Yet even as the tears kept falling, a bitter thought kept circling her mind. She wanted someone to blame, something to rage against, some outlet for the pain tearing through her, but the harder she thought about it, the more she realized she could not entirely deny the truth.
She had taken someone else's place.
She had lived a better life that was never truly hers.
And maybe those people had only been reclaiming what they believed belonged to them.
Their love, their attention, their loyalty… perhaps none of it had ever really been hers to begin with.
But still… did they really have to be this cruel?
Did they really have to break her like this?
"Wait… my mother… my biological mother…" The thought struck Ashley like a bolt of lightning.
