Natalie listened to Jerome''s apologies, but felt nothing. "Jerome, you hurt me more deeply than anyone. This apology is too little, toote. I hope you''ve truly learned your lesson and will value your own life from now on."


    "I''m sorry! Natalie, I really am. I let you down. You came home so happy, but we... because Joanna said that once you were back, she wouldn''t have any brothers to dote on her anymore... Just because of that one sentence, we were horrible to you."


    Jerome wept, thinking of how Natalie had another older brother who adored her, who spoiled her rotten. And he, her actual brother, had never spoken a single kind word to her. The thought made him realize how monstrous he had been. He had always looked at her with contempt, his words alwaysced with poison. The more he thought about it, the more he despised himself. Joanna and Nathan had always been the first to me Natalie, and they had always taken the side of the person they favored.


    Natalie''sugh was cold and sharp. "Jerome, I told you at the hospital that I would never forgive you. Do you remember why? Because of another one of Joanna''s little sentences. She said everyone liked my face better than hers. And after hearing that, you hired someone to destroy my face with a highly corrosive chemical. Do you have any idea how much that hurt? While I was in agony, you were allforting Joanna. You people have no hearts. I will never forgive you. Go to hell!"


    Natalie screamed thest words and hung up. The phone slipped from her hand and ttered to the ground. She sank down, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. She thought of her past life, of how she had given up all hope after her face was ruined. Back then, her onlyfort was the thought of Wayne. He would never do something like that to her. If she so much as got a paper cut, he would worry for half a day. Lennon was always so gentle, always baking her beautiful cakes to cheer her up whenever she was sad.


    Leaving Owen had been the hardest. After she moved in with the Scotts, he had found her at a restaurant one day after seeing her being bullied "Natty he''d asked, his eyes full of


    Why are you staying here? Why


    are you putting yourself through this?"


    She had forced a smile. "Owen, I have a mother and father now. They just misunderstand me. Once they see the truth, they''ll be good to me."


    Owen had looked at her with such disappointment. "Natty, I saw what happened. That adopted girl was bullying you and not a single person in your family stood up, fot y stood up for you. How


    can you ever be happy here?"


    The day after she married Sebastian, Owen left the country. He still hadn''t returned.


    Natalie went back to her room, copsed onto the floor, and cried. She could almost hear her past self screaming from that abandoned building: "Somebody help me, i hurts so much." By then, she had lost all hope in the Scotts. She had poured everything she had into her love for Sebastian. She had even wondered if she had been too greedy, wanting both families, and if that was why she was being punished. She already had a loving grandfather and three wonderful brothers. Maybe this was her karma.


    But now, reborn, she knew that wasn''t it at all. It was Joanna and Nathan''s ambition, Joanna''s twisted personality, that had caused her so much suffering.