Reborn to Reign

I stood at the staircase landing, my fingers brushing against the cold railing.

Dad and Mom were leading a shy little girl into the living room.

She was wearing a jacket that had faded from multiple washings, and she was looking around uneasily at this foreign yet lavish-looking house.

“Jenny, don’t be scared. This is your home from now on.”

Mom’s voice was tender and cautious as she gently caressed the girl’s head.

In the past, I would get jealous over how much they doted on Jenny Sullivan.

But now, my heart felt empty, and I didn’t feel anything at all.

“This is your elder brother. He specially took time off from school just to come back to see you.” Dad introduced them to each other with a smile twinkling in his eyes.

Justin Sullivan, who had rushed back from out of town, pulled out an exquisitely-wrapped box from his bag.

“Welcome to our family. This is a welcome gift for you.”

Those usually cold eyes were now filled with a doting smile.

I looked emotionlessly at the scene before me, as though it was a stage play that had nothing to do with me.

There was not even the slightest ripple of anger or jealousy.

Jenny received the gift shyly and looked up with gratitude and a tinge of uncertainty in her eyes. She was acting pretty well.

If I didn’t know that she would mercilessly push me down the rooftop of a 99-storey-high building with those hands of hers ten years later…

Even when I thought back on that scene, my heart rate remained stable and calm.

Was there any hatred? I didn’t think so.

Everything was simply objective reality to me.

“Melanie, come down and meet your younger sister,” Mom said expectantly when she finally noticed me standing at the staircase landing.

I walked down the stairs in silence.

All four of them were looking at me.

“Hello,” I said, my voice flat.

Unlike in my past lifetime, I didn’t yell hysterically at them, asking them why they brought her here, or scream and cry out loud that this was my home and not hers.

Those emotions that tore at me seemed to have never existed.

Or rather, they really didn’t exist.

Jenny seemed taken aback by my cold indifference and shrunk back behind Mom.

“Melanie.” Mom sighed.

“This is Jenny’s first day at home. Can’t you say something more?”

“There’s nothing much to say,” I said before turning to head back upstairs.

I heard Mom explaining awkwardly behind me, “Don’t mind her. Melanie has been a shy child since she was young. She’s just like this…”

I wasn’t even interested enough to turn back and look at them.

None of what they said or explained had anything to do with me anymore.

I opened the door to my room and blocked out all the noise.

My room still looked familiar to me.

It seemed as though time had frozen on this summer day when I was fifteen, as though the bloody incident where I fell from that building was just a ridiculous nightmare.

My gaze swept calmly across the room. I didn’t feel the warmth I should have felt from returning home, or the relief of recovering something that was lost.

I just thought of this place as somewhere I could temporarily stay in.

I’d be starting high school in a week’s time, and I was intending to stay at a boarding school.

Suddenly, someone knocked on my door.

It was Justin, who was surprised to see my suitcase wide open.