This time, my parents didn't waver. They dissolved the adoption agreement and sent Melody back to her biological parents. They even changed her legal surname.
Even so, I still carried my notebook everywhere. I wrote in it constantly. I mapped out a hundred ways Melody might try to retaliate.
Holden called me one afternoon while I was adding to the list. When I told him she might try to have me kidn*pped, he let out a short laugh.
"You're giving her way too much credit. Melody's vicious, but she's not stupid. She wouldn't do something that brazen in broad daylight."
I didn't respond.
The next thing I heard was Melody's voice. "Mom, didn't you say you needed money for Ethan's surgery? Selling one daughter won't be enough. Why not sell both?"
She knocked me unconscious. When I came to,
