I looked at my uncle. Then at my mother, still crying. Then at all those cameras pointed at me.

"Fine."

My voice came out so calm it surprised even me.

"Since you all think I was born rotten, I'll own it."

"Let's sever ties."

"From now on, I have no mother. No uncle. No aunt. Pretend that eighteen years ago, I really did drown in that chamber pot."

I picked up a lab report and scrawled a few lines on the back.

I threw the paper at Uncle Albert's feet.

"Sign it."

"Sign it, and I disappear forever."

"If we don't cut ties today, I'll take your surname!"

Uncle Albert's spit nearly hit my face. "From this day forward, no one in this family will ever acknowledge you!"

Mom's face was streaked with tears mixing with the blood from her forehead. "No! Mommy won't do it! Mommy won't cut ties!"

I pressed my bleeding thumb onto the severance document, leaving a vivid red print.

The blood seeped into the paper, blooming like a deformed flower.

I held up the paper. "As of today, I have no father. No mother."

Curses erupted around me.

"Sinner! Why keep a daughter like this around?"

"Look what she did to her own mother!"

"Born defiant—a wolf that can never be tamed!"

Just then, a blue verified badge floated across the livestream comments:

[I'm a physician in the Endocrinology Department at a top-tier teaching hospital. These lab results don't add up. If hormone levels were really this chaotic, a normal person would already have severe kidney damage or even organ failure. There's no way she'd still be standing here.]

Mom lunged forward and snatched the severance document from my hands, tearing it to shreds. "Mommy can't lose you..."

I tried to pull away, but she held on too tight.

"I don't have a mother like you."

Pat, the neighbor, came over to mediate. "Doris, sweetie, you used to hold your mom's hand walking to and from school every day. Remember when she was late picking you up once, and you cried your little eyes out? You two were so close—there must be some misunderstanding..."

Aunt Naomi sneered from the sidelines. "Can't tame an ungrateful wretch."

A woman in the crowd couldn't take it anymore. "These two are still bleeding—shouldn't someone call an ambulance?"

But the mob had packed in three layers deep. There was no way out.

I stared at the sea of phone cameras, took a deep breath, and spoke.

"You all want to know so badly, don't you?"

"Why this ungrateful wretch turned out the way she did?"