“Violet, give me back my kitty. Now! ”
Violet stood on the staircase, clutching my cat by the scruff. The poor thing was terrified, meowing and squirming in her grip.
“Come down here and take it from me,” she taunted. “If you care so much about this mangy thing, come and get it. ”
I had only been back with this family for three months. My birth mother had died in a fire when I was seventeen, and her last wish was for me to return to my biological parents, the Gilberts.
They had money, a big house, and a golden child named Violet, their adopted daughter. I thought they might finally love me. I was wrong. Violet dropped my cat and it hit the floor with a thud, yelping in pain.
I rushed forward, scooping it into my arms. It was limp, barely breathing. “What did I ever do to you? ” I screamed at her.
“Why do you keep hurting me? ”
Violet sneered. “You came back to take what’s mine. Everything should have been mine.
This family is the only thing I have left, and you’re ruining it. ”
Mom appeared in the hallway, her face twisted with anger. She didn’t even look at my cat. She looked at Violet, who immediately burst into exaggerated tears.
“Mom, she’s bullying me again,” Violet sobbed. “How dare you push Violet? ” Mom snapped at me. “I must have been blind to take you back.
”
“Mom, it’s not what it looks like,” I tried to explain. “She hurt Kitty. She dropped her. ”
“Violet, you’re too kind,” Mom said, patting her shoulder.
“I really wish you were my biological daughter. ”
Something inside me cracked. My cat was dying in my arms, and my mother was comforting the girl who had done it. “It was Violet who killed my kitty!
” I shouted. “Don’t you touch her,” Dad growled. “Apologize to Violet now. ”
I couldn’t hold back anymore.
“She’s a liar! She’s been torturing me since I got here! Boiling water, locked doors, locked me out in the cold—”
“That’s enough,” Mom cut me off. “That lonely animal doesn’t matter.
You’re just an ungrateful brat. That crippled janitor and his fish-selling wife must have raised you wrong. ”
“Don’t you insult my parents! ” I screamed.
“They were good people. They were ten times better than you. ”
“If you love those poor bastards so much, why did you come back? ” Violet spat.
“If you don’t like us, just get out. ”
“Fine,” I said, my voice shaking. “If it weren’t for my mom’s last wish, I would never have come back. ”
I turned and walked out the door, my dead cat cradled in my arms.
The next days were a blur. I buried Kitty in a small patch of green behind the apartment my biological mother had left me. I found it when I returned to the address she had written in her will. It was the only thing she had managed to keep for me, and I had been living there ever since I left the Gilberts.
I had no job, no family, and nowhere left to go. So I called the only person I could think of, my adopted mother’s old friend, Dr. Elliot. He was a veterinarian, and he had known me since I was a child.
“Daniela, you look terrible,” he said when he saw me. “Come inside. I’ll fix you up. ”
I stayed with him for a few days.
He gave me a job at his clinic, teaching me everything he knew about animals. I had always loved them, and it gave me something to focus on. “You have a gift,” he said one afternoon. “You should go to veterinary school.
”
“I can’t afford it,” I said. “I’ll pay for it,” he said. “You’ll pay me back when you’re rich and famous. ”
A few weeks later, I got a letter in the mail.
It was from the Gilbert family’s lawyer. They were suing me for “abandonment” and demanding I return all the money and property they had given me. They claimed I had stolen from them. I laughed.
The only thing they had ever given me was a necklace Violet had thrown away. I hadn’t taken anything else. Violet wasn’t satisfied with a lawsuit, though. She watched me from a distance, always scheming.
One night, I was walking home from work when a group of thugs cornered me. “Little Miss Gilbert,” one of them sneered. “Your sister wants to send you a message. ”
They beat me until I couldn’t see straight and left me bleeding in the alley.
Dr. Elliot found me there and rushed me to the hospital. When I woke up, my hearing in one ear was gone. The doctors said it was permanent.
In the hospital, I met a young woman named Sherry. She was a distant cousin of Dr. Elliot’s, just back from abroad. She was kind to me, brought me books, and kept me company.
“Your family is awful,” she said one day, bluntly. “I don’t understand how they treat you like that. ”
“They don’t see me as family,” I said. “They never did.
”
Violet came to visit me once, faking tears and remorse in front of the nurses. “I’m so sorry, Daniela,” she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “I don’t know what came over me. Please forgive me.
”
“Get out,” I said. She leaned in close, a smirk barely hidden on her face. “You should have died in that fire with your mother. ”
The anger that had been simmering inside me for years finally boiled over.
I sat up, grabbed her wrist, and squeezed until she yelped. “Don’t ever come near me again,” I said. “Or I’ll make you regret it. ”
She pulled away, rubbing her wrist.
“You’ll regret ever crossing me. ”
Dr. Elliot proposed to me a month later. I said yes.
He had been my protector, my teacher, and the only person who had ever believed in me without conditions. Violet was furious. She wanted him for herself. She had been trying to win him over since she heard his grandfather, Mr.
Elliot, wanted to choose a wife for him. At our engagement announcement, the Gilberts showed up, desperate to mend the relationship they had broken. But every apology felt hollow. “You only regret this because of Trevor,” I said to Mrs.
Gilbert. “You never cared about me. ”
“We do care, Daniela,” she said. “We just—”
“Just stop,” I said.
“You don’t even know what my favorite food is. ”
Violet tried one last time, cornering me in a bathroom at the engagement party. “You stole everything from me,” she hissed. “If only you had died in that fire.
”
I looked at her, calm. “The fire that killed my mother. The fire you set. ”
Her face went pale.
“What are you talking about? ”
“I know, Violet. I saw the photographs. Dr.
Elliot found the evidence. You were only twelve years old, and you set that fire because you didn’t want me to come back. ”
She backed away, shaking her head. “You can’t prove anything.
”
“I have witnesses,” I said. “I have records. It’s over. ”
For the first time in my life, I saw fear in her eyes.
She knew I was telling the truth. The police arrested her the next day. She was charged with arson and second-degree murder. The Gilberts tried to protect her, but the evidence was clear.
At the trial, the judge sentenced her to twenty-five years in prison. The Gilberts came to our wedding, sitting stiffly in the back row. They didn’t speak to me. My mother came, too.
Not the woman who had raised me, but the woman who had given birth to me, the one who had died saving me from the fire. She appeared in my dream the night before, glowing and smiling. “I’m so proud of you, my girl,” she said. “You’ve done so well.
Now go live your life. ”
The next morning, I walked down the aisle in a white dress, holding a small bouquet of flowers. As I passed her empty seat, I felt a warmth around my shoulders, like a hug. “Thank you, Mom,” I whispered.
“I’ll be happy now. ”
The wedding began, and tears streamed down my face. Not from sadness, but from the overwhelming relief of finally being free.
