I had known my parents favored my brother since I was little. But I never imagined that after the deaths of their daughters, they would be so callously calculating how to sell me for the highest price. That day, I never went inside. I avoided the main road and cut through the woods, walking all the way back to the town where I went to school. I walked from dusk until dawn, never stopping, until I reached the town's police station. The moment I saw an officer, my legs gave out and I collapsed. When I woke up, the first words out of my mouth were, "I want to report a crime. My parents are murderers." My memory of the next two months is a blur of chaos. My parents' enraged curses, the villagers' accusatio- ns, the strange looks from my classmates. I wasted away, becoming a walking skeleton. My parents were arrested and imprisoned. My brother and I were orphans. Because he was a young boy, he was adopted from the orphanage quickly. I never saw him again. For me, life in that town became unbearable. Everywhere I went, people would point and whisper, "That's the girl. Her parents killed her three sisters, and she turned them in. The whole family is rotten..." Finally, my homeroom teacher couldn't stand it anymore. She used her family's connections to change my name and transfer me to an orphanage in a different city. 6/12 13.54 Chapter 2 13:54 The last thing she said to me was, "From today on, you are Naomi Lee. Forget the past. Your life is your own now." She was just a recent college graduate; she didn't have the means to take me in. What she did was already more than I could have asked for. I had once overheard her arguing with her family about me. "I'm responsib le for what happened to her sisters, too! I'm the one who made her stay at school! If she had been home, maybe things would have turned out differently..." When she told me to forget the past, she meant for me to forget her, too. I knew it wasn't her fault, but respected her wish. From that day on, I was completely alone. At the orphanage, every year on my birthday, my wish was the same: to have a family. I struggled through high school. My grades were terrible, and after the college entrance exams, the only place I could go was local community college. I was always short on money. So when I saw an ad for a place that would train you and pay you at the same time, I signed up. After a few days of intense, secluded training, I passed the final assessment. And that was where I met Donovan Black. I knew, during the training, what kind of place I was in. After one night of wrestling with my conscience, accepted my fate. Even with a new name, my past was a part of me. No one ever taught me about dignity o shame, about what was right and what was wrong. I had stumbled my way to adulthood on my own. This was my one chance to change my destiny. I had to grab it and hold on tight. But in my first life, my desperate craving for a home, for a family, had led to my death. Now, given a seconc chance, the opportunity I had fought so hard for had been snatched away just as easily. looked at the college students around me, their faces so full of life and promise. I envied them so much it nurt. didn't know what to do next. Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!