Chapter 24

When Aria, my stepmother, appeared, all I felt for her was hatred. There had been countless times when I wondered if everything would've been different if she had never appeared. Not long after my mother's death, Aria married Dad and was soon pregnant. To secure a future for her son, she took me to a park so that I'd get lost and delayed reporting my disappearance. As a result, I was kidnapped and sold to the remote mountains. I nearly starved to death while trying to escape, and that was when I met my adoptive mother, Celine, who kept me by her side. I refused to return to the Parker residence after the traumatic experience, so my adoptive mother gave me all her love and raised me as her own. She was a kind woman who couldn't have children, which led to a divorce from her husband. I wouldn't be where I was if it hadn't been for her. And now, the person responsible for my suffering had the audacity to claim I had gotten lost because I'd been naughty while she and Hayden lived c