Page 138 of King of Ruin

She couldn't understand how they could simply throw her away without a second thought.

All she had ever wanted was for them to love her.

Ever since she was little, she had watched other children being held by their parents, protected and cherished, and she had wondered what it would feel like to have that kind of love. So she tried everything she could. She helped with every chore, listened to every command, and did everything she thought would make them proud of her.

She had believed that if she became a good enough daughter, they would finally choose her.

But she had been wrong.

That night, standing outside in the freezing snow, she had begged until her voice became hoarse. She had cried until she had no tears left, yet the door had never opened.

Her parents had already made their decision.

They didn't want her anymore.

Even when Kevin and Grace found her wandering alone in the middle of the city, lost and terrified, and tried to convince herparents to take her back, Elise had still held onto that tiny piece of hope buried deep inside her heart.

She had believed that maybe seeing her would change everything.

Maybe when they saw how scared she was, how much she needed them, they would remember that she was their daughter.

Maybe they would hear her crying and realize they couldn't truly abandon her.

So she begged them again.

With trembling hands and tear-filled eyes, she pleaded for them to open the door, to let her come home, to give her one more chance.

Because a child always believed that their parents would choose them.

And Elise had been no different.

But they hadn't.

They had taken her to an orphanage and walked away, telling everyone that they no longer wanted her.

For an eight-year-old child, it had felt like her entire world had disappeared in a single moment.

The only reason she hadn't been left to disappear into the system was because Kevin and Grace had refused to abandon her. Instead of letting her become another forgotten child in an orphanage, they had taken her in and given her a home, a family, and the love she had spent years searching for.

After everything she had experienced, Elise understood that desperation changed nothing.

Elise had learned that no amount of begging could make someone choose you. No matter how desperately you wanted to be loved, you couldn’t force someone’s heart to stay where it no longer wanted to be.

She didn’t want that kind of love.

She didn’t want a love that required her to convince someone to choose her.

Turning her head toward Astrid, Elise looked at her with a quiet sincerity that came from years of carrying that pain.

"I was abandoned by my parents because they didn't love me."

Her voice remained calm, but every word carried the weight of a memory she had lived through.

"A forced love is just hatred hiding behind another name." She paused, her gaze drifting back toward the falling snow. "I don't want a love that I have to beg for."

For a brief moment, Astrid simply stared at her.

Then the corner of Elise's lips lifted slightly as she said,