She Played Victim, I’ll Unmask Her

Chapter 2

My biological dad tugged me through the front door.

Staring at the sprawling, opulent living room, my stomach twisted with even sharper panic, and I clamped down tight on his hand, knuckles going white.

He crouched down to my level, his voice soft and soothing. "Don't be scared, Fatima. This is your home now. Everything here belongs to you."

At that, Selena came darting in, her cheeks streaked with tears, and pulled me into a tight hug.

She turned to my dad, her voice wobbly, like she meant every word. "Dad, Fatima's been through so much. Let her have my bedroom, I'll move to the guest room."

'Let me have it?'

I scoffed inwardly. Did she seriously not get it? That room was mine right in the first place.

My biological mom flipped through my writing notebook, tears glistening in her eyes. But after raising Selena for all those years, her heart was still firmly tilted in the other girl's favor.

She reached out and pulled her close.

"Selena, you've slept in that room for years, you'd be so uncomfortable switching all of a sudden. Let Fatima stay in the guest room for now, and we'll have a whole princess room renovated for her starting tomorrow."

Selena sounded completely earnest. "C'mon, Mom, just listen to me! From now on, I'll let Fatima have all the nice stuff in the house, I promise!"

There was that damn "let" again.

I kept my face completely blank, no flicker of emotion showing through. I just stared at them putting on their little mother-daughter love show, my eyes wide with a skittish, nervous look.

In the end, my mom caved, unable to argue Selena down.

I didn't have a single piece of luggage besides a beat-up old school bag slung over my shoulder. I was walked straight into Selena's bedroom just like that.

Selena said she wanted to show me around the room alone and shooed everyone else away.

The second the door clicked shut behind us, she slammed me up against the wall with a dull thud, her face twisted with rage.

"You little mute! You're actually my parents' real daughter? You don't deserve that, you hear me? I'm warning you... don't breathe a word about anything that happened before today!"

My whole body shook like a leaf, and I nodded over and over again as fast as I could.

Selena snickered and gave my cheek a patronizing pat. "You'd better be a good little mute, or I'll make Mom and Dad throw you right out on the street!"

Truth be told, Selena and I went way back.

My foster parents ran a little snack stand right outside her school, just so they could see her every single day. In summer, they sold fruit gelatin cups, and in winter grilled sausages.

After I spent a few years at the school for the deaf and mute, as soon as Selena started middle school, my foster mom shooed me over to work the stall. I worked that stall day in and day out, rain, snow, or shine.

I watched that stuck-up Selena grow up day by day. And she watched me, the little mute, get prettier and prettier as the years went on.

The first time she bullied me was when we were in eighth grade. A boy who'd come to the stand with her to buy fruit gelatin casually said I was pretty.

Splat!

Selena hurled her bowl of gelatin straight at my head, screaming that I'd put way too much brown sugar syrup in it, that it was so sweet it hurt her throat.

But she hadn't even taken a single sip!

That day, my foster parents forced me to kneel down and apologize to her.

As compensation, they even told her she could come get free fruit gelatin and grilled sausages every single day from then on.

Once Selena left, all satisfied, my foster mom gushed excitedly to my foster dad, "Now Selena can eat our stuff for free! We finally get to do something for her as parents."

With that kind of attitude from my foster parents, it was written in stone that I'd be bullied for as long as I lived with them.

From that day on, Selena picked on me every few days, and every single time, it ended with me apologizing.

My foster parents ate it up, treating me like nothing more than a plaything for her to mess with however she pleased.

If she felt like it, she could even drag me away whenever she wanted and torment me however she pleased.

*****

Once Selena was done giving me this "tour" of the bedroom, my biological father realized I didn't have any change of clothes. He called the department store right away, telling them to send over clothes in my size.

Selena bit down hard on her lip, staring at me with a look of obvious, sharp envy on her face.

My mom hurried to make a follow-up call right then. She told them to send an identical set in her size too.

Watching how carefully and tentatively my mom acted around Selena, I forced myself to keep smiling, but my heart ached so badly it felt like it had been run over by a truck.

Before long, the department store manager showed up with three employees to deliver the clothes to the house.

I tried everything on quietly, one by one. Every single piece drew genuine, warm praise from everyone in the room.

Selena's expression grew darker and stormier by the second. All of a sudden, she threw herself into my mom's arms and started sobbing.

The department store manager quickly made himself scarce to avoid awkwardness.

Selena's face was streaked with tears as she looked up at my mom and asked, "Mom, seeing how good you and Dad are to Fatima, I just suddenly remembered... my real parents left me behind, didn't they? They never loved me at all, right?"

Oh, isn't that just the saddest little act you've ever seen? What a poor, helpless little thing.

My mom froze for a second, completely lost for how to comfort her.

I stepped forward, wrapped my arms around Selena, and patted her back gently. Then I pulled out my writing notebook.

They loved you very much. Otherwise, they never would have swapped the two of us back then.

My expression was soft, totally earnest, like I was honestly trying to comfort her.

But her face twisted instantly, and a sharp, icy glint flashed in her eyes.

My dad's stare at her hardened, even more openly disgusted than before.