Chapter 72: The Look-Alike
(Annie's POV)
I gasped, the air in the VIP room suddenly feeling too thin to breathe.
For a long time, I couldn't move. My mind drifted back to the day I left Riverside. My mother had grabbed my arm, her eyes filled with a desperate kind of fear.
"Not everyone has this fate, Annie," she had pleaded. "I saw her many times when I was caring for her mother. You've always been praised for your beauty here in Riverside, but the big city is complicated. Going to Crestwood might not be better than staying here. Just stay with your parents, okay?"
I hadn't listened. Of course, I hadn't.
I felt beautiful. I *was* beautiful. In Riverside, boys lined up just to talk to me. I received expensive gifts despite my family's modest income. I heard the hidden meaning i
