My Mother Doesn't Love Me Anymore

: Found

4

I had to agree. If my mother were a good person, she wouldn't have done something like this. People wouldn't have come to our door, and today's tragedy never would have happened.

The commotion next door gradually subsided.

My strength gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor.

Finally, the tragedy of my past life wouldn't happen to me again.

Silas Kane brought me a glass of water. He handed it to me without asking any questions.

I was grateful for his silence. It felt like he was leaving me with one last shred of dignity.

I didn't dare leave his apartment for the entire day.

The slightest noise from outside made me tremble with fear.

"Don't worry. I live alone," Silas Kane said, making a point to tell me when he brought me a meal.

I hadn't interacted with him much in my past life.

'Thinking about it now, I really did rarely see his parents.'

"Thank you." Now that they were long gone, I finally dared to speak, my voice hoarse.

"No need. I'm just worried you'll fall to your death and tank the local property values."

...His heartless words instantly extinguished the gratitude I'd just felt.

'Maybe his sharp tongue was part of the reason people didn't like him.'

I rested for a bit. As soon as my strength returned, I immediately left his place to go home.

I hadn't brought my keys, but since my mother hadn't been the one to throw me out this time, the lock had been pried open by those people.

The kitchen knife my mother had tried to attack me with was still by the door. I kicked it aside, pushed open the door she had hacked to pieces, and pulled my suitcase out from under the bed. Then I started stuffing my clothes inside.

I couldn't stay in that house a moment longer.

I took all the money I had. It wasn't much—just $1,005.

But it was far safer to be out on my own than to stay in that house.

I bought a ticket to the next city over. It wasn't that I didn't want to go farther, but the little money I had forced me to find a place to hide nearby.

That night, my mother and sister blew up my phone.

I didn't dare answer a single call. They just bombarded me with frantic voice messages, screaming accusations at me.

The two of them blamed me for all the humiliation and strange looks they'd endured that day, acting as if I was the root of all their problems.

I didn't want to hear it, so I just blocked their numbers.

The world fell silent, and I felt alive again.

I went out and found a job. After two months, my financial situation had stabilized. I thought I had finally escaped the tragedy of my past life.

But then, my mother showed up at my door.

She was wearing a face mask and, very obviously, a wig.

'I knew why. It was what those people did to me in my past life when they dragged me outside—they took a pair of scissors and hacked off all my hair.'

''Why bother covering up? Scared of people looking at you now?' the woman had sneered, slapping me across the face.'

'My face had been red and swollen. My hair, which I had painstakingly grown for five years, was chopped into a mangled mess.'

'And none of it had anything to do with me.'

'Yet all the insults had been hurled straight at me.'

Even though it hadn't happened to me this life, the memory was too deeply ingrained. I could never forget the humiliation of being paraded through the streets.

In my past life, my own mother broke both my legs, handed me over to them, and even joined in on their abuse. Compared to that, the fact that she could stand before me now, perfectly fine except for a mask... her fate was far better than mine had been.

I barely had a moment to think.

The moment she saw me, my mother lunged forward and grabbed a fistful of my hair.