
236 readers · 9 chapters · 4 free
Emily Moore, the daughter I'd adopted for eighteen years, called me right before her graduation ceremony and told me I absolutely had to be there. She said she had something really important to tell me. So there I was, sitting in the front row and watching her shine under the spotlight, and I couldn't help it—tears started streaming down my face. When the host asked her to thank the person she was most grateful to, her eyes swept across the crowd and landed right on me. She smiled and said, "I want to thank my adoptive mother, Elizabeth Moore." I started to stand up, ready to accept her hug. But then everything changed. Her smile turned cold, and there was this cruel edge to it that made my blood run cold. "She taught me that every gift fate gives you comes with a price tag attached," she said, and her voice carried across the entire auditorium. "For eighteen years, she treated me like a dog she was training—constant control, constant criticism, crushing my spirit over and over again. And you know what I told myself through all of it? Don't give up. Just hang on a little longer, and you'll finally escape her." She locked eyes with me, and I could see the satisfaction written all over her face. "Well, guess what? I finally made it."