Chapter 3

I smiled at her. "Is that so? I guess karma does exist, huh?"

After this, Juliet and I swapped situations. She became the target of everyone's mockery while I got to sign with a few brands.

It did not take long before my mom summoned me home under the guise of 'missing me'.

I scoffed when I recalled what happened in my previous life—she had set me up on blind dates with some upstart businessmen at home.

"Do you think you're still young? As if any young man would still want you! You should be happy with who I set you up with! At least they're not crippled and they live in the area."

I was financially independent in my mid-20s, and I was confident in my looks and smarts. I knew that I was above average, yet those words managed to beat down my self-worth anyway.

Now that I thought about it, it was obvious that she was trying to manipulate me so that I would give her exorbitant wedding gifts.

So, I changed my number and blocked both my mom and my sister. I also stopped paying for their cost of living every month, opting to save 40 grand instead.

I swore that I would never let them wring me dry again.

Once my mom realized that I had blocked her, she began to find different ways to get in touch with me.

At one point, she even found the filming set and location I was at.

I happened to be filming the scene where the male lead would jump into the water and save me. My mom arrived on set the moment he princess-carried me out of the water.

She was furious when she saw me lying in my co-star's arms in a flimsy dress dripping with water.

Without a word, she grabbed my hair and slapped me across my face.

"How dare you?! You stopped answering my calls to sell your body now, huh? Is that what you've been doing these days?! Just because you're a star now doesn't mean you can disrespect your mother like this! You should've just gone and married someone instead of shaming our family like this!"

Erin was a soft-spoken woman. She must have allowed my mom onto the set because she was my family member.

Erin could not have predicted that my mom would cause a ruckus on set.

Everyone was shocked, but no one moved to stop her as they were intrigued to see how this would play out. Before she could slap me again, someone grabbed her arm to stop her.

I looked up and met my co-star, Cade's, eyes.

He pulled out his phone in preparation to call the police. "Assault is illegal, and everyone here is a witness."

My mom scoffed. "I'm her mother! What's wrong with teaching my daughter a lesson?"

"Is that so?" Cade sneered, his tone taking a colder turn. "Then what about hindering our filming process? We're burning 15 grand every hour to book this place, and everyone's time that you're wasting is another 30 grand.

"Should I call the police and have them tabulate the numbers for you?"

At the account of money, my mom began to look nervous. There was nothing she loved more in the world than money.

"Just you wait, Blossom!" She glared at me before turning to leave.

Cade took off his jacket and put it over my shoulders. I thanked him in a shaky voice.

I thought my mom would leave me alone for a few days, but that night, she made a new account called 'Blossom's Mom' and began to rant about how unfilial I was.

Everyone was shocked because her posts turned me into someone vile and heartless who had blocked my entire family and ignored my mother who was suffering from cancer.

"So what if my daughter has become a star? I put my blood, sweat, and tears into taking care of her, and she forgot all about me upon achieving success! How ungrateful!"

Her posts gained traction, and people began to comment under my posts, calling me out for being an unfilial daughter.

With the attention on her, my mom did a livestream and began complaining about me with the rest of the internet.

I unblocked her number and texted: "I see you're enjoying the clout of bad-mouthing your daughter."

Proudly, she replied: "You want to keep selling yourself for fame, right? Well, too bad. I won't let you get your way!"

Selling myself for fame?

I closed my eyes as my heart clenched painfully.