Chapter 1
“Little bitch! Did you steal your brother Cory’s
toy?”
My best friend, Rida, slapped her son, Myles, to the ground.
“A bastard like you should have been thrown into the trash at the hospital! You’re nothing but
a nuisance!”
Rida always beat and scolded her son in front of us. Whenever I showed the slightest sign of sympathy, she would look pleased.
She named her son Myles, the same as the
neighbor’s dog.
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When the child was born, I tried to stop her, but she said the kid was worthless, so he should have a worthless name. She thought the dog’s name suited him perfectly.
Just then, my son came home.
“Mom! I’m back!”
He excitedly ran into my arms, telling me he made the school’s soccer team.
Before I could praise him, Rida rushed to pull him away from me.
“Cory, you’re amazing! Aunt Rida is going to reward you.” Rida pulled a hundred–dollar bill from her bag and stuffed it into my son’s pocket. “Cory is awesome–way better than that idiot
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Myles. I don’t even know why I bothered having him!”
Myles, who had just been slapped, watched Rida hand money to my son with fearful eyes but didn’t dare speak.
Rida shoved the toy she had stolen from Myles into Cory’s hand. “This is your toy, Cory. Myles has sticky fingers and stole it from you. Auntie
will teach him a lesson later.”
Rida yanked Myles up, slapped him again. The small, fragile Myles couldn’t keep his balance and fell to the ground.
Myles and Cory were the same age. Under my careful care, Cory had grown tall and strong, while Myles was small and frail–he seemed like
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he’d blow away with the wind.
Myles cried quietly, trying to explain, “I didn’t steal anything, Mom!”
But Rida didn’t believe him. She slapped him several more times, shouting, “Not only do you steal, but you also dare to lie! You little bastard, stealing from your brother Cory!”
Rida scared my son, but he still rushed to stand
in front of Myles, shielding the frail boy.
“Aunt Rida! Myles didn’t steal the toy. I gave it
to him! He didn’t have any toys of his own, and I felt sorry for him, so I gave him mine!”
Cory pulled out the hundred dollars Rida had given him and handed it to Myles.
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“Aunt Rida, Myles was praised for his drawing at
school too. You should reward him instead.”
Rida felt a little awkward but softened her tone
as she spoke to Cory. “He doesn’t deserve pity. Auntie was just warning him so he doesn’t grow up thinking stealing is okay.”
Myles looked up at Rida, hoping she’d praise
him too.
But Rida turned her head and snatched the
hundred dollars from Myles’s hand. “What are you looking at? Can drawing compare to soccer? With that weak body of yours, you’ll never make
it onto the soccer team like Cory!”
“You’re never drawing again! If you do, I’ll break
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your hand!” Rida kicked Myles to the ground, stomping on him twice.
I watched as Rida’s insults grew crueler, and I saw the light slowly fade from Myles’s eyes.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I stepped in front of Myles to protect him.
I asked her how, as a mother, she could be so
heartless, beating and scolding her own child.
Rida scoffed. “Myles never deserved to live.
I wanted to drown him in the bathtub when
he was just a month old. If it weren’t for Cory wanting a playmate, Myles would’ve been dead and buried long ago.”
