"Your money? We feed and clothe you, what money do you have? It's all mine!"
My five-year-old brother watched the whole drama, laughing and clapping his hands in amusement.
6
Trapped with no escape, I approached my two aunts in desperation.
They listened to my plea with pained expressions, expressing sympathy but not lending a single cent.
They relayed their response to my mother.
"Oh, Angela has been such a help at home over the years. If Amber were here, she wouldn't bear to see her sister like this."
"If it weren't for my two sons, I definitely would have given some money!" one aunt lamented.
"If my own child got into high school, I'd sell everything to send him, because sons and daughters are just the same, right, Nora?"
A chill ran through me as they flaunted my misery in front of my mother.
Furious, my mother dragged me into the yard and beat me. "You've become so clever, huh? I told you not to go to school, but you stole money, and when caught, you turned to deception. How can you be so vile?"
Her heart-wrenching cries quickly drew the neighbors, who formed a half-circle at a distance, smirking behind their hands.