Three Jobs for Me, Millions for Her? Fine, I Quit This Family Chapter 02
Rage, betrayal, and absolute emptiness rushed over me.
threatening to tear me apart.
Yet, I still refused to believe it.
I didn’t want to believe that my own mother could be this cruel.
Taking a deep breath, I walked away from the terrace until I
was a block down the street.
I pulled out my phone and dialed her number.
The call connected almost instantly.
My mother’s voice was as warm and gentle as always.
“What is it, sweetie?”
I remained silent for a long moment, my throat tight.
“Mom,” I whispered, my voice trembling.
“My research advisor, Professor Carter, is harassing me. He
keeps cornering me in his office, using my graduation thesis
as leverage.”
Tears spilled over my eyelashes.
The way he looks at me makes me sick,”
“He sends me inappropriate messages late at night, implying
that if I don’t cooperate, he will block my graduation,”
“Mom, can you please help me?”
Silence stretched over the line.
I told myself that if she showed even a shred of anger, if she
offered to stand up for me just once, I would hang up, walk
away, and pretend I had never heard her on that balcony.
But she shattered my final hope.
“Claire, he is a tenured professor.”
“We are just ordinary people with no money or status. It took
so much effort to get you into that university. Can’t you just
tolerate it for a little while?”
But Mom, he touched me. He cornered me against his desk. If
I hadn’t run out…”
The terror I had bottled up for an entire semester finally
broke free, choking me.
Then just wear more modest clothes,” my mother
interrupted, her tone sharp with irritation.
She paused, realizing she had sounded too harsh.
She let out a weak, theatrical cough.
‘I’m sorry, Claire. Your mother is just useless. If You’re really
that unhappy, why don’t you just withdraw from the university?
I will take care of you.
I raised you this far, and I only want you to be happy.”
She began to cough violently, gasping for air.
Listening to her cough, a cold realization washed over me. It
had always been like this.
In middle school, when I qualified for the state physics program,
and in high school, when I was invited to the prestigious Yale
summer research program,
she had pretended to be thrilled.
But then, she would quietly take double doses of painkillers in front of me.
She would make sure I saw her getting yelled at by landlords
or working extra hours to “afford” my dreams.
And every single time, crushed by guilt, I had voluntarily
turned down those life–changing opportunities,
She used my love for her to lock me in a cage.
Yet, she had never done this to Sophie.
From the day Sophie moved into our dorm, my mother called her every night.
She transferred thousands of dollars to Sophie’s account every week.
She donated five million dollars to the university just to
ensure Sophie faced no difficulties.
She paid for Sophie to be placed in elite, resume–boosting internships.
I was her biological daughter. Sophie was a stranger.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the line went dead. She had hung up.
Up on the terrace, my mother’s voice drifted down again.
Tell Ryan Carter to put more pressure on her.”
“He needs to disrupt her life enough so she cannot graduate on time.”
*Better yet, make sure she has no spare time to make any money.”
Ryan Carter. My research advisor.
had complained to the department head, and I had even
written letters to the university board, but nothing had ever changed.
It was because my own mother was the one pulling the strings.
And I had endured it all in silence, terrified of causing her stress.
I sank to the concrete floor of the alley.
I let the tears fall, crying silently in the dark until the lights
of the hotel dimmed and the streets went quiet.
When I finally stood up, I had stopped crying. My mind was
completely clear.