They Thought My Cancer Was a Scam and Left Me to Die

"That wretched girl must be out of her mind!" "Faking a terminal illness just to scam us for money to put into her bad investments! How could she?!" Through the thin door, I heard my parents' furious shouts. My cousin, Chloe, sighed and chimed in. "I never expected Avery to do something so foolish either." "That was a whole $100,000! If she threw it all into that sketchy startup, your family would have been ruined..." My parents looked at Chloe with immense gratitude, still shaking from the scare. "We owe you everything this time, Chloe. If it weren't for you, our family would really be over..." My heart squeezed painfully. Since we were kids, my parents always believed Chloe over me. Chloe’s mother passed away early, so my parents showered her with extra love to make up for it. Over the years, their attention was always on her. They thought she was sweet, sensible, and incapable of lying. Even when Chloe blamed her own messes on me without any proof, they believed her unconditionally. Usually, I could swallow the unfairness. But this time, it was about my life. Why couldn't they just ask me first? I couldn't take it anymore. I reached for the doorknob, wanting to confront them. But then, I heard Chloe speak again. "So, what are you going to do with Avery’s $100,000?" David fell silent. After a long pause, he sighed heavily. "We’ll put it in a savings account for her, of course." "It’s a lot of money. She worked so hard to save it." "We only tricked her into giving it to us to teach her a lesson..." "Once she realizes her mistake and stops being foolish, we'll give it back to her." My hand slowly fell from the doorknob. Memory flashed back to the day I told them about my diagnosis. My parents' eyes had turned red. They stared at the medical report for a long time. Then, Helen held me tight, crying. "Don't be scared, sweetie. Mom and Dad will figure this out." "We can find the money. Don't worry." After that, they secretly mortgaged their house and sold the car. To borrow enough money, they spent nights swallowing their pride, begging distant relatives and even applying for high-interest loans. "Avery is so young. We can't just watch her die!" "Please, help us..." That was the most desperate, humbled version of my parents I had ever seen. They lowered themselves to the dirt for me. Even though they were biased toward Chloe, they did love me. Besides, I had already missed my scheduled surgery. I was doomed to die anyway. Maybe letting them believe this lie was for the best.

I gave up on telling them the truth. I didn't go inside. Instead, I took a high-risk gig as an extreme stunt double. The jobs were dangerous—jumping off buildings, falling off cliffs, car crashes. But the perk was a massive life insurance policy. If I died on set, the payout would be over a million dollars. Irony of ironies, I proved to be incredibly hard to kill. I ended up with countless bruises and fractures, but nothing fatal. A month later, I received my first $10,000 paycheck. I immediately wired all of it to my parents' account. I thought I could make a few more transfers before my time ran out. But that night, lying in my cheap, moldy rental room, I suddenly started coughing up blood. My body went ice-cold. After a long, agonizing struggle in the dark, I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes again, my body felt weightless. The excruciating pain of cancer was gone. I floated in the air, looking down at my own body. I was slumped next to a dirty toilet. My clothes and the floor were stained dark red. I wasn't sad. I actually felt a wave of relief. At least I managed to send that money to my parents first. Just then, my phone buzzed on the floor. A message from my parents popped up. "Don't think sending us some money will make us forgive you for lying!" "Until you learn your lesson, we are keeping this $100,000!" I wanted to reply so badly. *It's okay.* *Keep the money for your retirement.* *I don't need it anymore.* But I couldn't touch the phone. My hand passed right through it. My parents waited for two days. Seeing no reply, they got angry. "Ignoring us now? Still trying to play games?" "Or do you just not want your savings back at all?!" I still couldn't reply. A few more days passed, and they tried to provoke me. "Fine! Since you don't care about this money, we'll spend it!" "Your cousin wants to start a business, and she's $50,000 short." They wired $50,000 to Chloe and sent a screenshot to my phone. When I still didn't reply, they found other ways to spend it. They booked a $10,000 luxury cruise for themselves and Chloe. They took Chloe to expensive dinners and bought her designer jewelry. They took screenshots of every transaction and sent them to me. I grew anxious. My soul drifted onto the cruise ship, trying to warn them. "That money is for your retirement! You can't waste it like this!" "And definitely don't give it to Chloe!" "She is using you! She won't take care of you!" But no matter how loud I screamed, they couldn't hear me. By the time the cruise ended a week later, and there was still no word from me, Helen finally started to worry. "It's been almost two months. She hasn't come home. Could something have happened to her...?" David frowned, dismissing her. "She's an adult. What could happen?" "She's doing this on purpose to make us worry." "She wants us to feel guilty so she can scam us again!" "Since she wants to play dead, I'll force her hand!" David went home and made a viral TikTok video. He accused me of faking a terminal illness, stealing my family's savings, and running away. He even posted my full name and workplace online. Overnight, I became the most hated person on the internet.

[How can anyone steal from their own parents? She’s a monster!] [She took their house and car! Left her elderly parents in debt... She deserves to rot in hell!] [Why isn't she in jail? Someone find her!] [She should be locked up for life!] My company quickly posted a public statement online, saying I had resigned a month ago and that my actions had nothing to do with them. Dozens of strangers found my number and flooded my phone with abusive texts and calls. Some people even Photoshopped my face onto funeral portraits and spammed them in the comments. I couldn't stop it. I could only watch the endless stream of hate notifications light up my dead screen. I smiled bitterly. *Well, at least they already made the funeral photos. They’ll need them soon.* Back home, my parents weren't idle either. They threw out all my belongings and let Chloe move into my room. "Since you refuse to come back, your room is Chloe's now." "We're throwing your stuff out if you don't come get it by tomorrow!" I didn't have much. Most of it was sentimental—birthday gifts my parents gave me, family photos, and school trophies. Things they used to display proudly in the living room were now shoved into a trash bag, sitting next to the garbage bin outside. When Chloe brought her bags in, she "accidentally" knocked over the trash bag. My things spilled out, mixing with the garbage. Chloe stepped right on them. The music box my dad had carved for me shattered. Our family photo was ruined by her dirty boot print. "Stop! Don't touch that!" "Those are my memories! You have no right!" I tried desperately to block her. But my transparent hands just passed through her body over and over. Chloe deliberately ground her heel into my photos a few more times. When my parents opened the door, she quickly feigned panic. "David, Helen, I'm so sorry..." "I didn't see the bag on the floor." My parents looked uncomfortable for a second, but then they quickly brushed it off. "It's fine. It's just trash anyway." "As long as you didn't hurt yourself." They welcomed Chloe in, helped her unpack, and cooked her favorite dinner. They looked so happy. Like they were the real family. The next day, when I still didn't show up, my dad sent one last text. "You really hate us that much, huh?" "Fine. From this day on, we don't have a daughter!" And they kept their word. They blocked my number and focused entirely on Chloe, pouring their remaining money into her business. They treated her like their only daughter. Until a month later, when the police finally discovered my body. The officer called my parents. "Is this the family of Avery Jiang?" "We found her body in a rental apartment. We need you to come identify her."

Silence stretched over the phone line. After a long pause, Helen finally spoke. "You... must have the wrong person." "My daughter is perfectly fine. She can't be dead!" "Exactly!" David agreed loudly. "There are plenty of people with that name. You got the wrong number!" But despite their harsh words, panic flashed in their eyes. They hung up quickly. Chloe, who had listened to the whole call, had a flash of joy in her eyes before masking it with worry. "Do you think Avery is mad because I took her room? Maybe she hired actors to fake her death to scare you guys?" "I mean, she faked a whole cancer report before." "Faking her death doesn't seem out of character for her..." My parents looked at each other. Their faces hardened. "You're right! That girl is a pathological liar!" "She's ungrateful! We should have never had her!" Just then, the phone rang again. It was the police. "Sir, we ran a DNA match. There is no mistake." "The deceased is your daughter, Avery Jiang." "Cut the crap!" David spat into the phone. "We only have one daughter, and she is sitting right next to us!" "Whether Avery is dead or alive is none of our business!" "If she really died out there, just cremate her and throw her ashes in the trash!" "Don't call us again!" David hung up and immediately blocked the number. Even though I knew they said this out of anger and misunderstanding, my soul still ached. I wanted to tell them. *Mom, Dad, I didn't lie.* *I'm really dead...* *Please stop listening to Chloe...* *Why can't you believe me just once?* Chloe brought them two glasses of warm water. "Helen, David, don't be angry." "Avery is just confused... Don't worry, even if she doesn't come back, I will take care of you guys forever." "Good girl, thank God we have you." Helen's eyes softened as she held Chloe's hand. "From now on, you are our real daughter." "That ungrateful brat doesn't deserve our thoughts." Determined to cut me out of their lives, my parents deleted all my contact info. They even started discussing putting Chloe's name on the deed of our house. Until two police officers showed up at their front door, holding my ID and photos. "We are the officers who called you earlier." "Please look at these photos. Are you absolutely sure the deceased, Avery Jiang, has nothing to do with you?" "Her body has been in the morgue for too long. If you don't claim her, we will have to handle it as an unclaimed body."