom and I have basic adult needs. You'll understand, don't you?"

The soup I had just sipped splattered all over the table.

I glared at him and coldly snapped, "I'm sorry, but you disgust me!"

With that, I marched into my bedroom and slammed the door behind me.

Outside, Winston exploded into a rant. "Unbelievable! Look at her! She has zero respect for me!"

Mom's sweet, coaxing voice followed, "Enough, babe. I'll make it up to you tonight."

Sure enough, at 8:00 pm that evening, the unbearable sounds started coming from the bathroom again. This time, it felt like Winston was doing it to get back at me.

The noise was louder than it had ever been. Even with my earplugs in, I could still hear everything. I even heard Mom aggressively telling him to "go harder".

The questions in my test prep book transformed into a sea of tiny flames. I marched over to my bedroom door and screamed toward the bathroom, "Turn it down! You're making it impossible to study!"

But they were completely lost in their world.

Winston shouted back over the noise at the top of his lungs, "How's that, babe? I've gotten a lot better, haven't I?

"From now on, let's not worry about Alera. Our pleasure is the only thing that matters!"

Mom replied between gasps, "Yes… Yes, babe… I'll do whatever you say."

Completely enraged, I grabbed a fruit knife and stormed into the bathroom.

They screamed.

"Alera! S-Since when were you standing there?"

Mom stared at me in horror, her eyes bulging out of her head, while Winston frantically grabbed a towel to cover his private part and looked at the knife in my hand.

"W-What are you doing?"

I let out a cold laugh. "I'm going to chop you up."