Dad, I'm No Illegitimate Child

---- Chapter 5 Something about those words felt wrong, and I told Dad everything that very day. But instead of believing me, he accused me of lying, saying I had already learned to deceive people at such a young age. Agnes cried beside him. "I've treated Edith so well. How could she smear my name like this? Edith, is it because I didn't give you chocolate today? But chocolate is bad for children's teeth..." She wept as if she were the victim. In my panic and frustration, tears sprang from my eyes. Yet Dad held her tenderly and pushed me into the closet.

"Get in there and think about what you've done." From that day on, Agnes changed. She acted even gentler toward me whenever Dad was present, but the moment he left the house, she hit me, screamed at me, and called me names. I went crying to Dad and tried to tell him. Every time, Agnes cried louder and threatened to divorce him. She even threatened to get rid of the child in her belly. ---- Not long after, Dad sent me to a boarding school. From then on, he barely acknowledged my existence. He simply transferred my allowance on time-small amounts that barely covered the necessities.

I didn't understand until I was older that the man I had seen with Agnes wasn't her older brother at all. He was her lover-and the child in her belly had never been Dad's. The DNA results came back soon. The body wasn't mine. Upon hearing that, Dad kicked his chair, furious. "Edith, you'd better be dead. Don't show up again to ruin anyone's life." He paced the office like a beast trapped in a cage. I imagined he must be thinking about how to get rid of me. It was too bad that I was already dead. He wouldn't get a chance to do it. I drifted away, tired of watching Dad seething.

Nearby, I overheard a few people whispering. "T heard Mr. Carter used to love Edith. What ---- happened?" "That was when she was little. After he remarried and had another daughter, why would he care about her anymore?" "Still, he doesn't need to look at her like she's his enemy." "Didn't you hear? His daughter was jealous of her stepmother and half-sister. When she was young, she nearly made her stepmother miscarry. Later, she used to secretly hit her half-sister and poke her with needles." "Really? She looks so quiet. Who would think she's that malicious?" "Of course it's true.

It was a huge incident back then." Suspended in the air, I stared at these people repeating those rumors. I didn't know any of them. I wanted to scream at them, "I didn't do those things! It wasn't me! Agnes made it all up!" But they couldn't hear me-just like Dad, who had been blind and deaf for years. When I was alive, he covered his ears whenever I tried to speak. ---- Now that I was dead, how could he hear me at all? It was pointless to say anything. The news of my disappearance soon reached one of my teachers, Ms. Nancy Parker.

She called Dad and informed him I hadn't attended school for two days. Dad gripped his phone and sneered. "Leave her alone. She's just trying to rebel against me. Let her fend for herself." Ms. Parker tried to reason with him. "Mr. Carter, Edith is an extraordinarily hardworking student. She would never miss two days of school without reason. She's already been missing two days. If things continue like this, it might be that she's in danger." "Then let her die," Dad replied, unmoved. "A child like her only harms others. It's better for her to just die." Ms. Parker's voice trembled with anger.

"You're a police officer. You must know how these cases go. Do you really want her dead? Do you really want to see her corpse?" I watched from above as something flickered across Dad's expression-a brief moment of hesitation. ---- Then Agnes appeared behind him and gently tugged at his sleeve the way she always did.