Chapter 283

'Well, I guess you'll keep on bearing the pains of my betrayal, then, Because I won't stop until..." Mum was speaking when the next thing I heard was a slap.

It was so loud and so hard. I shut my eyes tight and pressed my hands over my ears. I didn't want to hear it. I couldn't. The noise of their fighting was always too loud, and it made everything spin.

I knew what was to come next.

I ran over to the corner of my bed with shaking legs where I had hidden a small bottle that I had stolen from the many my Mum had.

I grabbed it and uncorked it with trembling hands. I took a small sip of the liquid inside it.

It had the worst, awful taste I could imagine. It burned all the way down my throat, making me choke.

But I didn't care. I had to swallow it.

Because every time I did, I felt something else take over me. It was the only thing that made the bad stuff go away, even if just for a little while. It made my head feel all fuzzy, and the yelling seemed far away.

T'd been doing this for months now. Stealing the bottles from Mum's stash, hiding them in the corner of my bed, where no one would know. No one had ever caught me. Mum had too many bottles to keep track of them all. I was lucky she never noticed.

took another sip, the

didn't care if it was wrong. I didn't know what

wanted to

started to fade, and my eyes got heavy. My bed felt so

17 YEARS AGO.

balloons, and definitely no presents. I sat in my room, alone, in the same birthday outfit Mum had bought me two years ago for my 9th birthday. Back then, it had been way too big. The sleeyes had

but now, it fits perfectly-well, almost. The pants were a little tighter than I remembered, squeezing uncomfortably around my waist. But it

thoughts. I wondered what it would feel like to just... jump out of

it make them stop fighting for a minute and finally

they'd rush me to the hospital, hold my hand, and say

me

like families were supposed to, and tell me childhood stories of how brave they

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Chapter 283

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