Chapter 2The Family Tool

A few minutes later, the screen lit up again.

I don't believe you. Mom loves me. She told me so.

Love?

I stared at the word, a hollow ache spreading through my chest.

It was true. When she first brought me home, Margaret really did seem to love me.

She had wept when she saw how painfully thin I was. She cooked elaborate meals every single day, and within a few months, I had gained ten pounds. She blamed herself for losing me, trying to make up for my lost childhood by taking me to amusement parks on every holiday. She bought me pink cotton candy, took beautiful portraits of me on my birthday, and stayed by my bedside without sleeping a wink whenever I ran a fever.

"Alicia, sweetie, don't be scared," she would whisper, stroking my hair. "Mom is here. I’m never going to leave you again."

Even Hailey, spoiled as she was, used to pout and complain that I had stolen all of our mother’s affection.

That brief period of my life had felt like a beautiful, fragile dream.

So when Margaret used me to punish Hailey for the first time, I was devastated, but I forced myself to believe she had no choice. I told myself she was just desperate.

It was only much later that I realized her love came with a hidden price, a weapon that would eventually destroy me.

My tears dripped onto the glass screen, blurring the text. I forced my shaking fingers to type one last warning.

Her love is a knife. And she is going to use it to carve you to pieces.

I lost track of time before the front door clicked open again.

When Margaret walked in and saw me still kneeling but holding my phone, her face contorted with rage. Without a word, she lunged forward and kicked me squarely in the shoulder.

My head collided violently with the sharp edge of the dining table. A blinding flash of pain tore through my skull, and a warm, thick crimson began to obscure my vision.

Margaret’s screaming voice echoed in my ears. "I told you to kneel and reflect, and you're playing on your phone?"

"Because of your pathetic attitude, Hailey will never understand the weight of her actions!"

My vision swam, and I reached out blindly, trying to explain. "Mom, please, I wasn't... I was just..."

Before I could finish, a resounding slap delivered with full force struck my other cheek.

"So you’ve learned to talk back to me now, have you?" Margaret sneered. "Clearly, you haven't learned your lesson. Slap yourself until both sides of your face are even. Maybe that will help you remember."

Hailey, shrinking back in the corner, grabbed Margaret’s arm, her voice trembling. "Mom, stop! I get it now, I really do! Please don't make her do this!"

Margaret shook her off, her voice cold and unyielding. "If she treats her punishment like a joke, how will you ever learn? Alicia, start. If you don't hit yourself a hundred times, you won't be allowed to stop."

Swallowing the bitter tears, I raised my hand and let it fall against my own face.

Margaret let out a sharp scoff. "Are you starving? You hit like a coward. You're completely useless."

She stepped forward, swung her arm wide, and delivered a blow so heavy my head spun, my left cheek instantly swelling.

Rubbing her palms with a sigh of irritation, she muttered, "Keep that exact level of force."

Under her watchful eye, I raised my hand again and again, striking my own flesh until my eyes were swollen shut, my lips split and bleeding, and my face turned a sickening shade of purple. Only then did she signal me to stop.

Looking down at the ruin of my face, Margaret finally seemed satisfied. She knelt down beside me.

My entire body tensed, my eyes shutting tightly in anticipation of another blow.

Instead, she opened a tube of ointment she had prepared beforehand and began gently dabbing it onto my bruised skin. My body shuddered at her touch.

She paused, letting out a long, weary sigh. "Alicia, you have to understand why I do this. We are a family. We rise and fall together."

"You are the sensible one. You have to help me guide your sister. Only when she becomes disciplined and successful will our family finally have peace."

She took an alcohol wipe and began cleaning the cut on my forehead. The stinging pain was agonizing, but I didn't pull away.

Summoning the last shred of my courage, I looked at her through my swollen eyes and whispered, "Mom... can you please stop using me to teach Hailey?"

"Every night, the pain keeps me awake. And... I can barely hear anything out of my right ear anymore."

Margaret froze for a brief second.

Thinking I had finally reached her, I reached out and gently took her hand. "Mom, you brought me back because you loved me, right? So please..."

Slap!

Another sharp blow struck my right ear, sending a deafening, high-pitched ring through my head.

"How dare you try to manipulation me?" Margaret spat, her face twisted in anger. "I thought you were the good daughter, but you're just trying to play the victim to ruin this family!"

I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice was gone, drowned out by the torrent of her familiar, venomous curses.

I was forced to kneel there for the entire night.

When morning arrived, my phone screen flickered to life.

I still don't want to believe you. Unless... you can prove it to me.