The next morning, Binar woke to the impatient pounding on her bedroom door. Still half-asleep, Binar reluctantly got out of bed.
The door swung open.
Murni, Naura, and Azalia stood outside. Their faces were full of questions.
“What the hell are you doing, Binar, starting a business without involving Mama and your two sisters?”
“What’s going on?” Binar asked, confused.
“Oh, please, don’t pretend you don’t know, Ma. She’s just being smug because her pharmacy went viral and has tons of fans,” Naura scoffed.
Hearing that, Binar immediately checked her phone. She had a flood of messages from Nayakila, telling her that their video was trending. It had gotten nearly tens of millions of likes and shares.
Binar silently thanked God, never expecting their video to blow up after just one night online.
“Are you listening to Mama? Anyway, I want you to involve Naura and Azalia. Tell everyone they were the ones who made all those products. Naura’s almost twenty-five—who knows, maybe a doctor or a businessperson will be interested once she becomes famous,” Murni said excitedly, utterly certain that Binar would follow her request.
“Mom, you’ve got to be kidding me!”
Binar truly couldn’t understand her own mother. What kind of spells had Bimo and those two stepdaughters cast on Murni to make her love them so much?
And as for her pharmacy, they could forget about Binar involving anyone in this household just because they wanted to become famous.
All they knew was that Apotek Anjani had gone viral overnight. Murni had never known that the price had been her own daughter’s mental health.
Binar had poured hours of hard work and physical effort into it. She had even cried in the bathroom from exhaustion. Where had Murni been? What kind of mother was she?
But now? Murni found it so easy to make a decision just for the sake of her beloved daughters.
Was Binar jealous? She had been once. Now, maybe not anymore. Either she had gotten used to it, or her feelings had started to freeze over.
“Kidding? No way! Mama’s serious. Why wouldn’t you want to?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Binar,” Murni snapped in warning.
“What?” Binar shot back, far too casually.
“Where’s your sense of sisterhood? They’re your sisters.”
“Sisters? What kind of sisters see me as competition, Mom? None. But they… they saw me as a rival the moment I first came into this house. That was something I never would’ve imagined back then.”
If you thought Binar was some obedient, weepy girl, you were dead wrong. It wasn’t that Binar couldn’t fight back. She was just too lazy to argue with people who couldn’t hear anyone else’s point of view. All they knew was that they were right and everyone else was wrong.
But one thing was certain: nothing kept bottled up could stay that way forever. Eventually, it would explode and come back to hurt everyone.
“How dare you talk back when an elder is reprimanding you? Look at Naura. She obeys every time Mama tells her something.”
“When I answer back, I’m always wrong. But when Naura does it, how could she ever be wrong in Mama’s eyes?”
“Sis, why are you treating Mama like this? If you’re wrong, just admit it instead of fighting back,” Azalia said sadly, seeming to care about Binar’s defiance.
“Shut up, you hypocrite. If you’ve forgotten, let me remind you: the first time I came into this house, you accused me of hating you and Naura until Mama got angry at me. I never said anything like that. But that pitiful, delicate look on your face made everyone believe you,” Binar said, satisfied to tear apart Azalia’s behavior.
“THAT’S ENOUGH, BINAR!” Murni screamed, her face bright red.
Binar wasn’t surprised at all. She hadn’t expected Murni to defend her in the first place.
Now look at her… Azalia’s face was wet with tears.
She looked like some fragile little thing who had just been mistreated by a cruel villain. Binar, who else?
“What is it, Mom? You can’t accept that Azalia’s behavior is just a mask?”
“I said stop insulting Azalia, Binar. Look at yourself before you criticize other people. With your attitude, you could be a role model, huh?”
“I can’t be a role model, but at least I don’t have a negative impact on other people,” Binar said.
Honestly, she was sick of this. She wanted to end the argument as soon as possible.
“You’ve gone too far, Binar. And you’ve been like this for a long time! You’re such a grudge-holder,” Naura sneered, pretending to comfort the crying Azalia.
“Naura’s right. How can you take something like that personally when you’re sisters?” Murni sided with her.
Binar let out a bitter laugh. Over and over again, Naura proved herself to be Mama’s favorite little fairy. “Mama, do you know which decision in my life I regret the most?”
Murni clicked her tongue, as if Binar’s emotions meant absolutely nothing to her—not even enough to touch her conscience. Even so, her eyes still demanded an answer.
“Letting you marry Uncle Bimo.”
To be continued.