BLEEDING SCAR

PROLOGUE

THE GIRL WHO WAS NEVER CHOSEN

Some children grow up believing the world is kind.

Others spend their lives waiting for proof that it can be.

Vida belonged to the second kind.

If pain had a language, she spoke it fluently long before she learned how to spell her own name.

No one noticed at first.

Pain is rarely loud when it begins.

It arrives quietly, settling into ordinary days, hiding in ordinary moments-a forgotten hug, an empty seat at the dinner table, a birthday wish that is never heard, a smile meant for someone else.

Little by little, it teaches a child that love is something to earn instead of something freely given.

Vida never remembered a day when she questioned whether her mother loved her.

She remembered the day she realized she didn't.

The memory had followed her for years like a shadow she could never outrun.

She was six.

The twins had just returned from church wearing matching white dresses with tiny blue ribbons sewn around the sleeves. Everyone admired how identical they looked. Neighbors laughed and called them "double blessings," asking them to smile together for photographs.

They did.

The pictures captured two little girls standing side by side.

What the camera couldn't capture was the space between them.

After everyone left, their mother knelt in front of Valerie, gently brushing dust from her dress.

"My beautiful girl," she whispered with a smile.

Vida waited.

Children always wait.

She waited for another smile.

Another pair of open arms.

Another "my beautiful girl."

Instead, her mother stood, picked up Valerie's hand, and walked into the house without looking back.

Vida remained outside.

Alone.

She stared at the small footprint her sister had left in the sand.

Then she quietly placed her own foot inside it.

For reasons she couldn't explain, she hoped that if she stood exactly where Valerie had stood...

Perhaps her mother would look at her the same way.

She waited.

Nothing happened.

The evening breeze carried laughter from inside the house.

Nobody noticed the little girl standing alone beneath the fading sunlight.

Nobody noticed when she wiped away the tears before walking inside.

From that day forward, Valerie stopped asking one question.

"Why doesn't Mama love me?"

Instead, another question slowly took its place.

"What's wrong with me?"

It was a dangerous question.

Because children rarely blame the people who fail them.

They blame themselves.

Years passed.

The twins grew older.

Their faces remained almost impossible to tell apart.

Their lives did not.

Valerie became the sunshine everyone gathered around.

Teachers adored her.

Neighbors praised her.

Their mother looked at her with a pride so effortless it seemed as natural as breathing.

Vida learned how to disappear.

She mastered the art of entering rooms without making a sound.

She learned to eat quietly, speak softly, cry silently.

She became so good at hiding her feelings that even she sometimes forgot they were there.

Only one person refused to let her disappear.

Valerie.

Her sister had never understood why their mother loved them differently.

She only knew that every time Vida sat alone, something inside her hurt too.

So she shared everything she could.

The sweeter half of an orange.

The last piece of bread.

A blanket during cold nights.

A whispered joke when Vida looked ready to cry.

They were tiny acts of love.

Small enough for the world to overlook.

Big enough to keep Vida believing that perhaps she wasn't completely invisible.

Not yet.

But even the strongest love cannot always protect someone from the darkness growing behind closed doors.

Some monsters don't arrive wearing frightening faces.

They smile.

They shake your hand.

They sit at your dining table.

They earn your trust.

And by the time anyone realizes who they truly are...

The damage has already begun.

Vida didn't know it then.

She still believed the worst pain in her life was being unloved.

She had no idea that much greater horrors were already walking toward her.

And somewhere beyond those ordinary days...

Beyond the laughter...

Beyond the lies...

A single night waited patiently.

A night that would steal innocence.

Destroy a family.

Turn truth into a stranger.

And leave behind a scar that would never stop bleeding.

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