3
After hanging up, I fell back onto my bed,
exhausted.
Staring at the ceiling, I rubbed my throbbing
head.
Maria was right. The old me wouldn’t have
cared about this stuff.
L
But seeing Ashley jump into my car at school,
acting like I was the charity case, that flipped
a switch.
In my past life, she stole my identity,
humiliated me in front of everyone, and made
the whole school think I was some moocher.
I wanted to set the record straight at the
parent–teacher conference and expose
Ashley’s lie.
But instead, my mom showed up in place of
Ashley’s parents and announced to everyone
that she only had one daughter: Ashley.
I cried and asked my mom why she was doing
く
this to me, why she wouldn’t acknowledge her
own daughter. She just waved her hand and
“clarified” to everyone:
“Who says I’m her mom? She’s just the
housekeeper’s daughter.”
“I only helped her out because I felt bad for
her, and now she’s trying to grab what she
doesn’t deserve.”
“What a disaster!”
Her words hit me like a bomb, throwing me
straight into hell.
Ashley, emboldened by my mom’s favoritism,
<
went off the rails.
She got her cronies to bully me, pushing me
almost to the breaking point.
I called my dad, crying and telling him
everything.
He rushed back from overseas, but his plane
crashed.
My grandma, my last ally, found out about my
dad and fell down the stairs, dying instantly.
I was still a minor. Everything went to my
mom.
L
She declared Ashley her legal daughter.
To stop me from taking control of the
company, they both made up a story about
me having a mental illness and locked me up
in an insane asylum.
I was tortured to death.
Right before I died, I learned the truth.
Everything from my previous life flashed
before my eyes.
I’m not going to make empty promises to
God. I have a second chance, and my resolve
is strong enough.
<
Everyone who hurt me is going to pay.
And I’m going to protect the people who
loved and cared for me, and make sure they
never meet the fate they did before.
I don’t know how long I lay there before
someone knocked on the door.
Maria was outside, nervously telling me dinner
was ready.
On the table, my favorite fried cod was front
and center.
All the other dishes had been replaced with
my favorite seafood.
<
Maria looked at me carefully, calling me
“honey” like she was trying to butter me up.
I didn’t say a word, didn’t even look at her,
just sat down and started eating.
The taste of fried cod melted in my mouth, a
hint of the sea, salty and sweet.
It was just a regular dish that I could have
eaten anytime, but it took me a lifetime to
finally taste it.
Ashley was allergic to seafood, so there was
no seafood at the table after she came to live
with the Millers.
<
But why? The Millers didn’t mean Ashley!
I got the chance to eat in this life the food
that I couldn’t eat in the previous life.
So, starting today, I’m going to make sure I
live out all the things that I wanted to live out.
