Chapter 1
I was fourteen when everything changed.
Not with a scream, not with a warning—just quietly, in the way life sometimes does when you’re too young to understand it.
2017 brought a new school, a new environment, and a world I wasn’t ready for.
My mother had always warned me:
"Roxy, leave those friends. They are not good for you. One day, they’ll trap you in a mistake."
I didn’t listen.
I couldn’t.
To me, my friends were good—they were my world.
When adults warned me, I felt anger instead of caution.
They just don’t understand, I thought.
They are wrong about everyone outside.
I didn’t know then that this stubbornness, this innocence, would soon become my greatest vulnerability.
The First Day
I remember walking into the new school.
The hallways smelled different.
The walls were unfamiliar.
The faces… all strangers.
No one smiled at me.
Groups of friends laughed and whispered.
Inside jokes I didn’t belong to.
It felt like I had been erased from the world I knew.
I found a quiet corner, opened my notebook, and pretended to write.
Not because I had anything to write,
but because I wanted to disappear without anyone noticing how alone I felt.
The Confusing Comfort
Then came the calls.
A friend from my old school insisted I stay in tuition with his friend.
I didn’t know if it was right or wrong.
I didn’t know the difference between trust and danger.
But when I talked on the phone, I felt… something.
Warmth. Comfort. A little escape.
And that small joy came with guilt.
Because my mother and sister saw me chatting.
"This is a mistake, Roxy," they said.
"This age is dangerous. Teenagers see the world wrong—what seems good now may hurt you later."
I didn’t understand.
I felt angry.
Why don’t they listen? Why don’t they trust me?
I believed my friends were right.
I believed they had my back.
I didn’t know then that these moments—the phone calls, the guilt, the anger—were the first steps toward something I would never forget.
Something that would teach me, painfully, the truth about trust, love, and betrayal.
