*3**
My name was Mia. I didn’t even have a last name. Actually, even this name was given to me. My adoptive father was in some shady business.
After his last “job,” he brought us to hide out in this remote town. Julian, the neighbor boy, who’d actually been to school and knew how to read, gave me the name “Mia.”
He said I smiled like the moon in the sky, especially beautiful. Later, when I learned to read, I realized he thought it meant “radiant, like the moon, but it was a clumsy spelling of a word that meant something totally different.
I did rough work at home; I was incredibly strong. But Julian next door was weak and always getting sick. He always smiled and told me, “Mia, you’re strong, and I’m smart. If we team up, we’ll be unstoppable!”
Later, when he wanted to start a company, I’d never even heard of such things. I told him to focus on his work and we could hold off on getting married for a bit. But Julian looked serious. “Mia, you’re marrying me. What are you scared of?!”
I wasn’t scared of anything. I wasn’t scared of anyone. But I was scared of becoming a burden to him. I was afraid that my lack of education, or my rough demeanor, would offend his important clients.
After that, he went out to make his way alone, and I gave birth to Caleb by myself. But he didn’t come home for two years.
I carried Caleb on my back and worked odd jobs, taking anything that hired. At the construction site, I’d secure Caleb to a stool in the security guard’s shack outside the site, then go in and work all day. Caleb would cry from hunger, but I had no choice.
I didn’t know how to reach him; I could only wait for him to find me. So I waited and waited, waited and waited.
Finally, the day his company went public arrived. Julian came back for me and said he wanted to take me to Grandview City.
I saw another girl beside him, but I didn’t think much of it. My Jules was so capable! He’d built such a huge business in just two years! Going to Grandview City was fine. With Jules
there, what was there to fear?
I was so foolish. I actually believed every word he said.
