They Wanted Me Dead, Now I Rule Instead

Synopsis

I was the real daughter of the Zimmer family, the one who had been kidnapped and sold away. Six years later, I finally returned home. But by then, my family already had a substitute girl filling my place. Emily Zimmer had always been soft and kind, but after six years with the traffickers, I, Grace Zimmer, returned with a hardened edge and a lifetime of baggage. My parents were disappointed in me. After I had yet another blow-up with Emily, my mother, Linda Zimmer, snapped with tears, "Why can't you be more like Emily? "She's so well-behaved, and you're just wild. Perhaps you should return to your foster parents, where you truly belong." What they didn't know was that my so-called foster parents were the ones who had trafficked me years ago. I looked at them and replied with a nod, "Okay." Just like that, I ended up back in the house of the very people who had trafficked me. My real parents thought I was throwing a tantrum and would be back in a few days, begging to come home. But a month went by, and there was no sign of me. Panic set in, and they sent people out to look for me. What they found was a girl's body, abused to death and with her eyes gouged out, dressed in the clothes I was wearing when I left. They lost it. And Emily was so terrified that she couldn't even speak. It finally hit them that they had, with their own hands, sent their daughter straight back to hell all over again. Five years later, at a business cocktail party. I walked in as a CEO and became the center of attention, my presence magnetic and commanding. My father, Richard Zimmer, stepped forward as if drawn by something inevitable, his voice unsteady as he asked for my name. I took off my eye patch, showing the hollow socket where my left eye used to be, and smiled right at him. "Long time no see, Dad," I said. "Or rather, Mr. Zimmer."