Pauline was a hardworking single mother, doing everything she could to make life better for her 8-year-old daughter, Eve. She worked as a janitor in a local office building, cleaning floors, wiping windows, and making sure everything was spotless. Though it was exhausting work, she was proud to provide for her little girl, especially since Eve’s father had passed away years ago from cancer. Since then, it had been just the two of them, and Pauline was doing her best to be both mother and father to Eve. As Eve’s

Dad thought I didn’t notice. But I did. Oh, I really did. It was in the way he stared at old pictures of Mom, his eyes going soft like he was in another world. It was in the way he’d stop and smile quietly when he saw older couples holding hands in the park. And most of all, it was the way he’d sit at the kitchen table late at night, just staring into his coffee, like he was waiting for it to give him answers. My dad was lonely.

When Talia overhears her teen son and his friends mocking her for “just cleaning all day,” something inside her breaks. But instead of yelling, she walks away, leaving them in the mess they never noticed she carried. One week of silence. A lifetime’s worth of respect. This is her quiet, unforgettable revenge. I’m Talia, and for years I believed that love meant doing everything—so nobody else ever had to lift a finger. Every morning I woke before dawn. I made sure the house was spotless, the fridge stocked, the baby