Chapter 4
In my past life, Mom chose to walk away with nothing to get custody of me.
Dad had broken her heart so completely that she took me and left that painful place, heading for a bigger city.
A middle-aged woman with no work experience, on her own with a kid in tow-we could barely survive day to day.
Desperate to make money, she even got scammed out of what little savings we had left.
We ended up wandering the city like homeless people.
When Mom saw that I couldn’t even stay in school, she regretted everything and called Dad, begging him to take me back to live with
him.
Dad coldly refused: “No way. My wife’s pregnant, and she’s high-risk. Can’t have any complications. You and Sienna need to tough it
out a little longer.”
He hung up, and Mom stood there in the darkness holding the phone for the longest time.
After that, Mom never mentioned Dad in front of me again.
She threw herself into making money with the fury of someone who hated the whole world, working three jobs a day.
3:30 AM: she’d get up to help someone sell breakfast;
8 AM to 6 PM: she did housekeeping;
7 PM to midnight: she picked up a cleaning job at the movie theater.
The jobs weren’t what stressed her out most-it was my education.
When we got to this city, Mom ran to every middle school trying to get me enrolled, finally finding out about the best one in town.
The best middle school meant the best teachers, but it also meant sky-high standards for students.
I’d been top of my class back in our small town, but that didn’t mean much in the big city.
Mom had no connections, no network. If she wanted to get me into that school, she was on her own.
Every single day, she’d show up at the principal’s office, cleaning it for free, getting kicked out countless times, but she’d swallow her
pride and go right back to begging.
But that alone wasn’t going to move the principal.
There were plenty of kids with connections waiting in line.
Then Mom overheard one of the school janitors mention that the principal’s elderly mother was sick in the hospital.
Mom went to the hospital and took care of the principal’s mother-helping her with everything, more devoted and hardworking than
any of the old woman’s actual relatives.
When the old woman was discharged, she told the principal: “You have to help Sharon.”
Sharon was my mom.
The principal was a good son, and just like that, I got into that middle school.
Chapter 4
I knew the opportunity was precious. Other kids just studied hard-I studied like my life depended on it.
Like mother, like daughter.
Mom worked herself to the bone making money, and her daughter studied herself to the bone.
