No Pain, No Gain

I chase my six-year-old daughter out of the house on a cold winter day.

I cut her new clothes to pieces and dirty her dainty little face with mud. Then, I give her all my savings.

She looks at me tearfully and reaches out for me, wanting me to hold her. However, I harden my heart and push her away, saying, "Leave! Go to Bowen Group and look for their CEO, Logan Bowen. Show him my death certificate and your DNA test—he'll take you in."

She sobs while looking at me. "Don't you want me anymore, Mommy? Let's go look for Daddy together."

After a brief silence, I say, "I can't go with you. I lied to him back then to have you."

Yes, I'm a liar. I orchestrated everything from meeting Logan, dating him, to ultimately leaving him with his child in my womb. Even the death certificate I've given my daughter is fake.

From beginning to end, I've lied to him about everything except our daughter.

My daughter, Lumi Bowen, truly suffered while living with me.

Her clothes were a bit small for her, but they were clean. Her hair was always tied back with a snowflake hair tie I gave her two years ago. That was the only hair accessory she had.

She didn't go to school and would spend her time plastered to the windows so she could watch the other kids play. However, she never played with them, because the moment she went over, the other kids would surround her and tease, "Look! Lumi's here! It's the girl with no dad!"

I looked at her a little apologetically, but she comforted me instead.

"I don't like playing with them either."

She was but a six-year-old child, yet childlike joy was rarely ever seen on her face. Instead, her little brow was often furrowed while she reminded me to take my medication.

I needed to make sure that a daughter as great as her would have a better life.

I placed my forged death certificate and the results of a paternity test into her little backpack, then gave her all my savings—a mere 200 dollars—and asked her to store it carefully.

"Go. Find your father. Mommy is going to die soon. Do you know what cancer is? I might close my eyes and never wake up again. I won't be able to take care of you any longer."

Lumi's face was covered in tears, and her little hands clutched my clothes desperately.

"I won't go. I'll stay with you, Mommy! If you won't open your eyes, then I'll just wake you up, Mommy…"

She was still too young, and she probably didn't know what death meant. There was no waking the dead.

I explained to her patiently, "Find your father. Then, your bedroom will be bigger than this entire house. No one will dare bully you anymore, and no one will tease you for having no dad."

Lumi cried for the longest time, but she finally gave in after much coaxing.

Logan Bowen was the CEO of Bowen Group, and he had billions in assets. As long as he took Lumi back, then even if he just spared her a tiny bit of what he had, that would be enough to make sure Lumi grew up safely and with everything she could ever need.

"I'll tell Daddy to bring you home too and to find a doctor for you, Mommy. You only got sick because you had a difficult time taking care of me…"

Feeling warm inside, I patted her on her little head.

"Lumi, sweetie, your father won't believe you if you say that. You need to say that your mother, Rafaela Wayning, is a bad woman. She didn't feed you and only had you work all day, so you secretly ran away. Your mom deserved to die."

I watched Lumi as I made her practice those words over and over again. Then, only after I made her pinky-promise me did I let her go to sleep.

Lumi cried and yelled for me even while she was sleeping. I tucked her blanket snugly around her, my heart aching. I had never allowed Lumi to suffer before. This was the first time she had fallen asleep while crying.

I had always taught Lumi to never lie. However, in order to have her successfully return to Logan's side, I'd just have to be the bad mother for once.