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.

“A child’s behavior reflects badly on the parents. Anna made a mistake. She’s taken a lot of money from all of you over the years. I’ll pay it all back.”

Outside, the porch was littered with cigarette stubs and ashes.

We were not a wealthy family. My mother did not work. The mortgage, the car payments, and all the bills fell on my father’s shoulders.

Even though each gift was only five hundred bucks, it had added to a significant amount over the years, especially when many people had contributed to it.

He must have hesitated before making this decision.

The relatives made a show of refusing him at first. “How could we take back the money we gave to a child?”

But in the end, they still accepted it.

“I apologize on Anna’s behalf. I hope this ends here. She’s still young. She can change. I just don’t want her growing up with a reputation that she can’t shake.”

Even as a spirit, my heart ached.

Angry as he was, my father had figured out a solution.

He was trying his best to keep me from becoming a bad kid in everyone’s eyes.

After making the rounds with his drinks, Dad was visibly tipsy. Even so, he gave Mom two thousand dollars.

“From now on, if Anna wants something, just get it for her. Maybe we’ve been too hard on her. That’s why she ended up lying and taking the money.”

Mom’s hand trembled slightly as she took the cash.

Maybe the fear of almost being exposed earlier still lingered in her mind, or maybe she was moved by how my dad bowed and asked for forgiveness.

Perhaps she felt a little guilty toward me.

She walked over to the bedroom door with the money and knocked.

“Anna, what happened today really was on me. After I had you, I quit my job and lost my income. That’s why I was trying so hard to scrape together money to please myself. Let’s just put this behind us and go back to how things were. It’ll be the three of us, like a normal family, okay?”

She kept talking about how she would spend the two thousand dollars just on me.

When I did not respond, she assumed I was sulking.

Her tone began to change.

“Anna, I already said I’m sorry! What else do you want from me? Are you seriously going to ignore me forever? Stop sulking, okay?”

I drifted beside her and said, “Mom.”

She could not hear a thing.

Mom had a prideful temper. She was not going to keep begging.

She walked away and joined a card game.

It was not until midnight, just before the fireworks, that she came to knock on the door again.

There was still no response.

“Are you still sulking? Haven’t you had enough? I just won some money from the game. Here, I’ll give you two hundred. Think of it as a gift. You can spend it however you want. Happy now?”

Just as she finished saying that, Dad walked over.

He leaned in and said quietly in her ear, “Five hours of reflection should be enough. Let her out. Make her something to eat later. She barely ate tonight. She’s probably hungry.”

He paused for a moment.

“As for the lying… I’ll deal with it after the holidays.”

I thought, ‘But Dad, when you see my body, you’ll know I wasn’t lying.’

Fireworks were already going off outside.

On the table sat a box of sparklers Dad had bought just for me.

Mom and Dad glanced at the time and urged me to come out to watch the fireworks.

I hovered nearby. I was frantic.

In the end, they lost their patience and went to get the key.

“Anna, stop sulking already!” Mom said.

“You’re the one in the wrong here. Are you seriously throwing a tantrum?” Dad added.

There was a sharp click, and the door swung open.

At that moment, fireworks burst across the sky outside. The dazzling light washed over their faces.

Looking at my body on the bed, all anger instantly drained from their faces, leaving only shock and disbelief behind.