They Chose Her Over Me In Two Lives Chapter 09
The confidence on Jade’s face vanished. Gone in a blink, like a candle snuffed out.
she said, quickly, “Of course I haven’t been reborn.”
But the more she said, the worse it got.
A ten–year–old couldn’t possibly understand what “reborn” meant. Unless she’d lived it.
My parents‘ eyes turned cold.
Mom thought of something. She stepped forward and slapped Jade across the face.
“So the drowning. The medicine you said Lily hid. It was all you. You were framing her.”
Jade looked at her helplessly. “I didn’t.”
Mom closed her eyes.
“In your past life, you never used tricks like this. We thought being reborn would change
everything. But you just did it all over again. I swore I’d protect Lily this time. And you made me lose her again.”
She slapped Jade, over and over. The sound cracked through the house, sharp and ugly.
Jade screamed. Dad and Ryan stood by and let it happen.
Ryan watched coldly.
He said, “We’ve made the same mistake twice. This time, we fix it. When we get home, we send Jade
away.”
Jade broke.
“Why is it always my fault?! Don’t you have any problems of your own?! You’re the ones who were unfair! You’re the ones who let Lily down! She doesn’t want you—you deserve it!”
Dad had the bodyguards drag her away.
But Jade’s words landed like a hammer on everyone.
Mom, realizing how wrong she’d been, broke down and knelt on the floor.
Dad held her. “It’s okay. We still have a chance. We’ll go talk to Lily. She’ll come home with us.”
That last hope died fast.
When my parents and Ryan finally tracked down my adoptive parents‘ address-
They were told we’d already moved.
The neighbor explained, “The couple didn’t want to leave. It was their new daughter who decided to go. She said she didn’t want to be bothered by certain people anymore.”
“Are you from the group home? Here for a check–in? Don’t worry–she’s crazy about that family. Calls them Mom and Dad all day. Like she’s their own.”
When Mom heard that last sentence, something in her broke.
She aged ten years in a single moment. Her back bent.
The three of them stood outside the empty house all night, silent, unmoving, as the streetlights flickered on and then off again.
The next morning, security made them leave.
Mom wouldn’t go.
She looked like she’d been shattered inside. She kept rambling, repeating over and over, “I’m here to take my daughter home. My own daughter. Her name is Lily. She’s so cute. Have you seen her?”
Many years later, I grew up safe and loved.
I became confident. Outgoing.
I got into the college of my dreams.
Just before I started the next chapter of my life, I got a friend request from a stranger.
The message said only: “Lily, how have you been?”
No name. But the profile picture was a familiar set of Model Magic figures.
I stared at the request for a long time. Long enough that the screen dimmed twice.
Then I deleted it.
My adoptive mother walked in with a plate of fruit, smiling.
“Lily, what are you looking at?”
I set my phone down and smiled.
“Nothing. Just a stranger.”
From then on, I never had any contact with them again.
