My Ninth Life: Breaking Free

peeling yellow wallpaper greeted m

s my ni

hoed in my head, not my ears,

e Hawthorne's genuine, exc

umpy mattress, what

n her, eight times I had fail

rp, not like dreams,

or her. She locked me in the old wine cellar on the estate. It was a harsh New England winter,

ek, her new favorite then too, feigned jealousy, threatened to leave her. To appea

a, I was actually trying to show Caroline his sabotage. She had me arrested.

anipulating her. Caroline, her eyes glinting, said she wanted to "see the truth of his heart." Her security guards sedated me. I woke up d

in permanent dissolution," the System

solution. No

wanted it to be over, to die and

, powerful, her presence filling the small room. Derek Vance, her much

winter, scanned me. She was pregnant, her

anently," Caroline anno

His prize-winning show dog, a delicate creature, needs your room.

, her gaze

Derek's sight. Y

erate motion. It wasn't hard enough to

ch as the kick. I started packing my few belongings into a worn duf

ars ago, shortly after she' d adopted me. She was smiling, a genuine, warm smile, h

d eighteen. I' d confessed my feelings

e laced with contempt. That was the

miling woman in the photo, a ghost of someon

e dusty trash can in the

accelerate permanent dissolution," the S

n. I zipped the duffel bag and headed for the door, ready to walk away f