Eventually, her parents divorced. Evelyn stayed with her mom, while Dad remarried a woman she didn’t recognize. The day they met, the new “auntie” greeted her with a syrupy smile.
“Evelyn, I’m your mom now too. Call me ‘Mom,’ and I’ll give you a red packet! How about that?”
“Or I’ll buy you new clothes!” she added sweetly.
Evelyn clenched her fists. She stayed silent at first, then shouted, her voice trembling with rage, “I won’t call you that! You’re the mistress! You stole my dad!”
The woman’s smile froze and her father’s hand came down hard on Evelyn’s face.
“How dare you speak like that?! Is this what your mother has been teaching you?!”
The woman stepped in, her tone soft but tinged with defeat. “Don’t hit her. She’s just going through a rebellious phase—it’s normal that she doesn’t like me.”
Her father sighed, resting a hand on the woman’s stomach. “I hope our future child won’t grow up to be like this.”
That was the moment Evelyn realized—her father no longer had room for her in his heart. He had a new family now. She ran out crying, wiping her face as she went and from that day on, he barely reached out to her.