At the Christmas dinner table, my drunk uncle suddenly turned on my mom.

“You know, Sis, you’re pretty shameless, aren’t you? Every year, I give Anna five hundred bucks as a Christmas gift, but you’ve never given my daughter anything!”

The rest of the family had clearly been holding this in for a while.

Since someone had said it out loud, they all jumped in at once to accuse my mother of always taking and never giving. They called her selfish and stingy.

My mother suddenly grabbed me by the hair and slapped me.

“Anna, why didn’t you tell me you got money from them? Have you been hiding cash? You made me look like I can’t return a simple favor! Happy now?”

I had clearly given her everything I ever received!

With the way she twisted the truth, I ended up becoming the liar in everyone’s eyes.

As a result, later that night, when a fishbone got lodged in my throat and I choked, everyone just sat there laughing and watching. They were convinced that not only had I lied about the gift money, but I was also trying to scam them for medical bills.

As soon as my uncle, Noel Macy, said that, the rest of the family piled on.

“Seriously, do you even get how give-and-take works? You’ve been taking advantage of us for years.”

“Gotta hand it to you, Kate. You really know how to work the system. All smiles when your own kid gets gifts, but won’t spend a penny on our kids.”

They had clearly been waiting for a chance to belittle her. Their words dripped with sarcasm.

My mother, Kate Fisher, turned pale. Suddenly, she grabbed me by the hair and slapped me.

“Anna, why didn’t you tell me you got money from them? Have you been hiding cash? You made me look like I can’t return a simple favor! Happy now?

My head was spinning. I wanted to tell her I had already given her every cent I received.

She cut me off with a fierce glare. Then, she grabbed my arm and dragged me into the bedroom.

“Anna, don’t you have any sense at all?”

She kept her voice low, and her fingers dug painfully into my arm.

“You’ve collected five or six thousand as gifts over the years. They’re obviously trying to get that money back now. When we go out there, say that you kept the cash to yourself and spent it. That way, they can’t ask for it anymore.”

I did not want to lie.

I did not want to be the bad kid everyone looked down on. I did not want this moment to be the reason I could not hold my head high.

Seeing that I did not agree, Mom gave me a look of utter disappointment.

“Anna, what does someone your age need pride for? Money is what matters. I’m doing this for your own good. I’ve been saving all that money for you. It’ll be yours someday anyway.”

She always thought children did not need dignity.

When the school organized potlucks, she would send me empty-handed every time and tell me to mooch off the snacks from other kids.

She said it saved money.

When I ended up being excluded by my friends, she would just click her tongue and say I did not have any friends because I was antisocial.

As for the gift money, I clearly remembered that Mom went shopping every year after the holidays and spent it.

She never hesitated when it came time to pay for the designer bags or expensive clothes for herself.

That money was probably long gone.

I tried to say something, but just as I opened my mouth, I felt a sharp pain in my throat. I was seized by fits of coughing.

When Mom had slapped me earlier, I was eating fish.

The fishbone must have gotten stuck.

Seeing my face turning red and my eyes filling with tears, she trembled in excitement instead of feeling concerned for me.

“Anna, that’s some good acting! Keep that up when we go back out later. Just say I punished you, and they’ll feel too awkward to ask for the money back.”

I was not pretending. I was genuinely in pain.

I could feel my throat swelling up. Breathing normally was a struggle.

She dragged me back to the dinner table.

She grabbed my hair and forced my head up so everyone could see my tear-streaked face.

“I punished her for keeping the money to herself. But she’s already spent everything she got. So, there’s no way to pay any of you back.”

Clearly, no one was happy about that much money going down the drain.

Mom could see it too.

She suddenly grabbed a wooden serving spoon from the table and started hitting me with it repeatedly.

The air whistled with each strike.

When the spoon broke, Mom pretended that it pained her to hurt me.

“Anna, I don’t have a choice. You see how upset everyone is. What else am I supposed to do if they won’t forgive you?”

Her voice was shrill and dripped with hidden meaning.

Sure enough, our relatives quickly tried to calm her down because they felt put on the spot.

“Hey, it’s Christmas. Don’t hit the kid like that!”

“Let’s just forget about it. She’s learned her lesson now. It was just a gift, anyway. It’s not like we’d actually ask for it back.”

Seeing that her plan had worked, Mom set down the broken spoon.

Just then, my father, Adam Fisher, returned home.

The relatives immediately started talking over each other to fill him in on everything that had just happened.

His expression darkened. He dropped the gift he had bought for me onto the floor.

“Anna, did you really keep that money to yourself?”

The first thing Dad usually did when he returned home was pat my head gently.

However, he kept his distance today. He did not even seem to notice my swollen face.

I did not want Dad to misunderstand me.

I did not want him to think I was a bad kid. I was afraid he would not love me anymore.

Just as I was about to tell the truth, Mom suddenly dug her fingers into my waist and whispered a threat in my ear.

“Anna, do you want Dad and me to divorce? I’ve sacrificed so much for you and for this family. Can’t you help me just this once?”

She was right.

Dad had a strong sense of justice. He hated dishonesty and schemes more than anything.

If he found out what Mom had done, they would definitely fight. Maybe they would even get divorced.

I did not want to be a child from a broken home.

I wanted our family of three to stay whole.

And Mom...

She used to be gentle. She used to pull me into her arms and let me cling to her.

My grandmother told me that when I was born, Mom lost her career. She spent every day buried in cooking, cleaning, and other household chores.

That was why she had become so anxious and bitter.

It was all my fault. I owed her.

I clenched my fists, nodded, and admitted to everything.

The relatives shook their heads as they tried to smooth things over.

“Anna, I’ve known you since you were little. I thought there must be some misunderstanding, but now that you’ve admitted it…”

“What happened to you, kid?”

It was just like they said.

I was a bad kid and a liar.

But at least I had saved my family.

Mom breathed a sigh of relief beside me.

Dad, on the other hand, was so angry that he flipped the Christmas dinner table over. Then, he tore apart the princess dress he had bought for me and stomped on it.

It was the latest design. He had bought it because I had lingered on it a little too long in the store. He had spent half a month’s salary to buy it for me.

I forced back my tears and made myself look away.

What hurt even more was my throat. Those hits from my mother had driven the fish bone deeper.

Every breath now felt like torture.

My teacher had said that this kind of situation was very dangerous.

I crept over to Dad. I was careful and hesitant.

With my head lowered, I tugged lightly at his sleeve and managed to force some words out. “Dad, there’s a fish bone stuck in my throat. Can you take me to the hospital?”

Dad stared at me.

Normally, he would have panicked. Although at this moment, he simply snorted.

“Anna, has lying become a habit for you now? That’s sea bass. There are no bones in it.”

I stood there frozen.

The feeling of something being stuck in my throat was getting worse. I could not be wrong.

“I specifically told your mom to buy this fish for dinner. There’s no way it has bones.”

A flash of guilt flickered in Mom’s eyes.

She opened her mouth, but in the end, she said nothing.

At this point, the truth was obvious to me.

Dad had given her the money, but to pocket the difference, she must have bought a cheaper fish instead.

Even with everything unraveling, she chose to stay silent.

My throat kept swelling. I could barely breathe.

I thought, ‘I’m sorry, Mom. I can’t cover for you this time.’

“Dad, I’m not lying! There’s really something stuck in my throat!”

I wanted to prove it, but the fish had been thrown off the table. It was scattered all over the floor.

I searched through the mess for what felt like forever before finally finding a piece with fishbones still in it.

But before I could pick it up and show it to my father, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close.

“Anna, you really don’t need to put on such a pitiful act.”

Then, he pulled out a pack of wet wipes from his pocket.

“Wipe your hands. Go to your room and think about what you’ve done.”

He still thought I was lying.

But when he saw the tears in my eyes, he hesitated.

He pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and was ready to take a look.

I opened my mouth. Just then, the relatives around the table started laughing.

“Look at that! She’s got her dad fooled again!”

“Adam, you’re just enabling her. If this works, she’ll keep lying next time too.”

Dad’s face darkened instantly. He shoved me aside and walked out to the porch for a cigarette.

He was a doctor.

One look was all it would have taken for him to see how swollen my throat was.

Yet no matter how I called after him, he did not turn back.

After Dad left, Mom hurriedly shoved me toward the bedroom.

She knew the fish she had bought had fishbones.

But to her, even if something really was stuck, it was no big deal. She thought swallowing a few times would make it go down.

After all, she had never heard of anyone actually choking to death on a fishbone.

My suffering was better than her being embarrassed in front of everyone.

I was desperate. I cried and grabbed at the clothes of my uncles, aunts, and cousins. I begged them to take me to the hospital.

All I got in return was laughter.

“Anna, you’re so manipulative at such a young age! Wasn’t it enough to scam us out of all that gift money over the years? Are you trying to scam us for medical bills too?”

“Just go to your room and think about what you’ve done. If you behave, maybe your dad will let you come out later to watch the fireworks.”

No one believed me. To them, I was just a bad kid.

Mom pushed me into the bedroom. She hesitated for a second, then brought in a plate of pasta and set it on the nightstand.

“Anna, if something really is stuck, just chew and swallow some food. It’ll push it down. As for what happened, I know it’s not fair to you, but you can’t blame me. Who knew it would blow up like this? You’re just a kid. Losing a little dignity doesn’t matter. Just help me out this time, okay?”

I thought, ‘But Mom, I’m not just losing dignity… I’m losing my life.’

The door slammed shut. It was locked from the outside. I beat my palms against it until they were red and swollen, but no one came.

I did not want to die. I was still so young.

I wanted to watch fireworks with my parents.

I grabbed the plate of pasta and started stuffing it into my mouth in the hopes that it could save me.

I swallowed one mouthful after another. In the end, it all got stuck in my throat. My breathing grew heavier and heavier.

When my consciousness returned, I was finally breathing easy.

I looked down at my body lying on the bed. For the first time, I felt that being dead made things easier.

The locked door could not hold me anymore. I drifted out to the living room.

Dad was going around the table and toasting each relative one by one.