Restarting Life
Chapter One
I was just a kid when some creep snatched
- me.
Vanished.
My folks were wrecked.
They adopted a little girl from the orphanage.
Her name was Lily.
Years later, I found my way back to my real
family.
Lily, she OD’d on sleeping pills.
Left behind a scrapbook.
Pictures of her whole life.
My mom and dad, they lost it when they saw
that thing.
At her funeral, they were a mess.
Sobbing their hearts out.
They turned on me.
<
“If you hadn’t come back, Lily would still be
here!” they screamed.
They said I should be the one dead.
My own brother, Mark, he made their wish
come true.
He ran me down with his car.
And then, I woke up.
I was back.
Back to the day I was supposed to meet
them.
- 1.
I was dozing on the bus.
“Hey, Maggie,” my foster mom, Carol, was
nudging my arm.
“We’re here. Wake up, honey.”
I opened my eyes.
The same old scene.
My brain was scrambled for a second.
<
I’d just had this crazy dream.
Mark, my brother, mowing me down.
I went flying.
My arm snapped.
He climbed out of his car.
Just stared at me bleeding out.
His eyes were full of hate.
“You should be dead, Maggie,” he growled.
“Why did you have to come back? Give me
Lily back!”
My parents‘ words echoed in my head: “If you
hadn’t come back, Lily would still be here.”
They hated me.
But they were the ones who wanted me back.
Lily was their adopted daughter.
After I disappeared, they were heartbroken.
Mark suggested, “Mom, Dad, you’ll never find
Maggie, why not adopt someone?”
They took his advice.
Found a girl about my age at the local
Nameu ner Lily.
They wanted to shower her with endless love.
Lily grew up like a princess.
Me?
I bounced around between different
scumbags.
Begging for scraps.
Ended up in some backwater town.
Nearly starved to death under a bridge.
Carol found me.
Her husband died a few years before in some
accident.
She had a son, Billy, who was three years
younger than me.
Carol worked her tail off to raise us both.
She worked three jobs just to make ends
meet.
We didn’t have much, but she gave me all the
love in the world.
Then, my real parents, Richard and Susan,
trecked me down
く
They planned a big “reunion” ceremony.
Yeah, I was reliving it.
I was back on the way to that damn reunion.
The thought of how I died made me feel sick.
The bus pulled up to the stop.
Carol and I hopped off.
Up ahead was a huge building.
Richard Enterprises headquarters.
The reunion was happening there.
Richard even invited the local news.
Á big PR stunt.
“Is that it, Maggie?” Carol asked, her eyes
shining with pride.
“Wow, that’s something, huh? You’ve
suffered, honey. Things are gonna be
different when you go home…”
Carol’s eyes were starting to water.
She blinked the tears away and gave me this
sad, happy smile.
I knew she didn’t want me to go.
Before, I went with my real parents and she
cried the whole drive home.
