I Bet My Soul on My Mother’s Love Chapter 04

I Bet My Soul on My Mother’s Love Chapter 04

Her voice cracked, suddenly spiking an octave higher.

“That place is a highly recommended, fully accredited military boarding academy! We paid an absolute fortune for your tuition! How dare they lay a hand on you?!”

“Chloe, why do you have to be so incredibly stubborn? Six whole years, and you never once called home to say you were being mistreated?!”

I silently pulled my arms back, tucking them behind my waist to hide the marks.

That reform school was a living hell, and the instructors were literal demons.

How could I have ever had the chance to report them to my family?

Worse, I was the only child in the entire facility who never received a single visitor.

Whenever the guards were in a foul mood, they would use the electric shock batons on me to vent.

Even the other students targeted me for amusement.

Every single day, I waited.

I waited for Mom to call me.

Not to complain, and not to beg for help. I just wanted to hear my mother’s voice.

But the call never came.

My eighteenth birthday was almost over. Could I finally get her to say she loved me this time?

The Grim Reaper had told me that those who lose their wagers have their souls claimed permanently. There would be no reincarnation, no afterlife.

I would simply dissolve into the void.

I didn’t want to fade away into nothingness.

I looked at her, my voice small and incredibly cautious. “Mom… are we still going to have my birthday dinner tonight?”

Mom let out a sharp, cold scoff.

“Chloe Vance, your sister just had a severe medical episode and we barely survived a fire hazard, and all you can think about is a birthday party?”

Tears streamed down my face as I knelt before her.

“Mom, I don’t need a cake. We can cancel the dinner entirely. Can you just grant me one single wish?”

I slammed my forehead hard against the floor, begging her with everything I had left.

“Can you please just say… that you love me the most?”

“Just that one sentence. I’ll do anything you want after that.”

This bow was a desperate plea for survival.

But even if I cracked my skull open until I bled out on the tile, I wouldn’t get the response I needed.

The weight of a tear only matters depending on whose heart it falls upon.

And my tears only served to irritate her.

“Chloe Vance, is this some twisted way of trying to guilt-trip me?”

“Let me make one thing entirely clear to you: I will not give in to this.”

“If you turned out this selfish and manipulative, then maybe that’s my failure as a mother.”

“But I’m not going to stand here and lie just to satisfy you.”

I let out a bitter, broken laugh, my face entirely soaked in tears.

Forget it.

I pressed my forehead to the cold tile and whispered “I’m sorry” ninety-nine times, until my voice was gone and there was nothing left of me.

Consider it repayment for the life she gave me—and the life I was about to lose.

“Mom, if you don’t say those words, I am going to die.”

“Then go ahead and die!”

Mom spat the words out like venom before turning on her heel and storming off.

Someone had just rushed over to tell her that Lily had been terrified by the fire alarm and was currently crying hysterically, begging for her mother.

She couldn’t bear to let Lily suffer even an ounce of discomfort or shed a single tear.

If I have to die, then so be it.

I accept my loss in this wager.

The sky gradually darkened as the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight.

There was no birthday celebration, no cake, and no family dinner.

Only a trampled, ruined dress left on the floor—a perfect reflection of my broken eighteenth year.

The entire house was dead silent, and Mom was nowhere to be found.

I could only crawl back into the dusty storage room, quietly waiting for my soul to be torn away.

Grim Reaper… even after you bent the rules for me, I couldn’t finish the deal.

My mother will never, ever say the words to me:

“I love you the most.”