Buried Alive: Her Unbroken Spirit

e brother Alon had me committed, framing me as insane to cover up

ers. While I was left drugged and broken in a psychiatric facility, he married her

om the ashes, finding peace in a small bo

l to

ilence. Jake, now a powerful District Attorney aiming

and

cold and steady, the voic

I hel

pte

ed me alive. Today, they

ime it felt like a death knell. I looked up from wiping down the counter. My hand f

tood framed in the doorway, star

ming for a Senate seat, the news had whispered. Alon, my adoptive brother, looked exactly as I remembered him, only

ck and heavy, like the silence

shes of my old life. A small, unassuming place by the sea, filled with the

gaze flickered to the small, worn leather-bound book I had been holding, then back to my face

his pocket, as if to hide something, a nervous gesture I recognized

ticed. My hands didn't shake. I continued to wipe the counter, my gaze

level, professional. It was the tone

cked for a second. He swallowed hard. "Chandler?

d wiping, my posture straight. "Are you looki

his voice husky. He looked around the small shop, his eyes lingering on the shelves of book

y. "Ten years, to be precise." My tone gave nothing awa

nally managed, his voice strained. It was an awkward a

climbing the political ladder?" I used his surname, a cle

his lips. He stood there, frozen, the reality of my cold indiffer

assing through," he said quickly, a hint of desperation i

lways Corina. The woman who stole my life, who Jake chose over

dn't care. Not anymore. The mere mention of her name no longer brought a

Eunice. She was... wondering if you'd be willing to see her." He look

me away. "There's nothing to see," I said, my voice firm. "And please, don't mention

but no words came. He looked lost, hollowed out. The chari

nk hair a splash of color against the rustic interior. "Chandler! I finished restocking t

l teenager I had taken in years ago. She had a mischievous glint in her eyes, a sharp mind beneath an o

It was a smile I hadn't given to anyone in this room for a deca

en behind them until now. Corina, heavily pregnant, her face pale and drawn, clutched Jake' s arm. H

in. "If there's nothing else, I have customers waiting." My gaze pointedly

ropped, then at the small, intricate seashell I kept by the register, a token from my new life. His jaw

me, a flicker of pain in his own eyes. They turned, a silent retreat, a

handler," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Who were th

"Just old acquaintances, Kloe," I said, my vo

ey who's running for Senate? And the other one looked like Alon Robbins, the CEO of Robbins

but I had swallowed it so many times. "They did, once,"

e people who

le white walls of the psychiatric facility. The forced medications that dulled my sen

ister he once adored. Jake, beside him, already calculating his next move, his eyes devoid of the love he once swore h

ble, a danger to myself and others. All to protect their carefully constructe

broken anymore. Not by them, anyway. I had rebuilt myself, pie