Anne didn't know how long she waited for.
One hour?
Two?
Time just seemed to skid slowly by, and as it did, her mind drifted back to a time quite long ago.
...
"Are you kidding me? My own kids are having a difficult life as it is, yet I'm being given an extra mouth to feed? So what if they're my brother's children?" A middle-aged man with a protruding beer belly bellowed within the living room of a humble-looking home.
A brown-haired girl was cast aside in the room. She looked to be around fourteen to fifteen years of age.
A horrid accident had been the very start of her misfortune. The accident that had taken her parents away, leaving her with her little brother all alone in this world.
She watched her uncle with solemn eyes as he rejected the idea of taking her and her little brother in after their parents' death.
Instinctively, as if to protect her brother from her uncle's hostile eyes, the girl pushed him behind her.
