Framed By Family, Reborn By Love

was dead to them. So I obliged. I faked my own death and built a new

d. My cousin found me at my own grave and dragged m

me to rot in a hosp

at I was a monster

ails raking across my

ful bitch!"

tched, not one of them moving to help. It was the same

through the chaos, quiet but radiating p

And the look on his face told m

pte

before it, the damp earth clinging to my Italian leather boots, a stranger looking at her own obituary. The name

ughter. Cherished Friend."

polished slab was the date of death: five years ago. Five years s

, but from the raw, exposed nerve of a past I thought I had perfectly cauterized. Th

sharp, its surface glistening with fresh rain. Too new for someone supposedly dead for half a

It was mine. A ribbon from my high school graduation, given to me by my mother.

ancient oaks, his breath pluming in the frigid air. He paused, his gaze snagging on me

look just like her. A spitting image. Though you'

he stone. "Five years

. "Poor girl?" I repeated, the words tastin

e. "Well, yes. That's what I s

voice firm, leaving no room for

tricks in old age, I suppose. Had me thinking a ghost was walkin' around. You really do favor he

old man, living in his own reality. But his words, his belief in the

tech mogul. Mother to Daisy, the light of my life. This was my reality. Th

ity of a promise. She was the girl who poured her heart into designs, who saw beauty in every bluep

supposed mentor, publicly disowned me. My ambitious boyfriend, Darryl, abandoned me for a promotion. They left me for dead,

ir greed, their casual cruelty. It wasn't for me. It

ghost. I was here to make s

ough the silence, sending a jolt of ice thr

st my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a ca

afety of my new life. But it was too late. A hand, cold and

n?" the voice purred, closer n

s of bitterness etched around his mouth, but the smug self-satisfaction was still th

grip tightening on my arm. "You'r