Mathilda sat bored on the sofa, holding her little brother and watching cartoons.
Her father hadn't come home for dinner. Lately, he was always "busy" and often stayed out all night.
Mathilda was young, but she wasn't naive. She knew her father wasn't a good man.
He was a gang member. He had done time for drug possession.
But with her mother gone too soon and her grandparents refusing to take them in, she was stuck.
Her father was a bastard. Not long after her mother died, he remarried a woman with loose morals.
Not only did that woman give him a son, but she also brought along a daughter from a previous relationship—a girl several years older than Mathilda.
Mathilda couldn't resist. She was twelve.
She couldn't feed herself, let alone escape this toxic household to live independently.
Fortunately, life wasn't all misery.
Her half-brother was different. Unlike his mother or his half-sister, he wasn't hateful.
He was sweet and clingy, always following Mathilda around like a duckling.
If there was anything in this wretched home worth staying for, it was him.
Tonight, her father was absent again. Her stepmother, Maggie, had stormed out earlier in a huff.
She had been gone for over two hours.
Mathilda wasn't worried. In fact, she was glad Maggie was gone.
It gave her a chance to enjoy cartoons with her brother in peace.
But the peace didn't last.
A loud, jarring voice shattered the moment.
"Mathilda, time for bed."
Mathilda didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
Liv. Maggie's daughter from before she married Mathilda's father.
Mathilda suspected even Maggie didn't know who Liv's real father was.
But one thing was certain: the guy must have been ugly and fat.
Otherwise, given Maggie's undeniable beauty, how could she have produced a daughter like Liv—overweight, plain, and mean?
"Maggie said we could watch until she gets back!" Mathilda argued, hugging her brother tighter.
Liv had a new boyfriend recently. Before Maggie left, Liv had been on the phone with him for hours.
She had only just hung up.
Mathilda knew Liv's game. If she had finished her call earlier, she would have kicked them off the TV long ago to watch her late-night dramas.
Liv wasn't hideous, thanks to Maggie's genes, but she was significantly heavier than most girls her age. Combined with her nasty personality, she and Mathilda fought constantly.
Click.
The channel changed. Cartoons were replaced by hippies and heavy metal music.
Mathilda spun around furiously.
Liv stood there in her pajamas, remote in hand, looking down at Mathilda like a victorious hen.
"Bed. Now."
She issued the command with smug superiority.
Mathilda was about to scream back when her brother tugged on her sleeve.
"Sister... I'm sleepy," he whispered, rubbing his eyes.
Seeing his tired face, Mathilda swallowed her rage. She glared at Liv one last time, then picked up her brother to carry him to bed.
Seeing Mathilda retreat, Liv smirked triumphantly.
That smirk was the last straw.
Mathilda knew she couldn't win a fight against the sixteen-year-old Liv. But she wasn't going to leave without a parting shot.
As she passed Liv, Mathilda swung her hand and smacked Liv's fleshy bottom as hard as she could.
Smack!
"AH!"
Liv yelped, her face twisting in shock and rage.
"Mathilda! I'm going to kill you!"
She spun around and grabbed Mathilda's arm before she could escape.
Mathilda quickly set her brother down and pushed him toward the bedroom.
Just as Liv raised her hand to strike...
Click. Creek.
The front door opened.
The sound of high heels clicking on the floor echoed in the hallway.
Maggie, who had been missing for nearly three hours, finally returned.
"Mom! Mathilda has been watching cartoons all night!"
"I told her to go to bed, and she hit me!"
Liv was Maggie's biological daughter and the favorite. She immediately played the victim, twisting the story to get Mathilda in trouble.
Mathilda knew the odds were stacked against her. But she was stubborn.
She glared at Liv, then turned to Maggie to defend herself.
But then she stopped.
Mathilda was observant. She noticed something.
Maggie's clothes were rumpled. Her hair was a mess—damp strands of blonde hair plastered to her forehead with sweat.
Her face was flushed a deep, conspicuous red.
She looked exhausted, and her legs seemed unsteady as she walked.
"Did Maggie go for a run?" Mathilda wondered.
She looked exactly like Mathilda did after a long-distance race at school.
But Maggie hated exercise. Why would she be running in the middle of the night?
Distracted by the mystery, Mathilda forgot to defend herself.
"Liv, keep it down."
Maggie's voice was breathless.
She had just experienced... something unprecedented.
The fear that her husband might come home and catch her had only heightened the thrill. The entire experience had been a mix of anxiety and ecstasy.
She felt a satisfaction she hadn't felt in years. It was like discovering a new continent.
Maggie wiped the sweat from her forehead. She gave Liv a token warning, then looked at Mathilda and her son.
In a rare display of affection, she patted both of their heads.
"Go to sleep, kids. Looks like your father isn't coming home tonight."
"Goodnight."
With that, she stumbled toward her bedroom, looking like she was about to collapse from exhaustion.
She left behind a confused Mathilda and a bewildered Liv, staring at each other, wondering what had happened to their mother.
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