Revenge is Best Served… After Reborn

In what I believe to be memories of a past life-thanks to Joseph's hypnosis-l remember my mom as a gentle, delicate soul. If we're being nice, you'd call her gentle and soft-spoken. But if we're not sugar-coating it, she was timid and a bit of a pushover. Even when she found out her husband was cheating with her sister, she just quietly endured it. She chose to turn a blind eye because, apart from the Reeves family, she had nowhere else to turn.

When I was just a kid, my Aunt Shannon lost her husband. Aunt Shannon and my mom were sisters, but they didn't share the same parents. My mom was the love child my granddad had before he got married, while Aunt Shannon was born to the wife he married later. Though the sisters looked somewhat alike, my mom was softer, while Aunt Shannon had this irresistible charm.

On that particular day, Mom had gone to Grandma's to help out. I woke up from my nap earlier than usual and heard some strange noises coming from a room on the second floor. Thinking Mom was back, I headed up the stairs. The bedroom door was slightly open. Inside, Aunt Shannon was on top of my dad, the two of them wrapped up in a passionate embrace.

I was frozen in place, and the doll I was holding slipped from my hand, landing with a dull thud. Both Aunt Shannon and Dad turned, startled, and saw me standing there. Dad's face turned a shade darker. Aunt Shannon quickly grabbed his arm and whispered, "What are we gonna do? If people find out, I'll never be able to show my face again. You need to fix this!"

Back in those days in Harbor City, a widow hooking up with her brother-in-law was scandalous enough to ruin her reputation forever. Dad tried to calm Aunt Shannon down, then came over to me. "Elodie, did you see anything just now?" he asked, trying to sound patient.

Even though I was young, I knew they'd done something they didn't want anyone else to know about. So, I shook my head. But Aunt Shannon stepped up, picked up the doll, and said, "Elodie, how about we go to your room and play with dolls?"

Looking at Aunt Shannon's face, which reminded me of Mom's, I felt a shiver of fear. I stepped back,

wanting to say no, but she didn't net

give me the chance. She grabbed my arm and started leading me down the hallway. I tried to pull away, but my little arms were no match for her grip.

As we got to the hallway, Aunt Shannon's face turned downright scary. She lifted her hand and pushed me down the stairs. I tumbled down, each step bringing sharp pain. Before I blacked out, I saw Dad rushing to Aunt Shannon, shocked, asking, "What have you done?"

"If you don't want our secret to get out, this is the only way! Anyway, she's just a daughter. I'll give you a son later. We can send her to the countryside and saynoveldrama

she's possessed or something, right?" she shot back.

Dad's anger slowly faded into silence. The next morning, they shipped me off to the countryside No matter how much I cried, the family insisted I was possessed. Mom didn't want to let me go, but Aunt Shannon brought in some so-called expert who confidently

claimed I was possessed by an evil spirit, which was why I fell down the stairs.