My Mother Fired Me On My 35th Birthday For Being “Too Ugly” To Work At Our Family Company. She Replaced Me With My “Beautiful” Sister. Now Their Business Is Bankrupt And They’re Begging Me To Save Them.

The Unexpected Reunion

Leading a fulfilling life, I happened to visit a client near my mother’s company. Passing by, I noted the windows and entrance were conspicuously dirty, and the indoor plants I had once cared for were now withered. On my way back, I unexpectedly ran into my mother coming out of her company.

Expecting bad treatment, I instinctively covered my face with my bag. To my surprise, my mother approached me in a sweet, cajoling tone, asking where I had been. Feeling an uncomfortable shiver, I instinctively shrank back.

“I’ve called you so many times, you know. Did you change your smartphone?”

It seemed she hadn’t even considered the possibility that I might not want to contact her because I despised her. I couldn’t help but wonder about her thought process, given all the things she had done to me. Ignoring my baffled expression, my mother continued,

“Oh, but it’s a good thing I saw you. Look at the state of this company, it’s dreadful, isn’t it? You can start working from tomorrow. I’m not angry, I forgive you for leaving a year ago. Please start coming to work from tomorrow.”

It took me a few seconds to comprehend what my mother had just said. In her mind, was there only an image of a little me crying and adoring her?

“Um, Mom, I’m already working at another company and I’m happy there,”

I hesitantly responded. Her face contorted into something monstrous and she bellowed,

“What? You’re telling me you’re working somewhere else while our company is in trouble? I don’t give a damn about other companies. You’re mine, understand?”

Causing a scene in the middle of the street.

“Wait a minute. You’re the one who fired me, remember? What about Lucy? What happened to her?”

In response, my mother snorted and dismissively said,

“Oh, Lucy. I thought she’d be more useful, but she was caught having affairs with three men from our key client. Needless to say, our dealings with them ended in a flash. If she was careful enough not to get caught, it would have been all right. So I kept her from the front office and made her do clerical work, but she couldn’t even clean properly and was absolutely no good at accounting. Because of her, we couldn’t even afford to hire someone else.”

After venting her frustrations, my mother turned to me with a grin, saying,

“That’s why it’s your turn, Mary. Ever since you left, the office has been in shambles. I need you to take responsibility.”

Standing Ground

I had properly created a handover manual before I left and had explained everything to Lucy. Lucy probably hadn’t even looked at the handover document I made, and I was sure my mother hadn’t heard anything about it either. In fact, I didn’t understand why they would fire me and then asked me to take responsibility.

This was always how these women acted—taking a tough stance, blaming others, and letting others clean up their mess. It was their usual trick. I bit my lower lip, thought of the kind faces of the people I was currently working with, and swore to myself that this was the real world. I had been living in a crazy world until now, but I wouldn’t lose to this pressure anymore.

“It was you, the boss, who fired me, isn’t it?”

My mother seemed a bit startled by the change in my tone.

“And the reason you fired me was because I’m ugly, right?”

Before I knew it, a crowd had gathered around us, apparently intrigued by our argument. While mindful of the eyes around her, my mother stuttered,

“Did I say something like that? Are you sure you didn’t mishear?”

“No, I heard it very clearly. You’re going to hand over the company to my beautiful sister and fire me, the ugly one. I didn’t understand what you meant. I’ve been working my butt off at the company for 10 years, but you suddenly decided to hand over the company to my sister, who barely does any work, after just 2 years. I question your judgment.”

As I explained this clearly, the crowd began to stir.

“Really? Can that happen?” “That’s awful, isn’t it?” “Is she her own mother?” “Are they two related by blood?”

Some people even started filming us, and I was so angry I didn’t care about that. My mother started sweating and turning pale under the collective glares of blame from around her. She started to panic.

“Mary, you’re misunderstanding! Let’s go inside for now.”

“Misunderstanding? What am I misunderstanding? If you didn’t say such a thing, shouldn’t you be able to clearly say it wasn’t like that?”

When my mother fell silent, the people around us started to say,

“Oh, she’s silent, so it’s true.” “That’s unbelievable.”

Then, something seemed to snap in my mother. She started shouting,

“Shut up! It’s all your fault for being ugly and gloomy! Ugly people should know their place and obediently do what beautiful people say! That’s all you’re good for!”

People around us were taken aback by her outrageous behavior and began to upload their videos quickly. The thumbnail headlines were like that: The Ugly Woman Obeys the Beautiful Woman. The video went viral.

Justice Served

To my mother’s clients, she was soon told to cease all transactions with all companies. It seems that in the year after I left the company, they were engaged in a lot of shady activities like fraudulent registration and tampering with the accounting books. So when the video spread, everyone seemed happy to distance themselves.

Naturally, the company went bankrupt, and my mother and sister, who had lost their source of income, came to my apartment. But of course, I didn’t open the door. In the end, they moved to a 45-year-old apartment with no bath, living in fear of their creditors.

Working part-time, because my sister always tried to take it easy by flirting with the male employees due to her beauty, she was disliked by her fellow part-timers and had to change her part-time job frequently.

As for my mom, everyone knew about the video that had spread on the internet, and she was being distanced by her part-time work colleagues. It seems she’s just silently working by herself.

Meanwhile, I found a boyfriend at my new workplace. He’s not handsome, but he told me he likes me because I work very seriously and sincerely. We’re planning to get married soon. I’m spending my days feeling truly glad that I’ve been diligent all this time.