Chapter 2The Second Chance at 18

I started remembering things when I was about three.

I didn't have a mom, only a dad.

He was a blind man of few words.

Whenever I cried for my mom, he would "look" at me coldly, his eyes hiding sharp blades.

I thought he hated me.

That made me want a mom even more. A soft, beautiful, gentle mom.

Then, the night before my college entrance exam, she appeared.

Fresh out of prison, she was like a wild hyena, chewing up my fantasies of motherly love.

She was tall and strong. She punched me in the stomach.

Dragging me by my hair, she ran her hands over me.

"Great body. Pretty face, just like your dad. You'll sell for a good price.

"Hehe, I distracted your dad on purpose. I chose today to ruin you. Just like I ruined him years ago.

"I'll record you serving clients. With that video, your dad will be a dog at my feet. If I tell him to lick, he'll lick.

"You think you two can escape me? Maybe in your next life!"

Despair swallowed me whole.

Just as she was dragging me out the door, I screamed, "Dad!"

He came back.

He threw away his cane and tackled my mom.

When she was forced to let go of me, he said his last words: "Live well. Don't look down."

He hugged my mom tightly and crashed through the floor-to-ceiling window.

We were on the fifteenth floor.