Reborn: I Won't Compete for Their Love

I stood at the top of the stairs, running my fingers along the cold banister.

Down in the living room, Mom and Dad led in a timid boy. He wore a washed-out jacket and looked around the unfamiliar, lavish home uneasily.

"Kenneth, don't be scared. This is your home now," Mom said, her voice soft and careful as she gently stroked his hair.

In the past, that kind of careful tenderness had always made me jealous, but now, I felt nothing at all.

"This is Lenora, your older sister," Dad said, beaming. "She took time off from school just to come home and meet you."

Lenora Shepherd, who had rushed back from out of town, pulled a beautifully wrapped gift box from her bag. "Welcome to our home. I got you a little welcome gift."

Her eyes, usually so cool and aloof, were now full of smiles and brimming with doting affection.

I watched the scene expressionlessly, as if it were a play that had nothing to do with me. I felt no anger, no jealousy, not even a ripple of emotion.

Kenneth Shepherd timidly took the gift and looked up. His face, still round with baby fat, had gratitude and nervousness written all over it.

He really was a convincing actor. I might have bought it if I didn't know that ten years later, he'd use those same hands to viciously shove me off the rooftop of a 99-story building.

But even as I thought back to that moment, my heart beat as steadily as ever.

Hatred? I didn't seem to feel that either. It was just an objective fact—nothing more.

"Jonah, come down and meet your little brother," Mom called up, having finally noticed me at the top of the stairs. Her voice was hopeful.

As I walked downstairs in silence, four pairs of eyes turned to me at once.

"Hello," I said, my voice dead calm.

Unlike in my past life, I didn't hysterically demand, "Why did you bring him here?" or shriek through my tears, "This is my home!"

It was as if the feelings that had once torn me apart had never existed—or rather, they really were gone.

Kenneth seemed intimidated by my coldness, and he shrank back behind Mom.

"Jonah." Mom sighed. "It's Kenneth's first day here. Aren't you going to say a little more than that?"

"There's nothing to say."

I turned and headed back upstairs.

Behind me, Mom explained awkwardly, "Don't take it personally, Kenneth. Jonah's been shy around strangers since he was little. That's just how he is…"

I didn't bother looking back. Whatever they said, however they explained it, none of it had anything to do with me anymore.

I pushed open my bedroom door and shut all those voices out.

The room looked just as I remembered it. Everything was still stuck in the summer I was 15, as if that bloody fall from the high-rise had been nothing but an absurd dream.

I looked around calmly. I felt no warmth at coming home, no joy at reclaiming what I had lost.

It just felt like a temporary place to stay.

In a week, freshman year would start, and I planned to board at school.

A knock came at the door. It was Lenora.

When she saw my suitcase lying open, surprise flickered across her face.