"Sis, if your husband won't come home, that still doesn't make it okay to video chat naked with some random guy!" It was Christmas Eve in the countryside, and my aunt's gloating voice cut through the air like a knife. That was when I saw it — a video of a woman in a naked video call, spreading like wildfire through the family group chat. The lower half of her face, unblurred, looked exactly like my mom's. And then there were the three moles on the woman's left shoulder, lined up in a row. That had always been my mom's signature mark. Except — my mom had those moles removed two years ago. My phone went crazy with vibrations. Every call was from my dad. The neighbors were loving every second of it. I let out a quiet sigh. It had been a long time since anyone dared to mess with my dad's family. "That woman doing naked video calls is obviously her — even the gold necklace is the same style!" At the holiday dinner table, several women glared daggers at my mom. My aunt stood up, phone in hand, staring at the solid gold necklace around my mom's neck with barely concealed envy. "Sis, Renee's already grown up — how could you do something this shameless?" "Even if your husband's been living apart from you, that's no excuse to do naked video calls with some guy!" I looked at the video circulating through the family group chat. The upper half of the woman's face was blurred out, but the lower half was identical to my mom's. Every piece of jewelry she wore was something my mom had owned for years. The most obvious detail was the three moles on the woman's left shoulder, lined up in a row. That had been my mom's birthmark since childhood. But two years ago, my mom had decided she didn't like them and had them removed. I frowned, studying my aunt's face. She shared about seventy percent of my mom's features. In the video, the woman's breathy moans made my mom's eyes go red with humiliation. "Does that woman have my name written on her face? Don't go throwing wild accusations!" My aunt covered her mouth in exaggerated shock. "Whether it's you or not, only you know the truth — yelling at me won't change anything." My gut told me something was off. I stepped in front of my mom and held her back. "Do you have any actual proof this is my mother?" Mrs. Li cracked open a sunflower seed, clearly enjoying the drama. "Honey, the bottom half of that face is your mom's spitting image, and the necklace is the exact same one." Mr. Yang's face was full of contempt. "Chloe, I'm not trying to be harsh, but when a man doesn't come home, it's on the wife. How could you just go looking for your own fun?" "Exactly — everyone knows your mom has three moles on her shoulder. Same as that woman in the video." My mom stared at the aunts and uncles she'd grown up around, disbelief written all over her face. Her eyes turned cold. My dad's business kept him busy, and he'd tried countless times to get my mom to move abroad with him. But my mom never liked the noise and flashiness of city life. She couldn't bring herself to leave the village she'd grown up in. Dad had no choice but to send a housekeeper to look after her back home. He and I didn't make it back very often. Occasionally, people in the village would gossip about how he was never around. My mom would just smile and explain that he was busy with work. But now, out of nowhere, rumors had spread that my parents' marriage was falling apart and that my mom had been doing naked video calls with some man. My mom was being dragged through the mud for something she didn't do. Looking at the crowd of self-righteous faces around us, my mom and I exchanged a glance. The necklace. The matching moles. The face. It was obvious. Someone had been planning this for a long time, and they wanted to destroy my mom. In a small town like this, a woman's reputation was everything. Without flinching, my mom grabbed her neckline and pulled it open in front of everyone. "That woman cannot be me. My moles were removed a long time ago!" My aunt froze, her eyes going wide. The people around us leaned in, craning their necks to see. My aunt rushed forward and yanked my mom's collar back up. "Have you no shame? Pulling your clothes open in public! You probably just had them removed recently because you were scared of getting caught!" "How did someone like you end up with a man like Nathan? You couldn't even keep him home!" "If it weren't for you getting in the way back then, Nathan would have married—!" That hit me like a slap. I suddenly remembered. The person who had been engaged to my dad back then was my aunt. She'd looked down on him — thought he was all looks and no money. She'd broken off the engagement on her own and married a government worker instead. My grandfather, not wanting the family to look bad, had given my mom away in her sister's place. Then, not long after the wedding, my aunt's husband dropped dead unexpectedly. Meanwhile, my dad had grinded his way up from nothing. His business grew bigger every year, and within a few years, he was the kind of man everyone envied.
My mom was shaking with fury. "Talk is cheap. If you have real evidence, go ahead and call the police. Let them investigate." I backed her up immediately. "That's right. If the woman in that video isn't my mother, then everyone who made up these lies and spread that video is looking at criminal charges." "No! Don't call the police!" The moment those words landed, my aunt lunged forward and snatched my mom's phone, then hurled it against the ground. She spun around and put on the face of a concerned elder. "If the police get involved, your mother's life is ruined. How is she supposed to show her face after that?" "She may have done something wrong, but we're still family." At the mention of calling the police and spreading defamatory content, it wasn't just my aunt who reacted. The neighbors who'd been watching all had the same shift in expression. They'd probably been forwarding that video and those messages all over town just to have something to gossip about. Everyone started talking over each other at once. "Renee, listen to your uncle — don't make this worse for your mom. Let it go." "That's right, Chloe made a mistake, but if she's willing to own up to it, that's enough. No need to blow this up." I looked every one of them in the eye. "If someone was spreading lies like this about you, would you just let it go?" A few of them went awkward and quiet, no one willing to be the first to answer. Then Mr. Yang's son suddenly lit up and aimed his phone camera straight at us. "Ha! Threatening to call the cops? You've got no shame — just like your trashy mom." "Don't go anywhere, everyone — I'm about to do some real justice here. I'm going live to expose a mother-daughter pair from our own neighborhood." Jason Yang was a small-time streamer. I'd known that. And now he saw this as his ticket to a bigger audience. He wouldn't shut up, shoving his camera almost into my mom's face. "This woman couldn't hold onto her man. He's gone all year, so she's been messing around behind his back — doing naked video calls with God knows who!" The more he talked, the more worked up he got. He grabbed his dad's phone and started playing the video directly into his livestream. The comments flooded in. "Oh my God, I finally caught up — this woman is disgusting!" "Women never can handle being alone. Should've kept her on a leash." "Lol I've got the original — her body's insane, lmk if you want it ?" I was furious. I stepped forward and grabbed his arm. If that video spread online under my mom's name, we'd both be destroyed — turned into content for Jason Yang's next viral moment. But before I could even start, I was blindsided by a heavy slap across my face. "Grandpa?!" I pressed my hand to my stinging cheek and stared in disbelief at my grandfather, who had just arrived in a hurry. He was breathing hard. He grabbed me by the hair and slammed my head toward the wall. "Look what your mother raised — a shameless little brat! She sleeps around and you cover for her!" "Dad!" My mom threw herself in front of me and pried his hand loose. "You dare call me Dad! I don't have a daughter like you!" He shoved my mom aside and drove his foot hard into her back. My mom begged him. "Dad, the woman in that video is not me. You're my own father — don't you believe me?" "Would your sister lie? She's protecting what's left of your dignity by not calling the cops!" "From today on, get out of this town. You are no daughter of mine."
The neighbors murmured among themselves. "Even her own father wants nothing to do with her. Women like that should be run out — she'll drag everyone else's reputation down." "Who knows who she'll go after next. Get rid of her. Get rid of both of them!" Hands grabbed at our hair with no good intentions, dragging my mom and me across the ground like we weighed nothing. Some of the women decided that wasn't enough. They picked up scalding bowls of food from the table and threw them at us. I dug my fingers into the ground, nails torn back, bleeding, using my body to shield my mom from the rotten eggs being thrown at her. My aunt covered her nose in disgust, bent down, and spat on me. She reached out, tore the gold necklace from my mom's neck, and fastened it around her own throat with a look of pure satisfaction. "Finally, I don't have to sneak around to wear it." Barely conscious, I heard my aunt muttering to herself. "Sweetie, some people are just born to lose. Married well and still couldn't hold on to it." The raw red marks across my mom's neck made my eyes burn. I don't know where I found the strength, but I screamed and launched myself at my aunt, fighting her with everything I had. In the chaos, her jacket was torn open. And there on her shoulder — three moles, identical to my mom's. My aunt panicked. She cursed and aimed her sharp nails straight at my eyes. A burst of searing pain, and everything in front of me turned red. My phone was still going crazy — all calls from my dad. I ignored the pain, grabbed the phone, and fired off a quick message to my dad, then dialed emergency services. I could barely get the words out, but I'd just finished giving the address when my aunt's heel came down and crushed my phone screen. "She's trying to call the cops!" Her voice was shrill and vicious. "Renee, you want to ruin all of us? How could you be so heartless?" "Your mom messed around with some guy, and we didn't even push her to name names. The adults in this family are trying to protect what little dignity you two have left — can't you see that?" The women who had been watching from the sidelines went pale when they heard that. One by one, shoes came down on my hand. A crack. My fingers broke. I clutched my hand to my chest, rolling on the ground in agony, tears and blood mixing on my face. When my mom heard my screaming, she wrenched herself free from the men holding her and threw herself over me. My grandfather's cane came down hard across her back. "That's what you get for running around behind your husband's back!" My mom's choked denials were swallowed up by the fists and kicks raining down on her, but she only held me tighter. Dust and tears caked my face. I kept begging them to stop, which only made the blows harder. Jason's excitement peaked as he locked the camera on my mom's face. "Yeah, yeah — her name's Chloe Hartley, lives at — her ID number is — someone in the comments just dug up her phone number too, nice work!" "Heh, I've got a whole collection of her private photos. I'll drop them in the fan group later. Enjoy, fellas." The blood in my veins went cold. Jason's followers had found my mom's personal information and put it online. His fat lips kept moving. "Trending — we're trending — hahaha, my livestream is trending!" A few of the younger guys shoved their way up next to Jason. "Bro, you're about to blow up! Don't forget about us when you make it big!" Jason laughed and waved them off, then reached toward my mom's clothes, shoving his camera down toward her neckline. "Please — Jason, please stop filming, please—" My mom's voice was so weak I could barely hear her. I growled through my teeth, pushed past the agony of my broken fingers, and smashed Jason's phone out of his hand. The screen crackled, flickered twice, and went dead. "My stream!" A kick slammed into my chest. Jason's thick hands closed around my throat. "You little brat — I'll kill you for that!" My aunt laughed with satisfaction. "Strip them and throw them out on the street. Let's see if they ever show their faces around here again." The crowd tore at our clothes. Scraps of fabric littered the ground, and Jason's hand was already reaching toward my mom. I clawed at him desperately, but I was thrown back. Then, in the next second, Jason was yanked off the ground by two hands. AA fist connected with his face — savage, deliberate — and a voice came through clenched teeth. "You're the one spreading lies about my wife?"
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "NovelMaster" app ? search for "414975", and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster