I Was Raised As A Lesson Chapter 01
Chapter 1 Seven Days to Goodbye
To Mom, I was merely a tool used to keep my older brother, Dashiell Kaelen, in line.
When we were kids, Dashiell refused to eat his greens.
To fix that, Mom locked me in the bathroom for five straight days without a single scrap of food. By the time she finally let me out, I was so starved I literally vomited blood. Terrified, Dashiell never dared be a picky eater again.
As we grew older, he became obsessed with video games.
Mom reacted by strapping me to the computer chair and forcing me to play for thirty hours straight, not letting me stop for even a second, until bloody tears streamed from my strained eyes.
Only when Dashiell sobbed, swearing never to touch a controller again, did she finally let me go.
Then came the rebellion of style. Dashiell, wanting to look cool, started ignoring Mom’s orders to wear a coat. When she caught him one too many times, she dragged me to the walk-in freezer of our grocery store and shoved me inside.
While Dashiell stood paralyzed by her explosion, Mom slammed the heavy steel door shut with a chilling finality.
“Dashiell, today I’m going to show you exactly what frostbite looks like! Let’s see if you ever dare defy me again!”
“Mom!” Dashiell collapsed to his knees, his voice cracking. “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! Please, just let Dora out!”
However, no matter how much he begged, she remained a statue of indifference.
I sank to the floor, my heart heavy with a crushing sense of desolation. I felt the frigid air seeping into my skin, colonizing my body.
As my heartbeat slowed and my strength ebbed away, a bitter, hollow smile twitched on my lips.
Mom, this would be the last time you hurt me just to teach Dashiell a lesson.
***
The freezer was set to minus thirty degrees Celsius. The icy wind howled, burrowing into my bones.
Outside, Dashiell’s voice was thick with tears.
“Mom, I’m begging you!” He was clutching at her pant leg now, desperate. “I’ll do whatever you say from now on.
“Just please, let Dora out. She’s so frail; she can’t take this!”
Mom merely looked down and coldly pried his hands off her.
“Dashiell, I expect you to become someone great! Everything I do is for your own good.
“You’ve made so many promises! And what happens? You keep defying me again and again!”
Dashiell’s voice grew frantic, rising in pitch.
“This time I mean it! If you let Dora out right now, I promise I’ll get into Yale University!”
Mom fell silent for a moment.
The fact that she didn’t bark a refusal sparked a flicker of hope in my chest.
But then, her voice cut through the door, colder than the air around me. “Impossible. This time, I’m going to make sure the lesson sticks.”
I huddled on the floor, rubbing my arms frantically, trying to summon a ghost of warmth.
Then I crawled to the door, my voice barely a whisper.
“Mom… I’m so cold. Please, let me out. It’s so cold in here.”
When Mom spoke to Dashiell, her voice was harsh but carried a hidden current of affection.
But when she spoke to me, she was more frigid than the ice surrounding me.
“Endure it, Dorothy. This is your mission in life. You have no say in it!”
My lips trembled; my nose stung with unshed tears.
Mom had always made it clear that, to her, I was nothing more than a whetstone to sharpen Dashiell into a successful man.
She often said, “It’s better for one child to be a masterpiece than for both to be failures.
“If it leads to success, sacrificing one child is a small price to pay.”
So, when Dashiell’s grades slipped, she made me run laps around the school track in the dead of winter. Even when my knees were ground to the bone, I wasn’t allowed to stop.
Once, when Dashiell came home ten minutes late, she exploded.
“Dashiell! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is out there?”
As she screamed at him, she stripped me naked and shoved me out the front door.
I was in the seventh grade then. That day, I stood there on the doorstep while neighbors and strangers walked by, pointing and whispering, as every ounce of my dignity crumbled.
“Mom! Please let me in!”
The gazes of the crowd felt like needles piercing my skin.
I could still remembered the local drunk leering at me with a sickening smirk as he passed by and groped me.
It was so cold…
My consciousness began to blur.
Within minutes, a thick layer of frost had formed on my eyelashes and brows.
Outside the freezer, Dashiell seemed to scramble to his feet.
“Dora! Hold on!” he croaked, panic thick in his voice.
“I’m going to get help! Just wait for me!”
Then came the sound of frantic footsteps, followed by Mom’s sharp roar, “Dashiell, come back here!”
Then, she chased after him, her voice fading into the distance.
Silence settled outside. I fought to keep my eyelids open, clinging to a shred of hope.
I couldn’t sleep… Dashiell would save me…
With whatever strength I had left, I hugged myself tightly and rubbed my arms again and again, trying to fight the cold drilling into my bones, but my entire body still shook uncontrollably.
A while later, a voice full of urgency and heartbreak called out.
“Dora!”
My breathing quickened. I leaned against the door, gasping. “Dad… I’m so cold.”
Dad hammered on the door.
“Don’t be scared, honey! Don’t be scared! I’m getting you out!”
He turned his rage toward Mom, shouting, “Give me the keys! You’ve completely lost your mind!”
Mom was breathing hard, too, but she shouted right back. “No way! I did nothing wrong!
“The fact that Dashi went to find you proves he still hasn’t learned his lesson!”
“Mom!” Dashiell sobbed, his voice trembling.
Seeing his distress, Mom softened slightly. Her tone lost some of its edge.
“Fine!
“Do you really think I’d freeze my own daughter to death? I turned the temperature up by thirty degrees. Besides, she went in wearing a down jacket. She’ll be fine!”
I looked down at the coat I was wearing—the same one I’d had for years, its cotton padding long since clumped together and fallen away. My heart went numb.
Mom must have forgotten.
Two years ago, after a batch of meat spoiled, the temperature controls had been locked permanently. It was fixed at negative thirty degrees.
