Page 51 of What Goes Around

What I didn’t see, was the way her expression shifted the instant my back turned.

The sweetness dropping.

Her eyes narrowing.

Her entire face tightening into something darker, irritated, unsettled.

Upstairs, I closed my bedroom door and leaned my forehead against it, drawing in a slow, controlled breath.

God.

I had been so easy to manipulate.

Soft. Eager. Desperate for scraps of approval that were never going to come.

Not anymore.

That version of me was gone.

I had been given a second life. Another chance.

This time, I wasn’t living for them.

I was living for myself.

But first, I needed independence.

Safety.

A way to stand on my own without anyone pulling the rug out from under me.

I needed money.

Chapter 15: I Was a Prodigy Too

On Monday I woke before the alarm.

I opened my closet and stared at the clothes hanging inside. Everything I owned was loose, shapeless. Washed-out greys. Soft beiges. Faded blacks.

After a minute of digging, I found a tunic top that actually fit and a pair of black leggings. Simple, clean, presentable. I dressed, then stepped in front of the mirror and forced my spine straight.

Shoulders back. Chin up.

In my last life, I’d hunched without realizing it. Years of trying to fold myself smaller, make my height less offensive.

At 5’10, I was all limbs, long lines. A model’s frame really, though my mother called it “unfeminine.”

I held my own gaze in the mirror until I saw the difference.

Until I felt it.

Then I headed downstairs and out the door without saying goodbye. School was fifteen minutes away by foot. I’d always walked alone. Apple’s morning routine took so long that Mom insisted on driving her.

Apple always arrived with perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect violin case in hand.

The prodigy.

The miracle child.