Reborn Heiress: My Family's Bitter Karma

g, chemical scent of Brenda's cheap vanilla air freshener, a desperate attempt to mask the underlying rot of the Grimes household. She didn't need to touch the metal to feel t

and warm like old parchment. "The Celestial Pact binds you for eighteen

eenth cycle had clos

s cackling, a noise that usually signaled she had won a scratch-o

one," Brenda's voice rasped

lter. She had been the sponge soaking up the black tar of their accumulated malice, the human shield against the karmic debt they

tal was cold and gritty with d

a guillotine. The interior of the trailer was a claus

dishes at the local diner-a task the Mentor had insisted upon. "To understand the flow of the world," he had said, "you must touch its grease." It was

moothing the fabr

ning in the ashtray. She waved her hand through the smo

eless shelter by now," Brenda said. He

taring at the television, but his eyes were darting nervously toward the corner of the room, avoidi

hat was peeling at the corners. She went to the small alcove that served as her bedroom and picked up the du

back to the

a spat, tapping a long, acrylic fingernail on the

as Seraphina passed. It wa

ible in the heavy work boots. She spun, her hand brushing against the display cabinet. The cabinet rocked

he reached up to touch her ear

ut Seraphina didn't see the sparkle. She saw the faint, gray tendri

r onto the table. It sounded l

ant you coming back here claiming we owe you a dime for raisi

ublic library. But to her eyes, the ink seemed to bleed into the paper, forming chains. This wasn't just a legal s

acking sound. "Just sign

was the first sound she had made si

nto the paper, tearing the fiber as she wrote her name. With every stroke, she felt

paper away the mom

"Before I charge you r

e looked at the mold growing in the corners of the ceiling, the st

silence," s

een door slammed shut behind her,

et and pulled out a phone. It wasn't the cracked smartphone Regina used to make fun of. It was an old, heavy flip phone, black and

glowed for the first time, displ

ed the ca