Chapter 1

My mother, Sophie Nash, was also my homeroom teacher, and she loved nothing more than using me to assert her authority.

She was convinced that the worse off I was, the more afraid my classmates would be, and the higher her authority would be.

Once, when I passed an eraser to a classmate during class, she slapped me so hard across the face in front of the whole class that my face swelled up.

Another time, after I secretly ate a crumb of a classmate’s snack during recess, my mom dragged me up to the front of the classroom and pricked my lip with a needle until blood gushed out.

Later, when a classmate was caught by the vice principal for having a romantic relationship while underaged, my mom flat-out claimed it was me.

Without a word of explanation, she dragged me into the hallway and stripped me naked.

She then went to the vice principal’s office while laughing along.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Lennon. It’s my fault for not raising Stella Nash properly. Rest assured, I’ll make sure to punish her severely this time!”

The vice principal had furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean by Stella Nash? This isn’t the student involved in the early romance.”

Sophie paused for a moment.

Then, she said nonchalantly, “Oh, never mind. Let’s just make an example of her.

“Stella gets into trouble all the time anyway. She can handle one more punishment.”

She did not know that every time she struck me, I secretly deducted one point in my mind. Just a moment ago, I had already accumulated 100 points.

Without hesitation, I leaped out the window of the sixth-floor hallway.

‘Mom, is asserting authority through death enough?’ I thought.

Chapter 1

Stella's POV

I walked into the classroom holding my midterm exam paper. My right cheek was swollen like a bun, with a trace of blood at the corner of my mouth.

The classmates around me whispered, “Stella got hit again, just because she didn’t get a perfect score in math. How awful...”

Layla Sweeney rolled her eyes.

“What’s so awful about that? Her mom’s the homeroom teacher.

“She has all the best resources and still couldn’t get a perfect score. Who else should get beaten if not her?”

I paused for a moment as I swallowed the sting in my nose. Then, I walked into the classroom.

Just a moment ago in the teachers’ lounge, my mom, Sophie, had slapped my face until it swelled up, right in front of all the teachers and students.

“148 points? Should you have lost those two points? Tell me!”

Sophie’s furious shout still rang in my ears. My right ear was ringing nonstop from the slap. I could barely hear anything.

But Sophie did not stop punishing me.

“If you make another low-level mistake like this next time, I’ll slap your left cheek until it’s swollen too!”

With that, she turned to the students behind her.

“You lot who also lost points because of carelessness, did you see that?”

I had no idea how the other students reacted. I just kept my head down. My fingers dug into my palms so hard they almost drew blood.

After the other students had left, Layla stepped forward with a smile and cooed at Sophie.

“Ms. Nash, I didn’t mean to be so careless. I won’t do it again next time.”

Sophie smiled at her affectionately.

“You’re always like this! No more of that next time, you hear me?”

Layla playfully stuck out her tongue.

I pressed my lips together, digging my fingers even deeper into my palm.

“All right, you two can go now!”

Sophie waved us off. Only then did I dare to slowly turn around. I gave a well-practiced tug to the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and secretly rubbed my face, which had gone numb from the slap.

Just a second before leaving the office, I heard a teacher from another class say admiringly to my mom.

“Layla really lives up to being Ms. Nash’s favorite class representative. She wouldn’t even lift a finger to her.”

“Ms. Nash, you really are good at raising your child. Your daughter just let you hit her so obediently! She never makes a sound!”

Sophie looked smug.

“Layla isn’t stupid. She just doesn’t use her smarts in the right way!

“As for my daughter, she’s been so well-behaved since she was little. She never talks back.”

Sophie had no idea that the only ones who did not fight back when hit or cursed at were either dogs or dead.

Because Sophie used me to assert her authority, no one in my class dared to be my friend.

I endured the pain in my face as I returned to my seat. Then, I pulled a little notebook from my sleeve.

[I scored 148 on the math test and got my face slapped until it swelled up. -1.]

I wrote it down silently.

Before I knew it, I had reached 99 deductions.

That meant Sophie had used me to assert her authority exactly 99 times.

Just one more time, and I would be free.

A warrior’s life-or-death decision was made in the blink of an eye.

But I was no warrior. I was just an ordinary person who was pathetic and cowardly.

I carefully tucked the little notebook back into my sleeve and took out my math test.

Even though it was recess, I was not allowed to play with anyone else.

As I listened to the sounds of my classmates laughing and roughhousing around me, the wound on my right cheek seemed to hurt even more.

Layla walked over to me and sneered contemptuously.

“Stella, Ms. Nash treats me like her own daughter. You must be some orphan Ms. Nash picked up off the street. You’re just a punching bag, at best.”

I clenched my fists tightly and glared at her.

Then, I said coldly, “Someone had a mother to birth her but not one to raise her. That’s exactly the kind of person who likes to steal other people’s moms.”

Layla’s mother had run off with someone else when she was four.

That was not a secret in our class.

As soon as those words left my mouth, Layla’s eyes widened. Then, she flew into a rage.

“Stella Nash, just you wait!”

“I’ll be waiting,” I said coldly.

All she had to do was go to Sophie and whisper in her ear. Then, I would just get another beating.

That was fine. It would be the last favor she did for me.

Chapter 2

That night, as I pushed open the front door, I caught the familiar scent of dinner.

The living room was lit by a warm yellow light. Sophie was sitting at the dining table, with two servings of food in front of her.

I took off my shoes as quietly as possible and tried to hide my swollen right cheek and the bloodstain at the corner of my mouth in the shadows.

The moment I took a step, Sophie looked up.

“You’re back?”

Her voice was still stern, yet it carried a hint of barely perceptible concern.

“Does your face still hurt?”

I lowered my eyes, shook my head, walked to the other end of the table. Then, I sat down, and began eating small bites of the food.

The dishes, so appealing in color, aroma, and flavor, felt like torture once they reached my mouth. Every chew tugged at my facial muscles.

It hurt so much.

I decided to just swallow it whole.

Suddenly, Mom put down her cutlery and walked over.

My body stiffened instinctively, and the muscles in my back tensed.

But she simply crouched down beside me and reached out her hand. Her fingertips were cool to the touch as she gently brushed my swollen, burning cheek.

I flinched as if I had been electrocuted.

Her finger paused. Then, she let out a deep sigh.

“Stella, it hasn’t been easy for me to raise you all by myself.”

As she spoke, her eyes gradually teared up.

She shed the persona of the homeroom teacher she had been all day and became a struggling single mother.

“As a homeroom teacher, I’m in charge of more than fifty kids. Without authority, I can’t get anything done.

“When discipline falls apart, grades will drop. The principal will call me in, and parents will blame me.

“You’re my daughter. You have to do your best, behave the most properly, and be the most outstanding.

“Only then will your classmates respect and fear me. I need to establish my authority.”

Her rough fingers brushed the corner of my eye.

It was dry there.

I had not cried.

I just stared at her slightly teary eyes and the old, faded loungewear she was wearing.

It felt as if a hole had opened up somewhere deep inside me.

After a long moment, I heard my own hoarse voice.

“Today... Layla told me that I’m just a punching bag for you, and that you don’t treat me like your own daughter at all.”

Mom’s hand froze.

The sadness and vulnerability on her face receded like a tide, replaced by a stern, offended expression.

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!”

Sophie suddenly raised her voice. Her image as a loving mother vanished in an instant.

“You must have said something to provoke Layla first. Even if you’re jealous of her, you shouldn’t lie!”

I closed my eyes for a moment. However, I could not resist speaking up sarcastically.

“What do I have to be jealous of? Her poor grades? The fact that she doesn’t have a mom?”

Smack!

The sharp sound of a slap rang out.

The blow sent my head snapping to the side.

My already swollen right cheek swelled even more. For a moment, it felt as if I had lost hearing in my right ear.

“How dare you speak like that? I can’t believe such vicious words came from the mouth of my own flesh-and-blood daughter!”

“Your own flesh-and-blood daughter...”

I muttered the words, suddenly finding it all utterly absurd. I even felt like laughing.

“So, I deserve to be hit the hardest, and I deserve to have no dignity, is that it?”

“You!”

Sophie’s chest heaved with rage, and her finger trembled as she pointed at me.

“You’re so ungrateful! I’ve worked so hard...”

I skillfully tuned out her tearful tirade of complaints.

Once upon a time, those words would have instantly softened my heart, making me feel for how hard she had worked.

But on that day, those words blew right through like the wind through a hole and left no trace behind.

For my own good, she had slapped my face until it swelled and pricked my lips with a needle.

Was that what “for my own good” really meant? It was pain that stripped away flesh and bone as it shattered every shred of dignity.

When she had finished yelling, she wiped her face, stood up, and resumed that picture of weary calm. It was as if her earlier rage had been nothing but a figment of my imagination.

“All right, hurry up and eat. You have to get up early tomorrow.”

I lowered my head and continued to pick at the food that had long since gone cold.

My fingers curled slightly beneath the table, brushing against the small notebook hidden in my sleeve.

It would not be much longer.

I silently told myself that.

Chapter 3

The next day, at school, after the lunch break bell rang, I pressed my face against the desk. I rested my right cheek against the cool surface in an attempt to ease the pain.

Layla suddenly walked in with her head held high. Then, she leaned close to my ear, and spoke with undisguised glee at my misfortune.

“You’re done for.”

I lowered my eyes indifferently as I got lost in thought.

If I died, Sophie would probably adopt Layla as her daughter, would she not? After all, she loved Layla the most.

I just wondered if Layla could handle Sophie’s strict discipline.

Just then, the door was suddenly kicked open with such force that everyone looked up in shock.

Sophie stood in the doorway. Her chest heaved violently as her face turned ashen.

She walked to the center of the classroom. Her gaze was like poison-tipped probes, as she slowly and coldly pierced each panicked face one by one.

Finally, that gaze fixed firmly on me.

My heart suddenly sank. It felt like it was plunged into an ice cellar.

“Our class has really surprised me,” she said while suppressing the terrifying storm raging in her eyes.

“Some of you aren’t focusing on what you should be. Instead, you’re picking up those despicable habits and engaging in underaged romance! You’ve even been caught red-handed too!”

It was dead silence.

Everyone held their breath.

“Stella Nash, step forward!”

Blood rushed to my head in an instant, only to drain away completely the very next second.

“I didn’t…” My voice trembled.

“You didn’t?!”

Sophie cut me off sharply. She took a step forward as her shadow loomed over me.

Just then, the faint sound of a chair shifting came from the front row.

Layla stood up.

She kept her head slightly bowed as she nervously twisted the hem of her shirt with her fingers. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.

She first cast a timid glance at Sophie who was furious. Then, she quickly glanced at me.

Her expression was incredibly complex. It carried equal parts of pity and resignation.

“Ms. Nash...”

Her voice was soft and trembling.

“Layla, tell me. What do you know? Don’t be afraid. Just tell the truth.”

Layla seemed both encouraged and even more conflicted. She bit her lip, then finally raised her tear-filled eyes.

“Last Friday after school, I saw Stella and that boy from Class 7 kissing by the back gate of the school...”

In an instant, it felt as if the air around me had been sucked away. An icy, suffocating sensation gripped my throat.

“You’re lying! Layla Sweeney, you’re making false accusations!”

I jumped to my feet. I was trembling all over from anger and a sense of injustice.

“I don’t even know him—”

“Stella Nash!!!”

A thunderous shout cracked over my head like a bolt of lightning.

Sophie had already taken a step forward. She raised her hand to deliver a full-force slap that landed hard on my already swollen right cheek.