Cost of a Lie

My last bit of hope was gone, so I got off at a random stop. I could not control my legs at all. In the end, I dropped to my knees with a thud.

The helplessness was choking me as I felt completely useless. All the emotions I had been holding back finally broke through. I cried as I slammed my fists against my legs repeatedly.

A young woman who was holding a camera hurried over and helped me to a bench by the road as she held my arm. She then handed me a tissue and asked carefully, "Did something happen? How can I help?"

My whole body went stiff.

I never thought that after all these years, what I had wanted most would come not from my family, but from a stranger who had nothing to do with me.

Six years ago, James felt sorry for Tina, the poor student he sponsored. So, he made a fake paternity test for my parents, Oscar and Florence. He then said, "Tina is your biological daughter. She's my real sister."

When I learned the truth, I was beyond shocked. I cried hysterically and begged him to tell Oscar and Florence the truth. All I got was a hard slap.

"Can you be a little more reasonable? Tina is an orphan, and she'll be bullied for that. Only when people at school know she has a family will no one bully her! You've already had so much love from us. What's wrong with letting Tina borrow your identity for a while?!"

On Tina's first day home, she started framing me over every little thing. She said I called her a country bumpkin and often used money to humiliate her. James would then hit me to teach me a lesson, while Oscar and Florence only held back their anger at me.

Until that day, when Tina came home from school with her clothes nearly torn off. She even had humiliating words marked onto her body. She fell to her knees in front of me and begged me as she sobbed, "Alicia, it's my fault! I'm just a country bumpkin! I shouldn't have stolen our parents from you. I deserve to die! I'll go and kill myself right now!"

Then, she turned and jumped into the pool, throwing the whole family into a rage.

James was the angriest. He immediately bribed a couple to pretend to be my biological parents and kicked me out. "Don't think you're untouchable. Go outside and work through that temper of yours. You can come home when you stop picking on Tina."

From then on, I lived in hell on earth.

That couple forced me to do the work of ten people by myself at their restaurant. The skin on my hands was always scarred with cuts.

Every time the man got drunk and violent, the woman pushed me in front of her as a shield. His slaps, fists, and bottles always landed on me. I almost died during the worst of it.

But slowly, they noticed something was wrong with the way I moved. I could not speak clearly and could not hold my fork steady when I ate. I did not have the strength to work. Even the way I walked became strange.

After I was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), they threw me out like trash without hesitation.

I could no longer work, so I could only sell my blood to cover the most basic food and shelter. The medicine I had wanted for so long was finally within reach, but James stopped me from getting it.

After hearing about the past six years of my life, the girl covered her mouth and started crying, her eyes full of pity.

She wiped her tears and said, "I'm a new blogger, and I'm helping strangers make their wishes come true. Do you have a wish?"

A wish?

I looked up at the stars and thought about it seriously.

"I want a coffin."

Living was hurting me too much. After I died, I wanted a peaceful place to rest.