Buried Alive: Her Unbroken Spirit

She held up a small, woven bracelet, dark red, almost brown, with a faint, rusty s

It was a piece of my past I thought I had buried deep. "Whe

x of forgotten things. It looks lik

unmistakable. I had woven it myself, years ago. "It was," I said quietly, taking

time before the betrayal, before the pain.

n poured, plastering his dark hair to his face. He was shivering, bruised, a raw wound in the opulent world I inhabited. He came

ght him inside, against my adoptive mother Eunice' s furious objections. Alon, my older adoptive brother, sided with Mother. B

r knowledge. He soaked up everything, from etiquette to economics. He transformed from a street rat into

"my Jake." We shared whispered secrets in the moonlight, snuck out to dive bars, dreaming of a future far away from the st

t some experience, make a name for myself. Then I'll come back for you, Chandler. We'll

A symbol of our bond, our future. He wor

ities others could only dream of. He excelled, rising through the ranks with astonishing speed.

officer, I was ecstatic. Our f

d. I had been switched at birth, a biological error, a social embarrassment. Corina, their real

the family was secure. They embraced Corina with an equal, if not greater, fervor. Alon, always see

Chandler," he whispered, holding me tight. "I'll always protect you

my friends, my world. I even brought her along on my dates with Jake. She was so sweet, so innocent, or so I thought. A na

His touch, when he held my hand, felt... distracted. I brushed it off, told m

. In that split second, I saw his choice. He shielded Corina, pulling her close, protectin

obbed. My vision swam. But I saw them. Jake, holding Corina, checking her

ove, the promises, the protection – it had all shifted. I was no longer his priori