Whenever he lost, he'd come home demanding money. If I didn't have any, he'd beat me and threaten to make me quit school so he could sell me off for bride price money.
To continue my education, I would wash dishes after school. That pitiful wage held all my hopes for the future.
But as his gambling debts grew, I had no choice but to start selling my blood.
Eventually, he got caught up in a police raid, and I finally had a brief respite when he was sent away.
In college, word spread about my gambling-addict father, and everyone started avoiding me.
That's when Jeff, who was a student counselor, took notice of me. Over time, we became close.
After hearing my story, he held my hand tenderly, saying he'd give me the loving home I'd never had, making up for all the love I had missed.
But then Ida came back from abroad, and I learned that she was his high school sweetheart.
Just like the cliché in a novel, Jeff drifted away from our family and gravitated toward Ida.
He even abandoned me when I was pregnant, causing me to miscarry.
While I was grieving the loss of our child, he was with Ida, supporting her during her livestreams.
Yet because of my mother-in-law, I never divorced him.