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Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 9
Eva left that day and never came back.She started a foundation in my name—one for children like me. The forgotten ones. The ones no one protected.She didn’t give Father another cent.I expected him to explode when he found out. But he didn’t. He didn’t say a word.It was Mother who was angry. Furious, even. She’d been counting on Eva’s inheritance to keep her lifestyle intact.I guess I’d been right about her all along. Children, to her, were just tools—bargaining chips to buy affection, money, power. She was even worse than father.Even Marco.He wasn’t born out of love. He was a prop. A mirror she could hold up to the world and say, look, I’m still wanted.When she heard I was dead, she didn’t cry or scream. She just got dressed and went on like nothing had happened.…With Father emotionally comatose, mother didn’t bother pretending for long. Days passed. Then weeks. And soon enough, she started seeing other men again—Marco’s real father included.She thought about divorce. I saw
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 8
For a moment, no one spoke.And then Gia’s mask finally cracked. “It was all her fault!” she screamed.Her voice echoed off the walls, ragged and raw. “If it wasn’t for her, I’d still have a family!” She turned to face father, “You wouldn’t be married to that cold bitch Lucia! We were happy before she came along. I had a family. A real one. And then you brought her in—and everything turned to shit!”Father stared at her like she was someone he’d never met.“I loved you,” he said, barely above a whisper. “Even though you weren’t mine. I gave you everything.”Gia’s eyes burned. “And I appreciated it. I did. But you taught me how to survive, Dad. How to win. Even if it meant hurting people. Don’t act like you didn’t raise me to be this way.”He staggered back, as if her words struck him physically. Then, suddenly, he lunged—grabbing Gia by the collar, rage breaking through the fog.“You—But killing someone. She was your sister!—”“Enough!” the officer barked. He waved to the hallway. Two
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 7
Father braved the police station.He walked in like a man carrying a storm in his chest—shoulders squared, jaw set, every step a performance of control. But I knew it wasn’t about confirming whether I was dead. Not really. He just wanted to know where I went or if I was hiding after I’d ruined his deal with Adam Rossi and now intended to ruin more.The deal had already gone to hell. Now he just needed the answers.And he brought Gia with him. The ever-polished, ever-perfect daughter, didn’t look so composed today. Her fingers twisted nervously at the hem of her sleeve. Her eyes darted more than usual.She was hiding something.“Officer,” my father said, clearing his throat, “do you have the DNA report? Was the body you found… is it my daughter? Is it Serena?”Gia stood behind him, unusually quiet. Not a word, not even her usual smug commentary.The officer gave her a long, unreadable look before turning to my father.“May I ask,” the officer said slowly, “what the relationship is betw
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 6
Mother rummaged through my things and found the box again.“Huh. Always whining about having no money, and she spends this much on Eva,” she muttered.Jealousy. That was what it was. She had never liked how close I was to Eva.Gia, circling like a vulture, leaned over and smirked. “This is pretty. Why don’t we just keep this one, and give Eva one of your old necklaces? She’s got enough—she’ll never notice.”Mother hesitated. She was thinking about it. Of course she was. I wasn’t here. No one would know what I’d planned.“But…” she murmured, uncertain.Father had told her to bring something suitable. And none of her dusty, outdated pieces could match the soft brilliance of that necklace.Gia was like a devil on her shoulder, whispering, tempting, planting rot beneath her ribs.And in the end, Mother gave in. She kept my necklace. Wrapped one of her old ones—one with a cloudy stone, its luster long faded—and tucked it inside the velvet box.Eva would see through it in seconds. Mother had
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 5
He scowled, voice rising. “Are you deaf? Say something!”Then, finally, a voice came through.But it wasn’t mine.“This is the NYPD,” the officer said, voice clipped and professional. “We arrested Adam Rossi about a month ago. We just opened one of the evidence boxes from his safe house and found this phone inside. Mr. Rossi claimed it wasn’t his. Records show it belongs to a Serena Barone. And based on the contact listed, I assume I’m speaking to her father?”My father’s face drained of color.“Yes,” he said after a beat. “This is Serena’s father. May I ask... where is my daughter?”He was testing the waters. Hoping the answer was clean.It wasn’t.“We haven’t located Serena Barone yet,” the officer replied. “It appears she vanished shortly after dining with Mr. Rossi. He’s refused to cooperate. But we believe something may have happened to her.”A pause. “We found her phone, her purse, and her ID in the basement of his residence.”That’s right. His basement. Where I’d been killed.Bu
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 4
The truth was that ever since I moved back from Eva’s estate, Gia had made it her mission to make my life hell. She didn’t like being the second daughter. She didn’t like that I’d once lived in castles while she stayed in a crumbling mansion with drug money wallpapering the cracks.So she lied.She pushed me when no one was watching, smashed my books and said I did it, cut my clothes and blamed me again. She twisted everything until my parents looked at me and saw not a daughter—but a problem.She made me the bad seed. The spoiled one. The liar.And my parents believed her.They always did.I tried to explain. But who was I to them, really? A daughter in name, but one who didn’t grow up under their roof. One they didn’t raise or didn’t really love.And as we grew older, the lies only got louder. In high school, Gia turned the entire class against me. Whispered that I was a bully. That I stole the family spotlight. I didn’t even realize what she’d done until graduation.All that time,
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 3
The house itself was no castle. It barely passed for a mansion. My father was scraping by with his drug business—money came fast, but danger came faster.Still, I told myself we were a family. That it would be enough.When Gia needed new clothes, he spent every cent dressing her like royalty. When I needed a coat, I got hand-me-downs from charity bins. They even throw away the clothes Aunt Eva had given me—clean, elegant, too nice for me to wear.When Marco was born, he had his own room. His own little phone. A laptop before he could spell.I was in high school without a phone, without a computer, writing essays by hand and pretending I didn’t care.That’s when I realized: this wasn’t my family.This was a battlefield where I was the expendable one.So I planned my escape.I fought tooth and nail for a scholarship and left.I’d spent my entire life trying to prove I was worth loving. Worth keeping. I bent myself backward for scraps of affection—for the sound of my name said with pride
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 2
When they got home, my father made the call he’d been dreading.Aunt Eva.He dialed her number and filled her in, voice low and clipped, as if admitting I was missing would somehow chip away at his pride.“We still haven’t heard from Serena,” he said.The response came fast—and loud. Even I could hear her voice, crackling through the phone from beyond the grave.“You call yourself a father?” Eva’s voice practically shook the walls. “You sent your own daughter to that man—and now she’s missing? And you’re still pretending it’s not a big deal?”“She’s done this before,” he said, already defensive. “When she went off to college, she disappeared for a year. Didn’t call, didn’t visit. I just wished she could make Adam happy, so I can expand my business.”And there it was.He didn’t care I was gone. Not really.He cared about the deal. About Rossi. About his little expansion dreams to Mexico.I wanted to scream. To punch through the air and shove my voice into his ears.I was your daughter,
Sold and Forgotten by My Own Family 1
It had been a month since I died.My father had sent me—gift-wrapped in a slinky black dress and a forced smile—to charm the most dangerous man in the city. Not for love or family. For business, his god damn business.For years, he’d been clawing his way up from small-time drug deals, desperate to expand beyond the East Coast. Adam Rossi, with one foot in New York and the other in Mexico, was his golden ticket.And me? I was the bait.Not because I was prettier than Gia—my younger sister had that whole wide-eyed, pouty-lipped thing down to an art. No, it was because Gia was his favorite. Daddy’s precious doll. He’d never risk her with a man like Rossi. Too wild and unpredictable and lethal.So he sent me. The forgettable daughter. The one they never talked about at dinner.I’d tried to escape once. Got into NYU. Moved out. Cut ties.And my reward? Dad cut me off. Said if I wouldn’t sell my soul for the family name, I wouldn’t see another cent of it either. I lived in a cramped, roach-
