My dad has died in a car crash when I'm seven years old. So, my mom marries her first love, Robert Hayes, and integrates me into his family.

During the first meal with my new family, Robert announces a newly instated family rule.

"From now on, we have to split the bills in this family."

Once I eat a piece of steak, Robert tells me to pay him 300 dollars for the meal.

I just look at my stepsister, Harper Hayes, who's digging into her meal happily.

"Harper ate steak as well. Why didn't you ask her to pay you back, Dad?"

"That's because Harper's my biological daughter. I love her, and she has the bloodline privileges," Robert answers.

Then, I glance at Mom.

So, Robert adds, "Your mom is my wife. I love her, which means she has privileges as well. But in your case, we're not related by blood, nor do we have any ties of affection with each other. I'm not obligated to raise you at all, Maddie."

To enforce my new stepdad, Robert Hayes' rule of a strict bill split on all household expenses, everything in our home was tagged with a price.

A price sheet was taped to the refrigerator door. Apples were a dollar each, milk was two dollars a carton, and leftovers cost three dollars per serving.

…

Mom and my stepsister, Harper Hayes, both held special privileges, so they could open the refrigerator and take whatever they wanted, whenever they pleased.

I wanted to open the refrigerator, too, but I couldn't afford to pay my share.

Dad indifferently remarked, "You don't have any money, so how do you expect to eat?"

When I stammered and was completely at a loss, he assumed an air of generosity.

"Fine. We'll put it on your tab for now, but you'll need to sign a personal loan agreement with your mom and me.

"The interest will be calculated at high-risk lending rates of 0.1% per day until you're an adult. Once you're all grown up and start earning money, you can pay us back."

So, I had to pay my share on every kilowatt-hour of electricity, every individual piece of pasta I ate, and even my share of the vacations Mom and Dad took with Harper…

As a result of the household bill split, I had already accumulated a staggering debt of over 600 thousand dollars to my family before I even reached adulthood.

To keep the debt from growing, I lived as frugally as I could. I dug through the trash for Harper's old clothes and worn-out shoes she had discarded. Sometimes, I begged on the streets just for food.

But no matter how desperately frugal I tried to be, winter arrived and brought with it a raging flu epidemic.

I had a fever, which spiked my body temperature to a dangerous 103.6 degrees Fahrenheit. My body was so warm that it felt like burning coal.

As expected, the first thing Mom and Dad did was pull out the family ledger. After punching numbers into a calculator, they printed a new loan agreement.

"We can take you to the hospital, Maddie, but you must understand that medical bills are a bottomless pit these days. Registration, blood tests, and IV drips can easily add up to at least 1,000 dollars.

"Like what we've agreed, everyone pays for their own share of household expenses, but for personal emergency expenses, like you getting sick and running a fever, it must be paid entirely out of your own pocket."

But I had zero funds to cover the cost, so I had to sign another loan agreement with Mom and Dad.

…

In the end, Mom and Dad never took me to the hospital because Dad complained that hospital visits were too expensive and a complete waste of resources.

He walked down to a local pharmacy, bought a box of fever reducers and anti-inflammatories. The total came to 18 dollars.

He entered my bedroom with the medication, followed by Mom.

"Maddie, even though you're not my biological child, it doesn't mean I don't care about you. I advanced my cash to buy this medicine, so you owe me 20 dollars, including a two-dollar delivery fee."

He placed the medication on the bedside table before handing over a sheet of paper and a pen.

"Sign the loan agreement first. Once you've signed, you can take your pills."

But the high fever left me so weak that I could barely open my eyes.

"Mom…" I called out in a raspy voice.

But Mom turned her head away and muttered under her breath, "Just hurry up and sign it, Maddie. You'll feel better once you sign and take the pills."

Suppressing the discomfort from the fever, I scrawled my signature unevenly across the loan agreement with shaking hands.

But just as I finished signing, Harper's voice came from outside the door. "Dad! Mom! I cut my finger, and it hurts so badly!"

Mom immediately sprang up like a coiled spring and sprinted toward Harper in the kitchen. Her voice was full of panic and concern.

"What happened, my precious Harper?

"Oh my goodness! Let me take a look! Is it bleeding?

"Honey, hurry up and send our precious Harper to the hospital to get the wound bandaged and a tetanus shot. Cuts like this are dangerous, and we can't risk an infection!"

Listening to the frantic roar of Dad revving the car engine outside the window, I lay in bed with tears streaming down my face.

I couldn't understand it.

Why did I have to pay out of pocket and sign a legal loan agreement just to get a box of 20-dollar pills for a 103.6-degree fever? Meanwhile, Harper could be taken to the hospital for free and receive a tetanus shot for a scratch on her finger.

Seeing how confused I was, Harper, who was fiercely protected as the apple of the entire family's eye, grinned at me and said, "That's because I'm Dad's biological child, and he loves me.

"And your mom loves my dad, so by extension, she loves me the most, too!"

Harper was indeed Dad's biological daughter, so she was entitled to receive the love of both Dad and Mom, the woman who adored him.

On the other hand, I was just Mom's biological daughter. And as I grew older, all I received was a snowballing, ever-growing mountain of debt.

I didn't have time to socialize at school.

Even with the SAT looming, I spent my lunch breaks collecting recyclables every day, running errands to buy lunch for my classmates, or sitting in the corner of the sports field copying lines for students who refused to do their homework, charging them a dollar for every 1,000 words.

But I never expected Harper to corner me against a wall with a group of her friends while I was in the middle of picking up plastic bottles.

She pulled out a slip from the pocket of her school uniform. It was the loan agreement I had signed for Dad just two days ago.

The slip read. "Cash advance for next month's tampon expenses."

"See? I wasn't lying!" Harper announced. "I told you all the truth. Maddie Cooper here has to borrow money from my dad just to buy tampons.

"She's so young, but she's completely wasted and owes our family over 600 thousand dollars. A parasite like her is deeply in debt before she's even earned a single dime. Who knows how she's squandering her money behind our backs?

"I'm serious! If any of you hang out with her, be careful because she might steal your money!"

It turned out that Harper had been using me as gossip material for her friends.

As classmates around us began whispering and pointing at me, my face instantly flushed red.

Tampons.

Having Harper broadcast my private business out loud in front of everyone made me so embarrassed that I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

My eyes were red-rimmed as I lunged forward to grab the slip, but she held it high above her head.

Later, she showed it to the teenage boys in school and pinned it to the school's bulletin board.

"Everyone should see the true colors of the top student in our grade. What's the point of getting excellent grades when you're barely an adult and 607,300 dollars in debt? She's rotten to the core!"

That afternoon, I became the laughingstock of the entire school, and "the girl who buys tampons on credit" became my label.

A teacher, Wendy Stone, summoned both Harper and me into her office.

Wendy was a responsible and dedicated woman. She furiously called Harper out for her disrespectful behavior, then dialed our parents' numbers.

Soon, Mom and Dad arrived.

Dad was dressed in a tailored suit, looking well-refined and well-mannered. The first thing he did when he entered the office was to apologize to Wendy like a highly educated gentleman.

But when Wendy carefully brought up "protecting a teenage girl's privacy with family education" and "ensuring basic living necessities", Dad pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled.

"You've misunderstood, Ms. Stone. This is financial literacy training within our household.

"Maddie has never had a proper understanding of money since she was a kid. Our family follows a bill split in household expenses, so she signed personal loan agreements, designed to teach her survival skills and independence."

Wendy was left speechless.

After we left the office and arrived at a deserted corner of the hallway, the smiles vanished from Mom's and Dad's faces.

When Dad checked the time on his phone, Mom immediately understood and began scolding me.

"Maddie, because of the trouble you caused at school, your stepdad and I had to take an hour off work to handle it.

"His hourly rate is 500 dollars, and mine is 300 dollars, plus 50 dollars for wear and tear on the car. That brings the total to 850 dollars."

Mom scribbled the numbers down and added, "This bill will go on your tab. It's for the additional time costs you inflicted on us."

That was how my debt grew again.

…

On our way home, Harper happily held hands with both Dad and Mom, while I was left lagging far behind them.

Suddenly, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at me, grinning.

…

At the dinner table that evening, Mom suddenly threw her hands over her mouth, retched, and bolted into the bathroom.

Dad was briefly stunned before his eyes lit up, and he even dropped his spoon.

"Julia!" he yelled and rushed over to pound on the door. "What's wrong? Are you—"

That guess was quickly verified at the hospital. Mom was pregnant at the ripe age of 42 with Dad's biological child.

As Mom ran her hand over her belly, her face was flushed with a radiant, blissful glow. The impending arrival of the token of their love left her and Dad in a great mood.

Dad turned to me and announced, "Our household resources have to be strategically restructured to guarantee the optimal development and care of our newest addition.

"So, Maddie, your bedroom will be renovated into a nursery for your future younger brother."

My heart lurched, and I asked, "W-Where am I supposed to sleep then?"

Dad knocked on the table and pointed at the balcony. "Your mom and I talked about it. We'll enclose that corner of the balcony and set up a folding bed for you."

Balcony?

It was freezing in the winter and scorching in the summer, with barely any cover or protection.

Even after I cried and protested, Mom and Dad remained unyielding. Their tone left no room for negotiation, and everything they said boiled down to telling me to be sensible.

"We need to tighten our budget for household expenses now that a new member is joining our family. Maddie, your SAT is almost over, which means you're fully capable of working an adult job.

"After your SAT ends next year, we expect you to forfeit your chance at college and start working to pay back your debt to us."

No! I had to further my studies! Wendy told me that studying was my only way out of this life.

I desperately tried to argue my case, only to receive a furious slap from Mom, hard across the face.

Then, Mom and Dad pulled out the black ledger along with a stack of loan agreements bearing my name and tossed it in front of me.

"Let's get one thing straight, Maddie. You're not my biological child, so our family isn't obliged to support you until adulthood, especially since we've practiced a strict bill split for so many years.

"Don't you know how much money you owe us? You're a severely net-negative project!" Dad yelled.

I clutched my face and looked at Mom, who was immersed in the blissful glow of her pregnancy.

"Mom, have you forgotten? I may not be Dad's biological child, but I'm yours," I thought.

But she kept her head down and gently caressed her pregnant belly, fully absorbed in the happiness of being pregnant with Dad's baby.

She slowly grew uncomfortable under my resentful gaze. Finally, as if to make up her mind, she raised her head and looked at me.

"Don't blame us, Maddie. Raising a child is far too expensive these days. Your brother isn't even born yet, and we already need to save for his baby formula and education.

"You're all grown up now. You should be mature enough to help ease our financial burden. Besides, you do owe us a massive sum of money…"

My eyes turned red-rimmed as I stared at her in utter disbelief.

That was when I finally understood that in this house, I was nothing more than just an indebted outsider.

Without saying another word, I turned around to pack up my belongings.

The unborn baby in Mom's womb, her and Dad's real flesh and blood, wasn't even here yet. But to show just how much they already treasured it, they decided to set up the nursery ahead of time by kicking me out and moving me to the balcony.

I had a fever again the first night sleeping out on the balcony.

It was the June rainy season. The balcony had sealed windows, but the damp wind and rain leaking through turned the place into a humid, freezing icebox. I had to wrap myself in two thick blankets just to fall asleep every day.

In the middle of one night, I woke up parched, so I decided to head over to the living room to pour myself a glass of warm water.

Just as I stepped into the living room, my eyes fell on a box of unfinished cherries sitting on the coffee table. They were enormous, deep purplish-red, and gave off a sweet, enticing fragrance.

The sticky note Dad left was next to it.

"Honey, these are imported cherries, great for your iron levels. It will give you that pregnancy glow. You're pregnant with our baby, and these are packed with vitamins for our little one. They were ten dollars a kilogram, so make sure you don't share them with the outsider."

Obviously, I was the outsider he was referring to.

I stared at the box of cherries and let out a cold laugh deep in my heart.

Just then, a muffled groan drifted out from within the master bedroom. "Water… Bring me water…"

Dad was away on a business trip, and even with the SAT drawing near, Harper had left the house to party with her friends as usual. Since it had gotten too late, she decided to spend the night sleeping over. Neither of them was home that night.

I pushed open the door and saw my pregnant mom lying in bed. Her face was deathly pale, and her forehead was covered in cold sweat.

Being pregnant at such an advanced age took a massive toll on her body. She would have terrible leg cramps in the middle of the night, and she was thirsty and in pain.

The moment she saw that it was me, she slipped back into her commanding, authoritative tone.

"Are you deaf, Maddie? I called for ages, but why didn't you come in here? Can't you see how much pain I'm in?

"Hurry up and massage my legs. They're cramping and hurting so much!"

I stood by the bed in silence and looked at the frail Mom with cold indifference.

"It's 3:00 am, Mom. That's outside regular working hours, and according to labor laws, night shift care requires double pay."

Mom's eyes widened as if I were a stranger. "What on earth are you talking about?"