Chapter 1

Ever since my brother was born, the mother who used to cherish me changed completely.

She abused me daily, both physically and verbally. Even when my brother set me up to be assaulted, she blamed me.

I thought she was just playing favorites. I believed that if I worked hard to please her, she would love me as much as she loved my brother.

It wasn’t until a near-fatal car accident that I discovered the truth. She wasn't my real mother—she was the mistress who had stolen my mother's place.

And my biological mother? She was murdered, her death plotted by this woman and my father.

Yet, for eighteen years, I had called my mother's killer "Mom."

I was at an abandoned construction site on the outskirts of town, swinging a hoe into the frozen earth.

I didn't know how long I had been digging, or how many spots I had tried. My hands were covered in bloody blisters.

Finally, as the New Year's Eve fireworks lit up the night sky, their brilliant colors reflecting on the snow, I saw it—a small piece of human bone.

It belonged to my biological mother. She was a tragic woman, murdered and dismembered eighteen years ago by her own husband and her twin sister.

I dropped the hoe, terrified of breaking her bones. I began clawing at the dirt with my bare hands.

I was afraid of breaking or damaging her. As I dug, I whispered,

"I told you I'd find you."

I pulled the bone out and cradled it in my chest, then kept digging around it.

I lost track of time. The snow was freezing, but all I wanted was to piece my mother back together.

As morning broke, a crowd started to gather around me.

Some tried to pull me away, but they shrank back when they saw the manic, bloodshot look in my eyes.

"What is that girl digging for? Why is she holding bones?"

"Is she crazy? It’s New Year's Day. Where is her family? How tragic."

"Wait, call the cops! Those are human bones!"

"No way, human bones don't look like—"

Before the woman could finish her sentence, I unearthed a skull. I pulled it close and gently rubbed my forehead against it.

"Ahhhh!"

"A dead body! There's a dead body!"