Chapter 1

To teach me independence, my parents made me pay for everything with hard labor.

If I wanted a glass of water, I had to clean the toilet.

If I wanted a decent meal, I had to wash the entire family's laundry.

Usually, I managed to scrape by. But on my sixth birthday, I ran a burning fever and physically couldn’t drag myself out of bed.

Dizzy with hunger and shivering under the sheets, I cried and begged them.

"Mom, Dad, please... I feel so sick. Can I just have a glass of water?"

My mother, Helen, shook her head with a cold, firm expression.

"No way. Rules are rules, Chloe. Don't think you can use a little cold as an excuse to be lazy!"

My father, Arthur, went even further. He dragged me out of bed by my collar and threw me out into the backyard, right into the freezing snow. He said it was to "build my character."

Before I lost consciousness, I could hear their muffled voices drifting from the warm living room.

"Tomorrow is Lily Rose’s sixth birthday. Let’s get her that latest giant Barbie Dreamhouse set and the remote-control power wheel, okay?"

"Let's also load a ten-thousand-dollar cash card for her. That sweet little girl always smiles when she sees us. She’s so much more well-behaved than our Chloe!"

Hearing this, a single tear froze on my cheek.

So, it was only me. Only their biological daughter had to pay a price for every basic human need.

But Mom, Dad... I won't have another birthday.