At my uncle's funeral, my little sister addressed the mourners, her voice trembling for all to hear. "Mom was having an affair with Uncle Ben," she sobbed. "My sister Sharon isn't Dad's real daughter. I wanted to keep this secret forever, but Mom, what you've done… it’s gone too far." I’m Sharon. And it’s true; I’ve always been the spitting image of my uncle. My mother, her face a mask of agony, denied everything. But with Uncle Ben dead, there was no way to prove it. My father, in front of everyone, humiliated my mother. He was going to throw us out. I quietly took out my phone and started a live stream. The truth is always so much more brutal, and so much more entertaining, than a lie. 1 My mom stared at my sister, Mandy, her eyes wide with disbelief. "Mandy, why would you say that?" she whispered, her voice cracking. "I'm your mother. How could you do this to me?" If I'm being honest, of the three of us kids, Mom always loved Mandy the most. It was a constant refrain in our house: "She's the youngest. You're the big brother and sister, you have to let her have her way." So Mandy grew up as the family princess, spoiled rotten. Now, she cowered behind our father, tears streaming down her face. "Mom, I know you love me, and I love you, too! But you and Uncle Ben… you shouldn't have done those things. And then you had Sharon." She glanced at Dad. "Daddy loves me so much. I just couldn't lie for you anymore." "Every time Uncle Ben came over, you two would sneak off together. I was always too scared to say anything. But this time… you got him killed. I have to speak up now." My aunt, Uncle Ben's widow, lunged at my mother, screaming, held back by a crowd of relatives. My father’s hand cracked across my mother's face. "You whore," he snarled, his face contorted with rage. "How could you do this to me? You're no better than an animal." I rushed to shield my mom, and he kicked me so hard I crumpled to the floor. He pointed a shaking finger at my face. "You bastard!" Every eye in the room was on me. My uncle’s funeral portrait was right behind my head. The resemblance was uncanny. We looked like we were cast from the same mold. So no matter how vehemently my mother swore her innocence, no one believed her. Especially when the one accusing her was the daughter she had cherished for twenty years. Everyone believed Mandy. 2 "I wasted my life raising you," my mother cried, pointing a trembling finger at Mandy. "I wasted all my love on you. I lost my son because of you, and this is how you repay me!" She collapsed onto the floor, shaking uncontrollably. To be betrayed by the child you treasure most… there is no greater pain. Ten years ago, Mandy fell into the river. My older brother, Leo, jumped in to save her. Mom jumped in, too. But Leo couldn't swim. Soon, both he and Mandy were on the verge of drowning. As Mom hesitated, unsure who to save first, Leo, ever the little hero, sputtered, "Mom, save Mandy first! I'm a big boy, I can hold on." Mom listened to him. She chose to save Mandy. But by the time she dragged Mandy to the shore, Leo was gone, swallowed by the river. His body surfaced two days later. The guilt nearly destroyed my mother. She’s suffered from insomnia ever since. She was on antidepressants and sleeping pills for eight years, only stopping in the last two. After that, with just the two of us girls left, a heavy cloud settled over our house. My father, busy with work, cried his eyes out for a week after Leo died, and then he threw himself back into his career. I never saw that grief in his eyes again. He even tried to comfort my mom. "It was an accident. Nobody wanted it to happen. But it did, and the living have to go on living. We still have two daughters. You can't let this destroy your health." My mom was a small business owner. She ran a chain of ten successful bakeries. After Leo’s death, she shut them all down. On the surface, she seemed to recover, but I knew she was still trapped on that riverbank. Her pillow was always dry at night and soaked by morning. For the last ten years, we’ve bought pillowcases by the dozen. But even in her deepest pain, she never once blamed Mandy. 3 She treated her just as she always had. At dinner, the best piece of chicken always went to Mandy first, and I got the smaller one. Eventually, because Mandy loved chicken wings so much, I didn't even get the small ones anymore. One time, Mom secretly saved one for me. When Mandy found out, she cried for a day and a night, throwing a tantrum and accusing Mom of playing favorites. That evening, when Dad got home from work, he had to take her, and only her, out for McDonald's to calm her down. Mom pulled me aside later. "Your sister's young, she doesn't know any better," she whispered. "Just let her have her way. I'll take you out for McDonald's tomorrow, just us. I won't let you feel left out." Because of how I was raised, I grew up always giving in to her. But I'm only one year older than she is. "Mom, I've been a good daughter to you, too!" Mandy wailed now, her voice rising. "How can you blame me for what happened to Leo? You were the one who told us the river was shallow enough to play in! If you hadn't said that, Leo wouldn't have died, and I wouldn't have almost died! You made me the scapegoat when I was little, and I let you. But I'm educated now. I know right from wrong. I have to tell the truth!" She grew more and more agitated, her performance for the crowd becoming more theatrical. "For all these years, I've had to walk on eggshells in this house! After what happened, Mom never loved me the same. Whenever her depression got bad, she'd either hit me or scream at me. One time, she even tried to push me down the stairs! I put up with it all. I told myself she still loved me. But there are two daughters in this house." She shot me a venomous look. "And the way Mom treats Sharon is completely different. Sharon gets the lean meat, I get the fat. Sharon wears designer clothes, and I have to wear stuff from Shein! I don't want to complain about it, but I'm your daughter, too! Why are you so biased?" And just like that, I understood why Mandy was dressed so… shabbily today. 4 A few days ago, she’d bought a $9.99 t-shirt, $15.99 black pants, and $19.99 canvas sneakers online. I’d asked her, "Why the sudden change in style? Buying such cheap clothes?" She just smiled sweetly. "Oh, I'm doing some volunteer work in a few days, sis. I don't want to look too flashy." Normally, nothing she wore cost less than five hundred dollars. Our family was well-off. My dad believed in raising his daughters to have the best, so he gave us each a $5,000 monthly clothing allowance. I usually saved most of mine, but Mandy blew through hers every single month. Last year, she transferred sixty thousand dollars from my account without my permission, all to buy clothes and shoes. That’s when I discovered that my dad was actually giving Mandy ten thousand a month, while I only got five. And that's when I finally realized, with a sickening lurch, that my father treated us differently, too. My mom was devastated, unable to defend herself. The solution was simple: a DNA test would clear everything up instantly. I suggested it. But my father was resolute. "You're the spitting image of your uncle. We don't need a test. Your face is all the proof I need!" Mandy continued her tearful performance. "My aunt can't have children. Uncle Ben wanted a child of his own, so he targeted Mom." And because it was true that my uncle was childless, almost everyone believed her story. Under a barrage of dagger-like stares, I asked my father, "Are you sure you want to throw this family away?" 5 Dad’s eyes were practically bulging out of his head with rage. If people hadn't been holding him back, he would have beaten me to a pulp. “Sharon is not my child. From now on, she has nothing to do with me. The house, the cars, the company—I built all of that myself. You two can get the hell out with nothing but the clothes on your backs." His decision was final. I tried one last time. "Uncle Ben and Mom are siblings. Genetically, it's normal for nieces and nephews to resemble their uncles. You can't just listen to one side of the story and forget that Mom has been by your side through thick and thin. You know better than anyone how devoted she's been to you and this family." My mom once told me that when she and Dad were dating, my grandparents were dead set against it. He was an orphan. Marrying him meant no dowry, no big wedding, and no grandparents to help with the kids. I've seen pictures of my mom when she was young. She was beautiful. She could have had any man she wanted. When I was little, we were poor. Dad worked odd jobs while Mom woke up before dawn to make and sell tofu and bean sprouts. With her hard work, they saved up their first bit of money, and she gave it all to him to start his business. She said he was a brilliant man who just needed a chance. All these years later, her judgment was both spot-on and dead wrong. She thought she was happy. Her husband was still the same loving man, and they were financially secure. Just yesterday, my dad was washing her feet, calling her his "darling wife." So this sudden, absolute betrayal from him left her more confused than anything. She just kept staring at him, her eyes blurring with tears that she stubbornly wiped away, again and again. Finally, her voice was a broken whisper. "David… I don't even know who you are anymore." My dad's eyes were red with fury and disgust. "No, you're the one who's been fooling me for twenty years! You are the most vile, shameless woman I have ever known! There's nothing more to say. I never want to see you again!" My grandparents rushed forward, pleading with my dad to calm down, to at least get through the funeral for my uncle’s sake, to not make such an ugly scene. My dad had a great reputation. He was known as an honest, hardworking, doting husband. He was always good to my grandparents. Everyone always said my mom had hit the jackpot. Today was the first time he’d ever lost his temper and hit his wife and child in public. So when this bomb dropped, everyone instinctively sided with him. "Fine," my dad said magnanimously. "For the sake of the family we once were, I won't make a scene here. But the divorce is happening." He took Mandy's hand and started to leave. I stopped him. "Since we're airing our dirty laundry, we might as well get it all out." I looked him straight in the eye. "You're the one choosing to disown me. So from this moment on, you're no longer my father. You've been waiting a long time for this day, haven't you?" He glared at me, a look that said he wanted to kill me. I had already contacted a lawyer, hoping to handle this quietly, to minimize the damage. But now? Now I was ready to go to war with my own father. 6 My grandma immediately grabbed my arm. "Sharon, honey, don't be rash. This isn't the time or place. Please, no more fighting." She almost stumbled, leaning on me heavily, her voice a desperate whisper. "Sharon, just apologize. You can't let this family fall apart." My grandpa chimed in. "Your father's furious right now. You're the child, you can't be so stubborn." They both assumed that even if he wasn't my biological father, after twenty years of calling him Dad, there had to be some bond between us. My dad’s face was a cold, hard mask. "I am not her father! From this moment on, all ties are severed. She was never mine to begin with. I'm done being the fool!" I stared at his merciless face and said, word by word, "You're right. You have been a fool for twenty years. And you have raised a child that isn't yours. But that child isn't me." My aunt rushed forward to cover my mouth. "Silly girl, stop talking! Isn't this embarrassing enough? This isn't the right time. No matter what you're going through, you need to bury your… your uncle first." Even she believed my dad and Mandy. Her voice was thin and unconvincing. She tried to pull me away, but I wrenched my arm free. "Someone is going to be embarrassed today, but it's not going to be me or my mother!" My aunt whispered urgently, "Stop being so stubborn! I know this is hard to accept, but you have to think about your mother! She's seriously ill, her medical bills are going to be huge! You can't let her divorce your father!" The relatives were split into two camps, one trying to calm my dad, the other trying to reason with me. But we're both cut from the same stubborn cloth. Neither of us would back down. This had to be settled, right here, right now. Even my mom, heartbroken, tried to stop me. "Sharon, let it go. It's no use. Your father won't believe us. From now on, it will just be the two of us." My mother is a kind soul. Even after Mandy had stabbed her in the heart, she couldn't bear for me to expose Mandy's true identity in front of everyone. 7 But I'm not my mother. I believe in an eye for an eye. I ignored her and pointed directly at Mandy. "You're the bastard," I spat. "You're the one who doesn't belong in this family. Did you really think I didn't know?" My father was stunned. He never imagined I could possibly know the truth about Mandy. But he recovered quickly. "Your mother knows about Mandy," he said, his voice full of self-righteousness. "Even if she's not my biological child, she's better than you! Your birth was a product of deceit and filth. Mandy is a victim of circumstance! You are nothing like her!" He was right. I wasn't like her. She was the product of a love affair. I was the product of a conspiracy. My grandmother was frantic. "What is going on?!" My dad, with an air of noble sacrifice, addressed the crowd. "Mandy… my wife and I found her on the side of the road. We felt sorry for the poor child and took her in. We told everyone she was ours because we didn't want her to be treated differently by family and friends. My conscience is clear on this matter!" Everyone looked at my mom, who was silent. They took her silence as confirmation. My grandmother stumbled over to my dad, grabbing his arm. "David, my dear boy, please, calm down. All these years, I've loved you like my own son. Let's not even talk about whether this is true or not. You two have been married for so long, you've been a father to Sharon... please don't say things you'll regret." My dad, ever the good guy, let his eyes redden. "Mom, I can tolerate anything else. But this… this humiliation, I can't. She could have cheated with anyone! But with her own family—" He broke off, too ashamed to finish. He wasn't the broke kid from years ago. He was a successful man with a reputation. Now that the secret was out, he wasn't about to swallow his pride. His sister, my "aunt," tried to mediate. "David, you were able to accept Mandy, who has no blood relation to you at all. Can't you find it in your heart to forgive Sharon, too?" Meanwhile, other relatives were swarming my mom. "Catherine, stop crying! Go apologize to David! You're family, there's nothing you can't get through." "Catherine, you were in the wrong here. You need to be honest with him, beg for his forgiveness." "Think about Sharon, if not yourself! You can't let this family fall apart!" "Exactly! How will Sharon face the world after this? Catherine, don't be stubborn. You're not well. Now is the time to be humble." Just then, the view count on my live stream shot past ten thousand. The comments were a torrent of abuse aimed at my mother. "This is insane. Worse than any soap opera." "Look at how her own family is siding with the husband. That tells you everything you need to know about his character. What a thankless woman." "Back in the day, women like her would have been run out of town on a rail." "That poor girl, Sharon. Having a mother like that is the worst kind of luck." My mother looked at my father and Mandy, her face a mask of bitter disappointment. "I have never done anything to betray you. The biggest regret of my life was picking Mandy up off the street and bringing her into our home." Mandy just kept her head down, crying. "I know I shouldn't have done this. I just didn't want to see Dad get hurt anymore." My father's patience snapped. "Enough of this useless chatter. I'm having my assistant draft the divorce papers right now."
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