Drinking Oblivion To Forget Your Love

“On my eighteenth birthday, my parents suddenly brought a strange girl into the house. "Haven, you are not our biological daughter," my mother announced coldly. "Claire is." My father threw a $1.2 million invoice for my upbringing in my face. "This is the cost of everything you've enjoyed in this house. You will pay it back down to the exact cent." My fiancé, Cooper Holland, looked at me with deep disgust and threw our engagement ring at my feet. "You stole Claire's life for eighteen years," Cooper sneered, his eyes filled with contempt. "Our engagement is over. This is what you owe her, and you will pay it back even if you have to sell your blood." I didn't scream or beg. To pay off the debt, I tore up my Ivy League acceptance letter with my own hands. For three full years, I worked twelve-hour shifts delivering food in freezing blizzards, and spent my nights scrubbing grease traps in a filthy dive bar until my knuckles cracked and bled. I bit my tongue and paid them back. The night the final payment was transferred, my hands were trembling so hard I could barely hold a pen. The moment the balance dropped to zero, I felt completely detached from this world. With my last few coins, I bought a cheap bottle of sweet peach soda and a bottle of lethal agricultural herbicide, thinking the sweetness could take away the bitterness. The moment I swallowed it, my phone screen lit up. It was a text from my mother. "Haven, the test is over. You actually are our biological daughter, too. It's just that Claire was lost as a child and suffered a lot. We did this to teach you humility, afraid that you might bully her." "We will refund all the money tomorrow. Come home, and put your sister first from now on." Cooper called right after, his tone full of arrogant charity. "Have you thrown enough tantrums? Come to the banquet tonight, kneel down and publicly apologize to Claire. Then, I might consider taking you back." I stared at the glowing screen, dark blood welling up in my throat. It turned out that everything I had done was nothing but a sick prank in their eyes, yet I had paid a devastating price for it. At this moment, I suddenly realized that no one cared about my life anymore.”