My Mother Made Me Stand On The Platform Until I Collapsed

1
At the university showcase, my mother forced me onto a sixteen-foot platform to "build endurance." Born with a severe heart defect, I was terrified, clutching a ten-pound prop. Sharp agony stabbed my chest. "Your heart is weak because you never exercise!" she'd barked backstage. "Stop acting like a cowardly loser!"
When my arms trembled, my adopted sister Kristin hissed, "Don't slack off! It's only been minutes!" Mom's icy voice buzzed in my earpiece: "University trustees are watching. Hold that prop three more hours after the show!" I rasped into the mic, "Mom, it hurts so bad..." She cut the audio. "Endure it! My position doesn't mean special treatment!"
Kristin stomped my ankle, spinning back to dance. For three endless hours, not one person noticed I'd stopped breathing and fallen. Crimson soaked my white dress. My soul floated above. Mom, you'll never be embarrassed by your cowardly daughter again.
…
The moment my heart ceased beating, the agony was so intense that my throat had paralyzed. Every bone in my body felt shattered beyond repair.
Kristin finished her grand finale, surrounded by admiring classmates. She strutted off stage like a proud white swan, only to frown deeply when she spotted me lying motionless on the floor.
"Hey, Wendy! What are you playing dead for?"
She walked over and slammed her heel directly onto my hand, grinding her weight into my fingers.
I didn't flinch, because I was truly dead.
"Unbelievable!" Kristin snapped, grinding her shoe harder. "You play the helpless victim at home, and now you want everyone at school to think I bully you? You malicious, useless freak!"
Furious that I offered no reaction, Kristin kicked my shins repeatedly with ruthless force. Deep purple bruises rapidly bloomed across my sickly pale skin.
Several students gathered around, whispering among themselves.
"Kristin is so brilliant and beautiful, how does she have such a pathetic, sickly sister?"
My soul let out a bitter smile in the air. We weren't even related by blood.
A few classmates started to look genuinely concerned. "Kristin, Wendy has a serious heart condition. Is she actually hurt?"
"Yeah, that wooden prop weighed ten pounds. A healthy person would struggle to hold it that long, let alone someone with heart disease."
Kristin scoffed, her eyes instantly brimming with fake tears. "You've all been fooled by her! Ever since we were kids, whenever Mom asks her to do chores, she fakes a medical emergency."
"She just envies me. She envies my healthy body, and she hates that I can live a normal life while she can't!"
Floating above, I reached out helplessly, wanting to explain to everyone that I never envied her. I only admired her, like an ugly duckling admiring a swan.
Before I could process her lies, my mother marched out from backstage. She wrapped her arms around Kristin, comforting her affectionately, before turning to spit on my limp body.
"Wendy, you are a disgrace to this family!" my mother yelled. "Kristin danced for hours without a single complaint, yet you make a scene over nothing!"
"I am an administrative director at this university, and I gave birth to a lazy, deceitful parasite like you!"
"Do you have any idea that if tonight's event is ruined, every performing student will receive a disciplinary mark on their record? How can you be so selfish?!"
She delivered several heavy slaps directly across the back of my head. My lifeless head jolted back and forth with the force, swaying like a broken ragdoll.
Her public condemnation silenced the crowd. The lingering sympathy in the students' eyes vanished, replaced by anger and disgust, believing I was trying to ruin their grades.
Over the years, to ensure I received proper care, my mother had worked her way up from an elementary school administrator to a university director. I had seen every sacrifice she made for me.
"Wendy, get up right now!" My mother's face turned livid as she stared at my unmoving body. "Have you no shame?!"
"You've been timid and stubborn since you were little. How are you ever going to survive in the real world? Everything I do is for your own good!"
The surrounding students murmured with admiration for my mother's dedication.
"Director Ross is such an amazing mother. Wendy doesn't appreciate how lucky she is!"
"Yeah, she doesn't learn anything good, she just knows how to slack off and drag everyone else down!"
Kristin snuggled deeper into my mother's arms, urging impatiently, "Stop acting, Wendy! Get up! When the university board members come out, how is Mom supposed to explain this?"
I hovered above them, panicked and desperate, terrified of causing trouble for my mother. But a corpse cannot move.
Enraged by my silence, my mother reached down, grabbing my hair, yanking my head back so hard it nearly tore my scalp.
"What did I do to deserve a child like you?" my mother wept with frustration. "Your father died young, and you were born sick! I raised you all by myself, and now that your wings are grown, this is how you repay me?!"
"I just wanted you to perform on stage to build your confidence, and you hold a grudge and embarrass me on purpose!"
Her words pierced my soul like daggers.
Because I knew how much she suffered after Dad passed away, I tried so hard to stay alive. I had seen her cry into her pillow in the dead of night, bearing an unimaginable burden. I obeyed every single order she gave me.
When I was seven, she said I needed to overcome my fears, so she left me alone in a dark haunted house attraction, forcing me to find my way out through my own sobs.
In middle school, she said I needed to build my heart's endurance, so she forced me to stay awake for three consecutive days, which landed me in the intensive care unit for two months.
And tonight, she forced me to hold a ten-pound prop on a sixteen-foot platform, inflicting both mental and physical torture upon my fragile body.
I never complained once. I just couldn't handle it anymore, Mom...
Determined to break my act, Kristin stepped forward to expose my private humiliations. "Wendy, if you don't get up right now, I'll tell everyone your dirty little secrets!"
My mother encouraged her, "Tell them, Kristin! Give her a taste of her own medicine, or she'll think she can walk all over us!"
Fear ran cold through my spiritual form. Please, no! Don't do this! Does my dignity mean nothing to you?
Kristin crossed her arms, smirking triumphantly. "Wendy is such a coward that she sleeps with the lights on every night. If the lights go out, she wets her bed from fear!"
"Our balcony is constantly filled with her washed bedsheets. She smells like urine all the time, and no amount of perfume can hide it!"
The surrounding students immediately covered their noses, taking several steps back from my body.
"That's disgusting! No wonder the handmade gifts she gave us during orientation smelled weird!"
My face flushed pale with shame. I had stayed up for nights making those orientation gifts for my classmates, ensuring every single item was washed and spotless.
Kristin wasn't done. "And to make matters worse, she actually had the nerve to crush on the campus golden boy! She wrote him over twenty love letters!"
She pulled a thick stack of envelopes from her tote bag and tossed them onto the floor.
A handsome guy standing nearby looked as if he had swallowed a fly. "Gross! Who would ever like a crippled girl with a diseased heart?" He turned on his heel and walked away.
The crowd burst into loud laughter. I covered my face in the air, sobbing silently, unable to look. My private teenage feelings were laid bare, served as a joke for everyone to mock.
Seeing that I still didn't move, my mother's eyes turned entirely cold.
"Still playing dead, are we, Wendy?"
She turned to the stage crew. "Fine! Hook her up to the aerial rigging wires! Suspend her near the ceiling and leave her there! Let's see how long she can hold out!"
The auditorium's wire rigging system was rarely used because untrained individuals could suffer severe rope burns or injuries. Suspending someone that high without harness training was extremely dangerous.
The crowd grew quiet, sensing things were going too far.
Kristin, however, cheered in approval. "Mom, you really know how to discipline her! She won't be able to fake it up there!"
My mother called over two security guards, who wrapped the wire harness around my waist and chest. As they pulled the straps tight, bright red blood seeped through my dress, drawing shocked gasps from the audience.
"Oh my god, look! Wendy is bleeding! Is she actually hurt?!"
My mother let out a cold sneer, grabbing the hoist rope to raise my body slowly into the air. "Don't be ridiculous! It's just a little blood, it won't kill her!"
Kristin leaned down, pretending to sniff the blood on the floor, her expression filled with disdain. "Mom, this is just cherry syrup! Wendy is definitely acting!"
I opened my mouth in silent agony, unable to comprehend why she would invent such a lie to smear me. For years, I had treated her like my own flesh and blood sister.
Slowly, my body rose higher and higher into the rafters. The tight harness cut deep into my pale skin. My limbs dangled at unnatural, twisted angles, a posture impossible for a living human being to hold.
If my mother had taken just one careful look, she would have noticed.
At that moment, several visiting university executives walked backstage. Among them was my late father's former colleague, Uncle Marcus.
Uncle Marcus froze in horror, shouting frantically, "Evelyn! Wendy is sick! What are you doing? You're going to kill her!"
Kristin quickly stepped in front of him. "Uncle Marcus, you misunderstand! Mom is just disciplining my sister!"
"Disciplining her?"
My mother nodded, her face full of resentment. "Marcus, you have no idea how twisted this girl's mind is! I wanted her to gain some courage on stage, and she fakes a faint to humiliate me! If I don't discipline her now, how can I face her late father?"
Uncle Marcus fell silent. It was difficult to interfere in another family's domestic discipline, especially when spoken with such authority.
As my body reached the highest point of the ceiling, my mother turned away, heading toward the administration conference room for the event debriefing.
Before leaving, she instructed Kristin softly, "Keep an eye on your sister. If she starts showing genuine signs of heart distress, lower her down and give her medicine."
Kristin nodded obediently.
After my mother left, the performing students were ordered to remain in the auditorium while the administration discussed the showcase's outcome.
"It's all Wendy's fault! Because she slacked off, we're all stuck waiting in this heat!"
"I just want to go back to my dorm, this is unbearable!"
Uncle Marcus, still standing near the stage, suddenly pointed up at my suspended body and yelled, "Lower Wendy down right now! Her condition is completely wrong, and she's dripping blood!"
Kristin rolled her eyes. "Uncle Marcus, she tricked you. That's just cherry syrup! Smear some on your fingers and smell it yourself!"
She wiped her hand on the floor and held it out. Uncle Marcus sniffed it and frowned. "It really is syrup... I can't believe such a sweet child turned so rebellious."
I clenched my ghostly fists, unable to utter a single word of defense.
Kristin smiled, commanding the guards, "Hoist her higher! Make her admit her mistake faster!"
The strain on my ballet dress caused the fabric to tear loudly, exposing my heavily bruised torso.
Meanwhile, in the conference room, my mother was apologizing profusely to the board members.
"I am so sorry, everyone. My daughter Wendy messed up on stage due to her poor stamina. She's been shy and timid since childhood, complaining about heart pain even when walking fast. I've disciplined her, and I assure you it won't happen again."
My mother, who held her head high everywhere she went, bent her spine repeatedly for my sake.
The board members concluded that since the live stream didn't capture my fall, the incident was manageable.
A senior female director sitting near my mother remarked gently, "Director Ross, given Wendy's heart condition, she doesn't really need to perform on stage."
My mother waved her hand defensively. "How can I let her off so easily? It's for her own good! If I don't push her to build courage, she'll end up a complete burden to society!"
I felt a surge of overwhelming guilt. I'm so sorry, Mom...
Simultaneously, photos of my body suspended in the auditorium rafters spread rapidly across campus group chats, making me the laughingstock of the entire university.
A few board members felt the punishment was getting out of hand. "Director Ross, maybe that's enough for tonight. She's still young, moderation is key."
My mother remained resolute. "Thank you for your concern, but I cannot back down. If I don't teach her a lesson tonight, she will rely on me for the rest of her life!"
Suddenly, a terrified scream echoed from the hallway outside.
"Oh my god! The rigging wire snapped!"