My Sister and I Were in Peril, but Our Parents Only Cared About Their Adopted Son’s Dog—When We Left, They Lost Their Minds!

My parents got divorced, and I was assigned to live with my father, an emergency-room doctor, while my younger sister was assigned to our mother, a search-and-rescue-dog trainer. But neither of them wanted to raise us; they only wanted custody of their adopted son, Ethan. The month my sister and I received our admission notices from Harvard, a landslide struck. The surrounding cities were affected as well, and I became trapped beneath the rubble. A wall collapsed onto my right leg, and trembling with terror, I called my father. He didn’t finally answer until night had fallen, and when he did, he sounded impatient. “I’m running around like crazy at the hospital. I have to stay on call and treat patients who need emergency care, but you keep calling me and causing trouble! Ethan’s dog drank dirty water mixed with mud and cried miserably for half the day. Now that I finally have some time, I need to help him save the dog. Stop bothering me!” Hunger and despair consumed me until my sister finally made it back. But she didn’t have enough strength to move the rubble, so she could only call our mother for help. Our mother responded with the same angry scolding: “Do you know I’m still working overtime, searching for injured people? You two were living safely in the city. How could anything possibly happen to you? Ethan’s dog is in trouble, and he’s waiting for me to go back and comfort him! I don’t have time to listen to you lie!” My sister could only use all her strength to shove the rubble away with her body. But a sharp steel rod fell and pierced her shoulder, making it impossible for her to compete in swimming again. After waking up in the hospital, we both made the same decision: we had to escape this city. After we were rescued and regained consciousness, the city’s emergency situation was already under control. I finally had the chance to charge my phone. The moment I turned it on, my dad’s call popped up. I thought he had heard that I was hospitalized and was calling to check on me, but when I answered, his voice was filled with displeasure and blame. “You throw a tantrum and refuse to answer my calls just because I said a couple of things to you, and then you even disappear! How did I end up raising such an ungrateful daughter?” Tears immediately streamed down my face, but he only became more annoyed. “Now you’re acting like the victim? Wasn’t everything I said true?” “Fine, I’ll give you a chance to make up for it. Ethan’s dog drank dirty water, and it’s been gloomy ever since having its stomach pumped. It barely ate any of the special dog food Ethan made for it. He’s frantic right now. I remember there’s a toy at home that the dog loves. Bring it over. I’m at your mother’s place.” I choked back a sob and replied, “It’s already so late. You want me to deliver a toy in the middle of the night to cheer up a dog?” Dad raised his voice. “That’s Ethan’s precious treasure. It’s part of our family! If you hadn’t kept calling and distracting me, maybe the dog could have been treated sooner, and Ethan wouldn’t be this heartbroken. I’m giving you a chance to fix your mistake! Don’t be so ungrateful!” “When did you learn to lie?! You’re actually ridiculous enough to claim that your leg is broken. What could possibly happen to you if you stayed home? Ethan is so kind and honest. Why don’t you learn from him? Clearly, I need to discipline you properly!” “I don’t want to waste time arguing with you. If you don’t come tonight, I won’t acknowledge you as my daughter anymore. Go wherever you want!” I heard Ethan sob softly. “Dad, what should I do? The dog still looks so weak.” The father who had been yelling at me only moments earlier suddenly seemed like a completely different person. He comforted Ethan in a gentle voice. “It’s okay. Dad’s a doctor. I’ll definitely keep your baby safe and healthy.” I stared at the phone after he hung up and found the whole thing unbearably ironic. It turned out that when a person was hurt enough, they could even forget how to cry. In his eyes, my life wasn’t even as important as the fact that Ethan’s dog couldn’t finish its food. And he still had the nerve to say that nothing could happen to me if I stayed home. Perhaps he had forgotten that after he and Mom divorced, the court was supposed to assign one of us girls to each of them. But neither of them wanted to raise us; they only thought about fighting for custody of their adopted son, Ethan. So they gave us a little money and sent my sister and me away. Perhaps they didn’t even know where we lived anymore. We didn’t have much money, and we were about to start college and pay tuition, so we rented a run-down secondhand house. That area was hit hardest by the disaster today. I had clearly told Dad the address when I called him. If he had paid even the slightest attention, he would have known I wasn’t lying. At the time, my leg hurt so badly that I couldn’t move because the bone had cracked, and blood was pouring from my torn skin. I had always viewed dancing as the one thing that could save me from my dark life. But at that moment, I knew I might never be able to stand onstage and dance again. Nearly breaking down, I called him again and again, hoping that he, as a doctor, would come save me. He had saved so many people over the years. Maybe he could find a way to save my leg. But he didn’t answer until I kept calling until my phone died. I cried out for him to come save me. “My leg is going to be ruined, Dad! Can you come save me? I’m so scared. Will I never be able to dance again?” But what about him? He scolded me impatiently, over and over. “You’ve been a compulsive liar since you were little. You’ll do anything to compete with your brother for attention! You hit him and yelled at him when you were kids, destroyed his things, and now that you’re grown up, you still haven’t changed! How did I end up with a daughter like you?” Then, as usual, he began praising Ethan. “Your brother would never act like this. He’s always been careful to please you and treated you like his sister, but you’re always so vicious!” He was actually mocking his own daughter like this for an outsider who truly lied constantly and was always pretending to be pitiful. I genuinely wondered whether he had ever considered me his own child. Eighteen years had passed. If he had put even the slightest effort into understanding me, he could never have said something like that. But he couldn’t hear my sobs, protests, or pleas for help. He wasn’t even willing to spend the time it took to hang up on me. The moment he heard Ethan quietly sobbing, he rushed off to keep him company. Ethan cried and asked him, “Dad, is the dog going to die? I don’t want to lose another dog. I’m really sad.” So Dad put everything else aside and chose to save a dog that had merely swallowed a few mouthfuls of dirty water. All because Ethan cried. But they had all been fooled by Ethan. He had owned three dogs before, and he had tortured every one of them to death, yet he pushed all the blame onto my sister and me. Whenever he cried, Dad and Mom would unconditionally take his side. This time, the dog’s accident was probably caused by him too. As I remembered the abuse I had just suffered, their cheers rang in my ears. “Dad, you’re amazing! The dog threw up all the dirty water!” Dad smiled in relief. “Ethan, you were so kind to the animal. Dad has to give you a proper reward this time.” I could no longer hear what came afterward because my phone had run out of power. Darkness swallowed me again, and I wished I could leave this world forever. Then my sister burst into my darkness. Other than dancing, she was the only person who could keep me alive. She pushed aside the debris until the skin of her palms was rubbed raw, her fingernails torn back, and both hands covered in blood. She couldn’t move the concrete slab, so she called Mom. But Mom was with Ethan too. “What’s wrong with you and your sister? One of you lies, and that isn’t enough, so now you’ve teamed up to deceive me?” “Ethan’s dog retired from our training center, and because he’s kindhearted, he adopted it. He treats it like a treasure. I trained that dog myself, so it’s attached to me. It’s in bad shape now, and having me by its side will help it recover.” “Besides, Ethan is feeling low and really needs his mother’s comfort. As for your sister, she can’t say a single truthful thing! I’m not going to believe her. Even if something really happened, whether her leg was crushed or she was crushed to death, she would deserve it! She’s always lying!” My sister was crying so hard that she could barely breathe, and in the end, she had no choice but to use her own body to ram the debris pinning me down. But in doing so, a sharp piece of rebar pierced through her shoulder. My sister had just won the state swimming championship. Now her arm was severely injured, and she probably wouldn’t be able to swim again either. My sister’s body was wrapped in thick bandages, and I held her hand tightly. “From now on, we won’t rely on those heartless parents anymore. From now on, I’ll be the one protecting you.”My sister and I decided that we would never beg them for parental love again. All we wanted was to escape this suffocating family as far away as possible and never look back. After my sister woke up, we squeezed onto one bed and discussed what to do next. According to the doctor, we would need a long recovery period. Even after our wounds healed, we might never be able to return to the competition circuit. We had only just received our admission notices, but overnight, both our dreams had been destroyed for nothing. There had clearly been a chance to save us at the beginning. My sister clenched my hand and silently cried for a long time. Only afterward did she force herself to speak lightly. “I don’t think my grades are bad either. Once my body heals, I can go back and repeat senior year. I should still be able to get into a decent college.” This injury had not only destroyed both our dreams, but also cut off our escape route. Both of us were wrapped in bandages, and we couldn’t even return to school. I had no other options, so I thought about asking a teacher for advice to see whether there was any alternative. But when I picked up my phone, I saw dozens of messages appearing in our family chat. Dad and Mom had already gone back to work today, so Ethan took all kinds of photos and sent them to the chat. He said the dog was doing better and had started eating again. I looked at its drooping tail and knew it must have been abused again. But Mom, who was supposedly a professional trainer, couldn’t see it at all and kept praising Ethan for being so loving. I didn’t want to watch them praise each other anymore, so I left the chat. But then I noticed a post Ethan had uploaded. It was a screenshot of three plane tickets with the caption: 【The dog hasn’t been doing well lately, so Dad and Mom saw how sad I was and decided to take time off to travel with me and cheer me up. I really love them so much!】 I looked at the comments below. 【Love goes both ways. You must love your parents just as much!】 【Your parents are so good to you. They’re taking you on an international vacation just because you’re feeling down!】 【I’m a clown crying in secret. I hope I can be born into such a happy family in my next life!】 My sister couldn’t stand it anymore and snatched my phone away. With reddened eyes, she sent our homeroom teacher a message briefly explaining what had happened. Afterward, she tossed the phone to the end of the bed. “The three of them have their own private chat, but Ethan insisted on posting this in the family chat we’re both in. He clearly posted all of it for us to see! We can’t fall into his trap!” I comforted her. “Our parents’ jobs should make them the kind of people most capable of recognizing Ethan’s lies, but they still chose to believe him again and again. At least this time, they’ve finally shown us exactly who they are.” We had both decided that we would never contact them again for the rest of our lives. But that evening, Dad suddenly called me.This time, I followed his example and rejected his calls several times in a row. I waited until the sixth call was about to disconnect automatically before pressing the answer button. His furious voice immediately exploded in my ear. “What kind of attitude are you throwing now? Look around! Whose daughter acts like you and loses her temper at her father all day long?” I remained unmoved. “What do you want? If it’s nothing important, I need to change my sister’s bandages.” His voice grew even louder. “You’re lying again! I’m telling you, that trick doesn’t work on me!” “Your homeroom teacher contacted me during the day and said that you and your sister were giving up your guaranteed admissions. What’s going on?! You finally accomplished something and were about to make me proud, and now you’re giving it up to threaten me?!” I was beyond tears by then. “I have no reason to lie to you. Every word I’ve said is true.” “And I hope that when you finally learn the whole truth someday, you won’t regret it.” He couldn’t tolerate me contradicting him. “What would I regret? The biggest regret of my life is having you two sisters! I should’ve strangled you both when you were born! Every day, I regret that Ethan isn’t my biological child!” “If he were our biological son, your mother and I might still be living happily together for his sake.” My sister couldn’t listen anymore and snatched the phone from me. “Stop blaming all your mistakes on me and my sister! We regret becoming your daughters too!” This time, Dad didn’t scold us. But that wasn’t surprising at all, because Ethan began speaking on the other end. “Dad, I’ve finished packing. Let’s leave soon. We don’t want to miss our flight.” He was probably afraid that my father and I would explain things to each other, so whenever he realized we were in contact, he always interrupted the call. Dad immediately praised him. “You packed everything yourself? What a good boy.” Ethan laughed a few times before deliberately saying, “Is she angry because the sisters want to go too? You and Mom are both going with me. Is that really fair to them?” Dad soothed him. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Your mother and I never argue when we’re with you. Those two were born into our family as nothing but debt collectors! If they came along, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the trip.” From childhood to adulthood, he and Mom had always pushed the blame back and forth, claiming that the way we turned out was entirely the other person’s fault. They never reflected on themselves, and even after divorcing, they believed my sister and I were the reason they had argued and become angry. Forget taking us on international trips like they did with Ethan. Even taking us out of the city or driving us to school was enough to make them pass responsibility back and forth, acting as disgustingly as if they had eaten spoiled food. The contrast between us had been obvious for a long time. My sister and I should have given up on them much sooner. Still, perhaps it wasn’t too late. At the very least, we had both survived. We were injured, but at least our bodies were still intact. After hanging up, they seemed to forget my sister and me completely. Judging from the posts Ethan uploaded during that time, the three of them were having a wonderful time every day. Even Dad and Mom, who used to start fighting the moment they saw each other, could now hold hands and smile as they took photos together. My sister and I blocked them both. What you don’t see can’t hurt you. My sister and I recovered fairly well, and it also helped that they didn’t call to harass us again during that time. No one stayed with us in the hospital, so my sister had to act as my legs. On the day we completed our discharge paperwork, she pushed me in my wheelchair with one hand. The uncles and aunties around us felt sorry for us and even took the initiative to help us run around and pay the hospital bills. Even strangers were kinder than our own biological parents. With nowhere else to go, my sister and I could only stay in a hotel for the time being. Fortunately, we hadn’t lost any valuables. The money we had left from our part-time jobs was still enough to cover our living expenses for the next six months. Just when we thought we could finally break free from our parents and live peaceful lives, the two of them suddenly came looking for us.