Chapter 2
Lauren
My new world was the color of hope. Some might call the jungles of Thailand's island of Koh Pha Ngan "green," but I knew it wasn't that simple. My lush surroundings offered something much more vital—new life, new horizons. Joy. Hope. Freedom.
They also offered me a job and a new identity. For the last month, I'd been working the juice bar at a health resort called the Oasis. People came here from all over the world to cleanse and detoxify.
Maybe I was doing the same thing.
I was here to lose myself, to free myself. Nothing could be more different from the power-hungry atmosphere of Washington, DC, than the peace-and-love-and-cosmic-good-vibrations crowd drawn to this tropical backwater.
"Good morning, Mango-man." I slapped hands with the tall, tattooed German behind
