My Mom Made Me Sing For Lunch
Liora · Completed · 9.3k Words
Introduction
With every penny of my tuition and living expenses strictly controlled by them, I stood empty-handed in front of their campus Gospel food truck. But my mother didn't want cash.
She wanted a public spectacle to cure my "sinful depression."
My younger sister bought her lunch with a simple kiss on the cheek. But for me?
My mother pointed to the growing crowd of students and delivered her ultimatum: sing the toddler nursery rhyme 'My Mommy Is the Best' at the top of my lungs, or starve.
I chose to put the food down and walk away.
But my mother rushed out of the truck. Her fingernails dug violently into my wrist, dragging me back into her nightmare. "You're not leaving until you sing."
Chapter 1
Mom and Dad parked their Gospel food truck on our campus under the guise of "serving the Lord and feeding His children."
I foolishly thought it meant they finally wanted to be close to me.
On the first day of Welcome Week, Mom texted me:
[Abbie, come to the diner and pick up lunch for you and Hannah. She’s under the weather, take it to her dorm.]
I arrived on time. I squeezed through the crowded cafeteria, picked up the two styrofoam boxes from the counter, and gave them a grateful smile.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mom, Dad. I'll go take this to Hannah now."
I turned to leave, but a voice stopped me dead in my tracks.
"Abigail!" Mom's voice cut through the noise. "Where is the money? Thou shalt not steal, remember?"
I stood completely paralyzed.
She wanted me to pay for the food she cooked for her own daughters?
No... looking at her glaring eyes, I instantly realized. She wasn't charging Hannah. She was only charging me.
In the suffocating heat of the Southern summer, my blood ran instantly cold.
"Pay?" I stammered. My fingers clamped down on the edges of the styrofoam boxes. "I... I thought family eats here for free. At least for today."
Students in line behind me shifted impatiently. I didn't have a single dollar on me. Before coming to campus, Mom and Dad paid my tuition directly to the university. "If you need anything, provide a valid reason and ask", Dad had told me.
But just yesterday, when I asked for two dollars to buy a sweet tea, Mom slapped my hand away like I was a thief.
"Indulging the desires of the flesh is a sin, Abigail. Tap water is what a godly woman drinks. Don't be a glutton."
Now, standing in front of their brightly painted Gospel Diner truck parked inside the campus open-air pavilion, my pockets were completely empty.
Mom didn't answer me. She simply turned her back, cheerfully scooping creamy mac and cheese onto a plate for a guy wearing a frat shirt.
"Jesus loves you, sweetie," she beamed at him, handing over the food. "Have a blessed semester!"
I stood there like an idiot in the middle of the lunch rush. The heat radiating from the truck’s fryers made my head spin. I wanted nothing more than to drop the food and hide, but my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Hannah.
"Where is my food, Abbie? My cramps are killing me. Hurry up."
If I didn't bring my sister her lunch, I'd be the one getting a lecture tonight about lacking sisterly love.
"Mom," I whispered. Nothing.
I clutched the boxes tighter, my knuckles turning stark white. "Can I just go?" I asked, raising my voice a fraction out of sheer panic.
Mom paused. Slowly, she turned around. The charitable smile she just gave the frat boy vanished, replaced by a cold smirk.
"Aren’t you supposed to be too depressed to speak in public?" she challenged, her voice effortlessly cutting through the cafeteria noise. "Look at you, raising your voice just fine."
My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit. She’s doing it again.
Another one of her twisted exposure therapies. Whenever my depression or social anxiety flared up, she claimed it was just Satan trying to make me useless to the church. Her signature cure was forced public humiliation, aimed at "breaking my sinful pride."
"Please," I choked out, dropping my gaze to the metal counter. "People are looking."
"Let them look!" Mom clapped her hands together loudly. She leaned halfway out the service window, projecting her voice across the crowded dining hall. "Come gather, brothers and sisters! We’ve got a testimony today!"
My breath hitched. Oh God, no.
Students eating at the nearby picnic tables stopped talking. A few church parents who were on campus helping freshmen move in wandered over. Within seconds, a tight circle formed around the truck. Whispers rippled through the Welcome Week crowd.
"Nothing in the Lord’s creation is free," Mom preached to the onlookers. She pointed a pair of tongs directly at my face. "My eldest daughter here thinks she can just take the fruits of our labor without offering anything in return. She wants to freeload. But the Bible says we reap what we sow. You pay with love, not dollars."
Dad stepped up beside her from the grill station. He wiped down his hands with a towel, his face set in stone. He wore his deacon expression—the stern, unwavering look that meant absolute obedience was strictly required.
"Your little sister already paid her share," Dad rumbled in his deep voice. "She kissed both of us this morning, out of love and absolute gratitude. Hannah knows how to honor her mother and father."
I let out a tiny, shaking breath. A kiss. That was all? Usually, they made me scrub the church baseboards or confess fake sins in front of the entire youth group. If it was just a kiss on the cheek, I could do that. I could swallow the bile in my throat, kiss them, and escape.
I took a step toward the window, leaning in.
Mom held up a hand, stopping me inches from her face.
"Oh, no," Mom said softly. "You don’t have to kiss us."
I froze.
"Your heart is too hardened for a simple kiss to melt it," she announced to the crowd, putting a tragic hand over her heart. Then she looked dead at me. "You need to sing. Sing My Mommy Is the Best."
Silence fell over the immediate crowd. A few students exchanged confused, uncomfortable glances. Some snickered.
I was a nineteen-year-old math major, standing in the middle of my college campus on my first week, surrounded by people I had to go to class with tomorrow.
"Sing it loud," Mom ordered. "So everyone in this dining hall can hear your gratitude. Let the Lord hear you conquer your rebellious pride."
"Mom, please," I mouthed. I couldn't even make a sound. The edges of my vision were blurring. The roaring in my ears drowned out the cafeteria music.
"We are waiting, Abigail." Dad crossed his heavy arms. "Do not disrespect your mother in front of these good people. Sing."
My lungs burned. The familiar, suffocating weight of my depression slammed into my chest.
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I couldn't stand being in my own skin for one second longer.
I looked down at the styrofoam boxes. The heavy, warm weight of the food meant for my golden-child sister. The sister who was probably resting comfortably in her air-conditioned dorm, waiting for me to act like her delivery dog.
My cramping fingers slowly relaxed. I placed the two boxes gently onto the metal counter.
"I'm not hungry anymore," I said.
I didn't wait for her to react. I just turned away. I needed to get out. I needed a dark space, anywhere away from the hundreds of eyes drilling into my back.
A hand clamped down on my wrist like a steel vice.
It was Mom. She bolted out the side door of the truck.
"Let go," I whimpered instinctively.
She yanked me so hard I almost crashed into her.
"You’re not leaving this dining hall," Mom hissed, spelling out every single syllable through her teeth, "until you sing."
Last Chapters
You Might Like 😍
Faking It With My Worst Enemy On Ice
But on his birthday, everything falls apart when his girlfriend exposes Clare's most humiliating secret in front of the entire team.
Just when Clare is ready to disappear, Rhys Calloway, her worst enemy and the team's arrogant captain, pulls her into his arms and tells everyone she is his girlfriend.
She should have pushed him away, but she kissed him back instead.
Now Clare is locked into a two-month fake relationship with the most infuriating man she has ever met, trying to get over a stepbrother who never cared and survive a captain who makes her forget why she was supposed to hate him.
The problem is that Rhys kisses like he means every single second of it, and just when Clare starts to move on, Zane decides he wants her back.
One girl, two hockey players, and a heart that was never supposed to feel this much. Will she choose the stepbrother who broke her or the enemy who caught her when she fell?
Everybody is Guilty Here
Middlesbrough's underworld is a dangerous game, and Matthew Smith finds himself right in the middle of it. A once-feared gang leader, he is now forced to be a pawn in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Matthew's only shot at freedom is helping the police bring down Mr. K, the elusive mafia boss of the city. The only problem is that the detective he is forced to work with is the same man who arrested him years ago.
Masahiro Payne is everything Matthew hates: cold, calculating, and relentless. But their only hope for survival is by pretending to be a happy couple, blending in amidst dangerous crime, deceit, and power struggles. The closer they find themselves to taking down Mr. K's empire, the more they are attracted to one another, an affair too potent to turn from.
As their undercover mission spirals into a web of lies and hidden desires, they face a growing threat from all sides. But the greatest risk is the one they can't control-their own feelings. With every touch, every stolen kiss, the line between their fake relationship and real emotions blurs.
In a world of betrayal, trust is a luxury, and falling for each other may be the deadliest mistake of all. Can they survive the deadly mafia games or will their passion be their demise?
Bride To The Werewolf King
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
Luna On The Run- I stole The Alpha's Sons
But Axton is more than just a rival, he's her fated mate. And he's been searching for her not for love, but for revenge and a chance to destroy her father's pack. The next morning, Elena rejects him, walking away before he can trap her in his ruthless schemes.
But Axton does not take rejection lightly, and his retaliation is brutal: a leaked video, a ruined reputation, and a family that turns their backs on her drive her to flee the city in disgrace.
But when Elena disappears, she takes something Alpha Axton never planned to lose - his sons. Now, he'll stop at nothing to get them back. He wants his heirs, he wants his mate, and Elena will learn that no one runs from the Alpha.
MOONLIT CHASE
But no, I had to walk through the park at midnight like an idiot. Now I've seen something I can't unsee—a massive black wolf tearing apart three men, then shifting into the hottest guy I've ever laid eyes on.
Kieran Vaughn. Wealthy lawyer, werewolf, and apparently, he thinks I'm his mate.
Here's the problem: I don't do relationships. I definitely don't do supernatural things. I absolutely don't do rich guys who think they can control my life just because their inner wolf has decided I smell like home.
When hunters start targeting me to get to him, Kieran drags me into his pristine penthouse for "protection." Now I'm living with a man who looks at me like I'm his last meal, whose touch sets my skin on fire, and who's barely holding onto his control.
He says everyone he loves dies. I say that's not my problem except it is because I'm falling for this broken, dangerous man and his beast.
And in his world? Love will get you killed.
The Legacy Game
When scholarship student Chris Linds stumbles onto a mystery someone has killed to protect, she becomes the next target. The only person standing between her and death is Ashen Ford, the academy's cold, untouchable Student Council President—and heir to one of Corvain's founding families.
As anonymous invitations summon twelve students into the legendary Legacy Game, alliances fracture, secrets surface, and every challenge brings another deadly truth to light. But the greatest secret isn't who will win.
It's why one winner vanished without a trace... and why someone will do anything to make sure history repeats itself.
My Billionaire Husband's Secret
He was the CEO of the Blackwood Group — a man whose wealth and power eclipsed ninety-nine percent of the world.
He was gentle. Romantic. Attentive. I fell for him fast.
But a year into our marriage, I began to notice something — a pattern.
Lucas's sexual appetite was intense — he wanted me almost every night. Yet every single month, he arranged a solo trip to send me away. I told myself it was his way of spoiling me.
Then a message arrived from someone called Sweet An.
Do you really know your husband?
From that day on, my life filled with shadows.
I suspected my husband of having an affair.
When Lucas and I made love, something felt wrong — his body too large, too much, like something I couldn't explain.
I heard sounds during sex — animal sounds, like something feral had crawled into bed with us.
My best friend Mia said: "There are men sick enough to let dogs fuck their wives."
The family doctor, Daisy, told me: "You could never stay by Lucas's side forever. Your background doesn't make you worthy of being his wife. Do you understand?"
I went looking for whoever had been tearing my marriage apart. I fought to win my husband back.
But the deeper I searched, the larger the secret grew — something far darker hiding beneath this supposed betrayal.
Does Lucas truly love me?
And why, out of everyone in the world, did he choose to marry me?
The rejected white luna
Letters to a Dark Prince
Thrown into Isteros Academy—a world of old money, blood money, and cruel social games—she's an outsider by birth and an afterthought by design. Her sister Solyn is the school's untouchable queen and Mara is her favorite target.
Everyone expects Atreus to treat his fiancée’s scholarship sister like everyone else does—as if she doesn’t matter.
Instead, his dorm room sits directly across from hers, close enough that she can see his light go out at night. Some nights, he climbs the old maintenance trellis just to check on her. He teaches her chess. He shows up exactly when something's gone wrong—and never once asks to be thanked for it.
"Don't fall in love with one piece," he warns her, over a board neither of them treats like a game anymore. "It punishes the person who only sees half of it."
Mara doesn't understand why the boy who's supposed to make her life harder keeps quietly making it easier—not until she realizes the anonymous stranger she's been writing to every week already has a name.
His.
He doesn't know he's writing to her, either.
By the time they find out, it's too late to stop what's already happening. Far too dangerous for anyone to find out.
In an empty studio, in the middle of a rainstorm, she asks him: 'Am I the kind of girl who kisses a boy engaged to my sister?'
He doesn't answer.
So she asks: 'What are we?’
He told her not to fall in love with one piece.
She fell anyway.
And he was never far behind.
Bonds at War: The Virgin is Mine
Perhaps then they would stop controlling my every move. Maybe my brothers would stop resenting me. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so invisible anymore.
No one believed I could do it—not even my mate, Alpha Jaxon Trevane.
The night I planned to tell him... I found him tangled in bed with my best friend.
Heartbroken and humiliated, I left everything behind and went to Elite alone.
But the academy isn’t the fairytale I dreamed about.
Beneath the grand halls and traditions, a brutal game is being played.
The four ruling Alphas of the North, South, East, and West fight for power, dominance... and now, for me.
A virgin. Untouched. Unclaimed. The prize they all want.
There’s the mate who shattered my heart and swears he’ll win me back.
The brilliant strategist who wants me as his Luna.
The dangerous playboy who promises no one will ever touch me but him.
And the cold, possessive Alpha who watches from the shadows—and would destroy anyone who dares to take me from him.
But in a place where love is a battlefield and lust is a weapon... falling in love might be the most dangerous thing I ever do.
Welcome to Elite Order Academy—where every desire has a price, and my body is the ultimate trophy.
My Husband's Secretary Wore My Dress
Those words shattered Vivian's heart.
For three years, she endured her husband's coldness and his secretary's endless provocations.
She never knew that the woman he trusted most had stolen her identity.
Or that the man she loved had secretly loved her all along.
When the truth finally came out, it was already too late.
Vivian had divorced him.
She had disappeared with his unborn child.
And she had no intention of coming back.
Five years later, the former ballerina returned as the sole heiress of a powerful family.
Standing beside her was a little girl with eyes identical to Caden Lux's.
The billionaire who once ignored her had gone mad.
He blocked her in the dressing room, knelt before her, and even accepted the possibility that another man had taken his place.
Because losing his pride was nothing.
Losing Vivian had nearly killed him.
But after everything he had done…
Could she ever forgive the man who chose another woman over his own wife?
