“Mum?”
The woman in front of her was Rita Blade, Karen's mother. Thalassa called her “Mum” because that was what the woman had asked her to call her on the first day they met.
She still remembered that day perfectly. After the death of her mother when she was just a child, she had been sent from one foster care home to another, always being rejected for one reason or another, as if she wasn’t good enough.
When she became a teenager, through hard work and determination, she managed to earn a scholarship to an elite high school—the same high school Karen attended.
Almost all the students rejected, mocked, and bullied her for being a scholarship student. Those who didn’t bully her didn’t even bother to notice her.
One day, while she was being bullied, Karen came to her rescue and defende
