About

My biological parents, the Duncans, finally threw me out, discarding me like trash onto the wet Chicago pavement. Minutes later, trapped in a kidnapper's van, I heard my own brother Andrew on speaker, coldly telling them to do whatever they wanted with me – they didn't care. Stella, the perfect daughter they raised in my place, even chimed in with fake sympathy, reinforcing their blatant disregard for my life. I survived the kidnapping, even a stabbing where I saved a stranger, only for Andrew to accuse me of faking it all for attention and sympathy while still demanding I return to their gilded cage. Why did my own family hate me so much, even choosing to let me die repeatedly, while showering affection on a girl who clearly manipulated them? I jumped into Lake Michigan, not to end my life, but to escape their suffocating lies and build a new one, free from the ghost of Jocelyn Chavez.

Introduction

My biological parents, the Duncans, finally threw me out, discarding me like trash onto the wet Chicago pavement.

Minutes later, trapped in a kidnapper's van, I heard my own brother Andrew on speaker, coldly telling them to do whatever they wanted with me – they didn't care.

Stella, the perfect daughter they raised in my place, even chimed in with fake sympathy, reinforcing their blatant disregard for my life.

I survived the kidnapping, even a stabbing where I saved a stranger, only for Andrew to accuse me of faking it all for attention and sympathy while still demanding I return to their gilded cage.

Why did my own family hate me so much, even choosing to let me die repeatedly, while showering affection on a girl who clearly manipulated them?

I jumped into Lake Michigan, not to end my life, but to escape their suffocating lies and build a new one, free from the ghost of Jocelyn Chavez.