Chapter 78. Nina’s New Found Determination

Nina’s POV

This thought has been bothering me since I first heard it. It is like a curse whispered in my ear. I was sitting on a rock, gripping it tightly, trying to hold onto something real and meaningful. But everything I thought I knew was starting to feel like it was slipping away. The more I tried to hold on, the faster it went.

I hugged my knees to my chest, closed my eyes, and remembered my mom. I saw flashes of her behind my eyelids—her warm laugh, the way she would hold my face and kiss my forehead, calling me her little star. I can still hear her voice in quiet moments and feel her around me, even though she has been gone for years. But now, those memories are tainted by what happened after she died.

My father… he had not been the same. No, he had changed the moment the light in her eyes had gone out. The man who had once been my hero, my protector, had slowly become a stranger. Cold. Distant. Cruel, even.

And then came my stepmothe