Chapter 2
“Forget it, forget it, you work, Mom will feed you.”
She picked up the vegetable soup with a helpless sigh.
I was just about to stop her when her hand turned, and the entire bowl of vegetable soup spilled, drenching the computer completely.
The whole team had been surviving on coffee for half a year. The leader had reminded us countless times that this was the company’s life–or–death KPI, a thirty–billion–dollar project proposal.
After a few flickers and buzzing sounds, the screen went black. Just like my brain, it crashed instantly.
The sticky smell of vegetable soup spread through the room, dripping along the keyboard grooves and soaking into my pants.
I seemed to hear the taut string in my head being plucked, releasing a sound on the verge of snapping.
“Sorry, Millicent, Mom was just afraid you were hungry. Don’t be mad, Mom will wipe it for you.” She snatched tissues and rubbed the keyboard hard, pressing the vegetable soup deeper into the gaps between the keys.
“Mom!” My voice cracked. “Don’t touch it, I’ll do it myself.”
She stepped back, two steps away, her shoulders trembling slightly as tears began to fall.
“Are you blaming Mom? Everything Mom did was for your own good. I only had one daughter. Was it wrong for me to worry about your health?”
“For my own good“, those words pressed down like three heavy boulders, crushing me almost beyond breath.
I looked at her, then at the mess on the table, and finally at her tears.
From deep within surged that near–collapse, the dull pain I still had to suppress, like a whip with barbs striking my nerves again and again.
Even as I tried to steady my breathing, my trembling voice still betrayed the edge of breaking. “I need to get this computer fixed right now. Stop bothering me, okay?”
Tomorrow was the final presentation. I had no time to fall apart.
Grabbing the computer, I called a friend who knew computers well, and after a long night of rescue, the data was finally recovered.
When I returned home, it was already six in the morning. Dragging my weary body, I set an alarm for an hour later and collapsed into bed.
The moment sunlight brushed across my face, I jolted up as if struck by lightning.
When I pressed my phone, the black screen of shutdown reflected my thunderstruck expression. Mom pushed the door open, smiling proudly as though she had done me a favor. “Millicent, you’re awake. Mom saw how tired you were, so I turned off your phone.”
3/3 10.0%
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5:42 pm S D
My breath hitched, and I forced the words out slowly. “You turned it off?”
Her smile brimmed with motherly kindness.
“Of course. What nonsense job is this? Look at how exhausted you are. My heart aches for you. See? Since I didn’t wake you, you slept until ten o’clock.”
“Don’t worry, I already used your phone to warn your boss. If he dares to exploit employees like this again, I’ll complain about that black–hearted company. Anyway, it’s so late already, don’t bother going to work today. Go buy some outfits for your cousin. She’s going on a date this afternoon, it can’t be delayed.”
My throat burned, dry as fire. On the screen, dozens of missed calls and hundreds of frantic mentions in the WhatsApp group exploded as the phone came to life.
I sent only two words into the team chat.
“Ten minutes!”
The meeting had been set for ten. It was already 10:05. My teammates had fought me for ten minutes of delay, and I still had faith I could pull the situation back.
I dashed into the bathroom, splashed water over my face, still wearing yesterday’s clothes, grabbed a business jacket, and bolted for the door.
But before I could step out, my mom blocked me.
“Millicent, you can’t go. I already promised Kiersey that you would accompany her to buy clothes today. If you leave now, what about Kiersey?”
An absurd, searing fury roared through me, rising from my feet to the top of
my
head.
6:43 pm SD
