Chapter 97 — Taking Karen to Do Something Exciting (No R18 Content)
To be honest, what hurt Karen the most wasn't even what Eddie said—
It was the fact that he humiliated her in front of so many people.
A young person's pride is everything.
And Eddie had stomped on hers and ground it into dust right there for the whole room to see.
There was no way Karen wouldn't snap.
---
After venting for a while, Karen's rage finally began to ebb.
But what replaced it wasn't calm.
It was pure sadness.
And once the anger drained away, the tears came flooding in—
completely unstoppable.
Seeing that, Sheila's intense empathy kicked in like a switch.
She felt Karen's pain so sharply that she started crying too.
Mother and daughter ended up clutching each other tightly, sobbing together.
---
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just then, someone pounded on the front door.
"Sweetie, I'll go get it," Sheila said, hugging Karen once more before standing up and leaving the basement.
Karen, after letting everything out, was in a slightly better state now.
She followed Sheila upstairs to the first floor.
---
Outside—
It was William.
The same William who had followed Karen all the way home.
"Hey, Mrs. Jackson," William said with a warm smile, flashing a row of perfectly white teeth.
"Is Karen home?"
"Mom, he's my friend," Karen said immediately, rushing over the moment she heard his voice.
She leaned forward to peek outside—
and sure enough, a BMW was parked right outside their house.
And it was painted pink.
That alone was enough to improve her mood instantly, after the emotional disaster she'd just been through.
---
"Oh~ hello," Sheila greeted him.
Sheila had issues, sure…
But at heart, she was a good woman.
Some people in the fandom complained about her "stealing" Karen's husband Jody later on—
but in reality, Karen was the one who got tired of Jody first, even teaming up with Lip to kick him out.
That was what pushed Jody into Sheila's life.
---
"I was hoping I could borrow Karen for a bit," William said politely.
"Mrs. Jackson?"
After all, Sheila was Karen's mother.
If you were taking a girl out, at least have the decency to ask first.
Seeing how respectful William was, Sheila felt a warmth spread in her chest.
"Oh, of course!" she said. "No problem at all. Have fun~"
Karen's happiness mattered to Sheila more than anything.
And the moment William appeared, Karen's smile returned.
That alone made Sheila's opinion of William skyrocket.
---
Not long after, William left the Jackson house with Karen.
Sheila stood in the doorway, waving at the pink BMW with a beaming smile.
If it weren't for the tear stains still on her face, you'd never guess she'd been crying just moments ago.
---
A few minutes later…
Eddie Jackson returned home.
He sat down at the dining table—
then crushed the white lilies in the vase with his bare hand.
Hearing the commotion in the living room, Sheila—who had been tidying up downstairs in the basement—came back up to the first floor.
Eddie was sitting at the dining table, his face full of gloom.
The moment Sheila saw him, anger surged up in her chest.
He'd made their daughter cry like that.
This man didn't deserve to be a father.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sheila marched up and demanded.
But Eddie showed no remorse. Instead, he acted like the one who should be repenting was Karen.
Only proved one thing—
those cult-like purity groups really were poison.
They weren't "religion." They were a cover for a whole class of sick obsessions.
"Did she tell you?" Eddie snapped.
"Did she tell you what she said?"
He was still furious—furious that Karen had embarrassed him in front of his fellow believers.
That crowd had one shared trait:
they wanted their daughters to "stay pure" for their sake.
Honestly? There were eight billion people on Earth.
It would be stranger not to have all kinds of freaks.
And Eddie was the type who cared obsessively about what other people thought of him.
Otherwise, in the original story, he wouldn't have been driven to suicide—walking into a lake—after that video of Karen and Frank spread and he couldn't handle the gossip.
But Sheila didn't care about Eddie's image.
She didn't care what people thought of him.
All she knew was—
Eddie had made her daughter, her precious Karen, sob until she could barely breathe.
"You called our daughter a slut."
That accusation instantly set Eddie off.
"Why don't you ask what she did to me?!"
Seeing how Eddie only cared about himself—how he still couldn't see past his own ego—Sheila's heart finally shattered.
"Get out. GET OUT!"
She shoved him hard as she shouted.
"What?" Eddie stared at her like she'd gone insane.
"GET OUT!" Sheila's emotions exploded, and she screamed at the top of her lungs.
"She told you what she did to me, right?!"
He kept clinging to the same thing—still completely convinced he'd done nothing wrong.
"Don't you understand?!" he shouted, like Sheila was the unreasonable one.
"She's a person!" Sheila screamed back, trembling with rage. "She should have love in her heart, not hatred!"
She was so furious she didn't even realize she'd chased him all the way outside.
"You weren't even there!" Eddie snapped. "I know every single one of those people!"
Still blaming Karen. Still whining about losing face.
Sheila was completely done.
"What is WRONG with you?! GET OUT! And don't you EVER come back! Go live your own life! Don't come back! GET OUT!"
---
She cursed and pushed him the whole way, forcing him into his beat-up old car.
Only after Eddie drove away—vanishing around the corner—did Sheila finally begin to calm down.
She inhaled the freezing air for a few seconds… and suddenly realized—
she was standing outside.
"I… I'm outside?"
Sheila stared around in disbelief.
"I… I think I got so angry… I just ran out."
She mumbled to herself. Then, as the reality sank in, her face transformed.
A smile spread across her lips.
"I walked out. I ACTUALLY walked out!"
"I finally… walked out!"
---
At the same time…
Over on William and Karen's side—
"Where are you taking me?" Karen asked.
William showing up tonight had been one of the few comforts in her awful day.
But her mood was still heavy.
After all, no one could just shrug off being called a slut by their own father.
"That doesn't matter right now," William said calmly. "But you… you've been crying. What happened?"
He glanced at her profile.
Truthfully, compared to Fiona, Karen fit his taste far better.
"Fuck… just thinking about it makes me mad," Karen hissed. "Got a cigarette?"
Karen knew William already knew what she was like, so she didn't even bother pretending.
Her bitchy nature came out in full.
William didn't refuse.
He casually reached into his pocket and pulled out an unopened pack of Marlboros from his storage space, tossing it to her.
Karen ripped it open smoothly and lit one for herself.
"William…" she said, watching the snowflakes fall outside the window. "Do you think there are parents who don't love their kids?"
To be honest, she had no right asking that.
In the original timeline, she was the one who abandoned her own child.
And in the South Side, people like that weren't rare.
Human nature was selfish.
Only in fairy tales did everyone love their children the way they were supposed to.
"Well," William said, "I don't know exactly what happened to you, and I can't really answer your question… but I do know a place that can make you feel better."
Karen turned to look at him.
Suddenly, she found the man driving ridiculously attractive.
She reached over and ran her hand along his thigh.
"Wow," William said, glancing down. "What are you trying to do?"
He already knew what she wanted.
But he still asked anyway.
"You tell me."
—[Censor Bot Activated: No Thigh-High Shenanigans on Company Time! Bloop]-
---
Outside the South Side landfill, a pink BMW was parked by the roadside.
Karen straightened up and looked out at the dump.
"…Why did you bring me here?"