The company held a celebration, and as the quarterly sales champion, the boss awarded me a bonus of 500 thousand dollars and gave me a one-week vacation.

To reward myself, I broke my usual habit, bought tickets, booked a nice hotel, and went on a long-desired island vacation for six days with my best friend. Just after arriving home and happily posting on Instagram, I immediately received a call from my uncle.

My uncle was extremely angry. He harshly criticized me, "Your mother works 24/7 to support the family, and you spend so much money on traveling overseas? What kind of a daughter you are?"

"That's ridiculous. My mother works that hard because she wasted all her money to support my uncle and his family." I thought.

As I was preparing a retort, he continued to lash out his temper at me. "You must spend a lot of money on your trip! If you have that money to travel, why not give it to your mother so she can have some rest?"

Indeed, this trip cost me 150 thousand dollars. "But why should I apologize for spending my own money?"

My anger instantly reached the top of my head, and I rebuked him mercilessly, "Uncle Tom, you also know that my mother works hard. If you care about her so much, you wouldn't have asked for her hard-earned money!"

I hung up the phone without waiting for him to react. Before I could even catch my breath, my grandma Molly's call came in, "Max! Your mom has been crying all these days just because of you! Now come back soon!"

I only spent 150 thousand dollars on a trip, and my mom was already crying for me not to share the money. I wonder how would they respond if they knew that I had just received 5 million dollars from Rosemary, my father's mother.

But when I heard my mother crying on the phone, I still got up and went to see her at Molly's place.

As soon as I entered the house, I saw my mother sitting on the sofa, sobbing with red eyes. It seemed she had been crying for a long time. Molly was beside her, waving her hands and shouting angrily, "Just wait, this damn girl will come back, and I will teach her a lesson."

My uncle Tom and his wife Debbie chimed in, "That's right, she is so unreasonable. She needs to know that we won't let her do whatever she wants."

My eighteen-year-old cousin Josh was sitting with his legs crossed, playing games on his cell phone.

I entered the room. When they heard the noise, they all looked at me. Molly's voice thundered through the living room, "You silly girl. Why didn't you give money to your mother? Why do you want to travel?! Look how tired she is every day. As her daughter, don't you feel sorry for her at all?!"

"Why didn't she say that she, as a mother, didn't know how to love her daughter?" I thought, "This is so hilarious."

Uncle Tom yelled at me, too, "Why don't you come over and apologize to your mother? You spent so much money on traveling. Look how angry she is! How can you be so ignorant?"

Josh, who was addicted to games, suddenly raised his head when he heard "Spend money on traveling" and yelled at me, "You have money?! Can I borrow some?"

I ignored them and looked at my mother's red and swollen eyes. I felt a little pity for her for no reason. Maybe she had been brainwashed so deeply by her grandmother that she felt it was a sin for her and me to spend an extra penny on ourselves.

My mother was still sobbing, but she glanced at me from the corner of her eyes. I knew she was waiting for me to apologize, but I don't think she deserved it.

I calmed myself down and said to her, "Mom, I signed a few big orders this time and the company gave me a 50 thousand dollar bonus. That's why I..."

Before I could finish my words, Molly jumped up and said, "What? You spent 150 thousand dollars out of 500 thousand dollars in one time?! Are you crazy? Who gives you the nerve to spend so much money on yourself?"

My mother's tears started flowing again. She pointed at me with trembling hands and said, "You, you, how can you spend it? Do you think you're some rich girl who can spend money like that?"

She spread out her palms and said, "Look at the calluses on my hands. I sweep the floor and pick up trash every day, and you do that to me? Where is your conscience?"

"Yes, she has been picking up trash." I got angry when I heard that, "Who told you to pick up trash?! You have a pension. It's fine if you want to do this cleaning job to earn some extra income, but you choose to go around picking up trash. Did I force you to do that? Are you picking up trash for me? Don't you know who the money is for?"

I pointed at Tom and said, "You used the money my father earned to buy a house for him, and gave all your salary to his family. When did you ever do anything for me? You let me study and work part-time so you can give all the money I earned to help him. Where is your conscience??"

When I mention my father, my heart trembles. My father Ted and his mother Rosemary were once my warmest support.

When I was a child, I used to live a happy life. I have beautiful bows and dresses in my closet, and cake on my birthday. Rosemary always called me "Max baby" with love. My dad always held me up high, making me giggle.

But since my father died suddenly in a car accident when I was seven years old, my world collapsed.

When my father died, we received 800 thousand dollars as compensation. Rosemary didn't ask for a penny of it. She just wanted my mother to raise me well.

My mother agreed very well. As soon as Rosemary moved to live with her daughter in Capitalvals, she immediately gave all the money to my uncle to buy an apartment. And then she brought Molly to live with us.

I was like a princess who fell from the clouds and became Cinderella in my own house.

My mother respected Molly, took care of my uncle and aunt, and doted on my cousin, but she didn't care about me, her daughter

My mother thought that all the money she earned belonged to my grandma and uncle, and that included the money I earned too.

As soon as I graduated from college and started working, my mother took away my salary card.

This time, I spent more than ten thousand dollars on travel, and in the eyes of my grandma's family, that was a big rebellion!

However, they didn’t know that I had endured enough and didn’t want to support them anymore!

I want to escape from this sea of suffering and this home!

My mom didn't expect that I, who was always obedient, would talk back to her like that. She was so angry that her chest heaved violently. She stood up and yelled at me desperately, "What did you mean?! Your uncle was my only brother! Didn't you know what family affection was?!"

Molly was so angry that her face turned red. She came forward and slapped me. I was caught off guard and fell on the sofa. She pointed at me and scolded, "You are a spoiled child! You only care about yourself. Your mother really raised you in vain!"

Then she turned to my mother and said, "I told you that you treated her too well. Last time she said she lived too far from the company, so she had to rent an apartment near the company. What a waste of money! I told you, you gave her money once, there would be a second. Look, now she spends more than 15 thousand on travel without blinking an eye."

I touched my swollen face and couldn't help crying. I cried, "It took me an hour and a half to get to the company by bus. I get up at six in the morning every day and sometimes I am still late for work. Why shouldn't I find a nearby place?"

My uncle started to speak coldly, "Young lady, couldn't you bear such a little hardship? Look at your mother, she was busy all day and suffered so much. Why didn't you feel sorry for her at all?"

“Suffer? How dare he mention suffering? My mother bought his house and funded his marriage. He always asks my mother for money when he spends money. Why does he want me to suffer? Why?!"

I finally lost my temper and yelled at my uncle, "Did you ever feel bad for her? If you feel bad, don't ask her for money! You were a grown man! And you wanted me, your niece, to suffer to support your life! How could you be so shameless?!"

Two slaps hit my face hard. My mother's face turned red completely. "You! How dare you?! You have no manners. I will teach you a lesson today!" Then she rushed over and hit me several more times. My uncle folded just stood aside and laughed at me, "Well done, this girl will be out of control if we don't beat her up."

My aunt Debbie shook her head and said, "Lindsey spoiled her too much. If it were me, I would have beat all this temper out of her a long time ago."

Molly laughed and clapped. "That's right, she will never dare to spend our money next time!"

Josh only cared about his game. He didn't even look over here, but he kept asking, "Can you guys let her give me some money after this?"

My body hurt, and my face quickly became red and swollen, but at that moment, it was not only my face that hurt but my heart.

Once upon a time, I still had a little fantasy about my mother. I just felt that she was constrained by family affection and was excessively demanded by her mother and others. She might feel helpless and unwilling like I did.

But now, I understood everything. She did it voluntarily. She lived for my grandma, uncle, and the whole family. She is not a person. And she believed that I should be like her, follow her old path, and be willing to be exploited.

Of course, she didn't think she was being exploited, she thought it was a dedication to family affection.

Her dedication brought happiness to others and touched herself.

"Unfortunately, I am not her and will never become her."

"I took these slaps as a way of repaying her for giving birth to me." I thought that when she hit me.

When my mother saw that I didn't fight back, she came up to me pulled my hair, and pinched my face. I finally pushed her away hard. She staggered and fell on the sofa.

Rosemary screamed, "You dared to hit your mother, you were really rebellious!"

Before they had any further reaction, I grabbed my bag and rushed out the door.

This place was no longer my home! The people here were no longer my family!

"I will get them out of my life!"

After I rushed out of the door, I ran into fine rain. The rain fell coldly on my head and body, but my heart was a hundred or a thousand times colder than this.

My own family, my own mother, regarded me as their cash cow.

Apart from school uniforms, my mother had never bought me new clothes. Anytime, I asked for anything, even for the cheapest clothes or snacks, they would say that I didn't deserve it.

My mother even wanted me to drop out of high school and go to work. Fortunately, I had excellent grades. My school promised to waive all tuition and accommodation fees. She reluctantly agreed to let me continue studying.