A chilling, piercing laugh then rang in my ears after Dad was done talking.

I felt as though my heart had been ripped apart.

Back then, I had clearly been accepted into a very good university, but Mom and Dad said that they couldn't afford to put any food on the table, so I gave up on going to university and instead took on multiple jobs to feed them.

Now, I realized that my actions must have seemed so ridiculous in their eyes.

Randall laughed. "You and Mom are really something, Dad. Aren't you worried that Raven's going to find out one day and beat you both up?"

Mom and Dad didn't look like they cared. "Hah! We'll see if she even gets the chance to do that!

"Your mom and I have already talked things through. We'll just pretend to be deathly ill sometime later. We'll say we're deeply in need of 700,000 dollars for the surgery. Then, we'll sell her off to Leroy Buckley, the village idiot.

"And then, once we get the money, we'll go abroad for a vacation and then stage a deadly accident after coming back. It won't matter if she ever finds out about the truth then, because what right does a married woman have to her parents' inheritance, after all?"

I didn't have the courage to continue listening to the rest of their conversation. All I knew was that I felt so devastated as I left the dealership that I nearly collapsed to the ground.

I even thought of taking off my mask and cap and confronting them right then and there for a moment.

Why was it that their precious son could drive a Ferrari worth 500,000 dollars, while their daughter was told that they were too poor to afford her 100,000-dollar university tuition fees? How could they let their daughter only do odd jobs wherever she could to survive? Weren't we both their children?

However, I managed to suppress my impulses with reasoning and stopped myself from confronting them. I would only be humiliating myself if I were to reveal myself now.

If they had an ounce of pity for me, they would never have watched me pick up so many odd jobs every day without doing anything about it. So, I would still end up on the losing end anyway.

…

I didn't work overtime delivering food as usual that night.

Instead, I used the money I had on me to buy myself a nice cheesesteak sandwich, something that I had never allowed myself to buy because it was too pricey for me.

I cried while eating the sandwich. I wouldn't stop questioning myself about Mom and Dad's favoritism. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there had been many telltale signs since the beginning, and it all began to make sense.

For example, Randall didn't manage to get into any of the colleges or universities with his dismal SAT score, but Mom and Dad somehow managed to enroll him in an overseas college.

When I asked them how they'd manage to fund that, they told me that they had borrowed the money from a relative.

Now that I thought carefully about it, their lies weren't even that believable in the first place.

After all, what kind of relative would be so kind as to casually spend a few million dollars on my hopeless brother?

I had just been too stupid and naive before.

They didn't come home that night. Early the next morning, however, Mom, Dad, and Randall finally walked through the door, wearing the clothes they'd bought from thrift stores. They were also carrying a bag of white bread and some processed cheese from the grocery's clearance section.

They immediately flew into a temper when they saw the mess at home and the cheesesteak sandwich wrapping in the trash can.

"You brat! How dare you waste your money on things like that! We've already bought breakfast for you! Why the hell did you have to buy something so expensive for yourself? Don't you know how poor we are right now?"

I stared at Mom's furious expression as she continued berating me for "wasting" money and found it ridiculous.

If this were in the past, I would usually feel sorry for her for having to work so hard. I'd never even spare a glance at the sandwiches at the cheesesteak restaurant because I found them overly pricey.

However, now, after witnessing them casually dropping half a million dollars on Randall, I only felt sorry for myself for having been fooled by them for so many years. I had been tricked into overworking myself to death.

I chuckled coldly.

"What's the big deal? Didn't you just drop 500,000 bucks on a car for Randy just because you felt like it? And now, you're telling me that I can't even buy myself a sandwich?"

"What… What nonsense are you talking about?"

Dad panicked when he heard me say that. Realizing that they were about to blow their cover, Mom and Dad began stammering and stuttering as they fought to find the right words.

Even their precious Randall was looking like a deer caught in headlights at the moment.

"Have you lost your mind again, Raven Carter? We don't have that kind of money, and you know it!" Dad yelled.

I didn't want to waste my breath arguing with them anymore. I just tore up the receipt they got for the car purchase yesterday instead. Then, I threw the pieces in their faces.

"How much longer would you have hidden it from me if I didn't find out by accident?"

Mom and Dad were stupefied when they caught sight of the receipt. They never thought that I would find out about their little secret that quickly.

Mom was so infuriated that she wanted to slap me. "You freaking brat! Did you stalk us all the way there?"

I grabbed her arm and stopped her midway. "And how could I possibly do that? I'd never have found out if I hadn't happened to be working a shift at that car dealership when you walked in!

"How could you do this to me? You've been telling me that we were poor since I was young, and that was the reason why I had never received new clothes but only ever wore hand-me-downs from my other cousins!

"Even the best food in the house has to be left for Randy! Do you know that I've never even tasted beef before, at my age? I never dared to go to university, even though I got in! I even took up even more shifts because I wanted to buy you that gold pendant you'd been eyeing to make you happy!

"But what did you do? How have both of you been treating me? You couldn't afford to pay for my university fees, but you could afford to send Randy abroad for his studies! And you even bought him such an expensive car!

"Why is that so? Is it just because I'm a girl?"

I immediately aired out all of my grievances at once.

However, Mom and Dad didn't seem the least bit remorseful or ashamed after hearing my little rant. They just got even more frustrated and chided me in return.

"You brat, you think you're all that now, don't you? We've been feeding you and giving you a roof over your head for years! Do you really think that we still owe you anything else?

"And don't you dare bring up the subject of us spending half a million dollars on Randy's car. He will be inheriting all of our money! This is not something you should ever question as a good-for-nothing leech!"

Randall chimed in as well.

"That's right! Mom and Dad gave birth to you and raised you till now! You already owe them big for the rest of your life! How dare you question their financial choices so shamelessly like this? Did you think that the money belonged to you?"

So, this was my family's true colors after all, even though I had loved and respected them for years!

I got so mad that I couldn't even breathe right. I pointed my finger at them and yelled, "Fine! Since you all look down on me that much, then I'll just leave! Happy?"

Once I was done talking, I immediately went straight to my room to pack up all of my belongings. Dad flew into a rage and yelled back, "If you dare to set foot outside the door tonight, then you can forget about ever coming back! We will never acknowledge such a disrespectful daughter like you!"

I found it even more ridiculous and just said, "I couldn't be happier with that!"

…

I cut off all contact with Mom and Dad since then. I even told my best friend, Sarah Parker, about my family lying to me about being poor for years, and she got even more furious after hearing everything.

"Don't you think you just did something dumb? How could you just cut them off? You wouldn't get a penny from them anymore, and they'd probably still make you pay for their retirement!"

I chuckled coldly.

"You're too naive. Did you really think that I would get a single penny from their inheritance if I continued staying with them? They'd already made it clear that everything was going to Randall, that good-for-nothing scumbag. It's not something that I, as a 'leech', could ever question."

Sarah frowned hard. "You've got a point. So, what are you planning to do next? Are you really going to let them off the hook that easily?"