My Ashes Returned, but They Already Disowned Me

My mother was assaulted by a vagrant on her way to take me to the hospital for a high fever. Shattered and crying, she fell into the river and drowned.

Blaming me for her death, my father and brother channeled all their hatred toward me, forcing me to kneel by the riverbank every single day as penance.

But then, I was targeted by the same monsters. After hours of brutal torment, I was dragged into the deep, lawless mountains.

I searched desperately for a chance to escape. Before my phone died, I made one last, desperate call to my brother, Damian.

But Damian only sneered over the line:

"Keep acting, Sienna! Even if you really got kidnapped, you brought it on yourself!"

"You were the one who should have been ruined that night, not Mom!"

I lost all hope. The villagers caught me, dragged me back, and broke my bones, tearing me apart in the name of "purifying the impure."

Later, my mother, who had actually survived and was on a classified undercover mission, returned home safely.

When she found out that my shattered bones were among the remains of the trafficking victims she had brought back, she went completely insane.

When Damian was called to the police station in the middle of the night, the facial recognition on the security footage hadn't been fully restored yet.

Between the blind spots of the camera and the pitch-black night, it was hard to make out the victims face.

The detective met Damian, his sharp eyes scanning him from head to toe.

With a heavy voice, the detective placed a watch in front of him.

"We found this at the crime scene. It has old and new scratches all over it, and your fingerprints are on it."

"More importantly, we verified with the store. You ordered this watch yourself."

Damian frowned, his gaze falling on the battered watch.

The glass face was shattered, the strap hacked to pieces by something sharp. He flipped it over gently and saw the letters engraved on the inside.

"I bought it," he said, pausing.

Thinking of me, a look of disgust flashed in his eyes, and his voice turned ice-cold.

"But my sister, Sienna, threw this watch away. If shes in trouble, go find her. Her life has nothing to do with me."

With that, he stood up abruptly, turning to leave the station.

But his eyes were caught by the security footage playing on a loop on a nearby screen.

It was the tape of the vagrant attack.

The screen was playing the exact moment I was being brutally assaulted by multiple men in the shadows.

Blood trailed across the ground, stretching into the darkness.

Thud! Damian slammed his fist violently onto the table.

His eyes turned bloodshot, welling with tears.

His entire body began to shake, consumed by pure rage.

"Animals! Those goddamn scumbags! So many of them, ganging up on one helpless girl!"

"Bastards!"

A faint smile touched my ghostly lips. Could this count as Damian crying for me?

Since Mom "died," I hadn't seen him show this much emotion in a long time.

The footage kept playing.

After the monsters finished, they brutally broke my legs and dragged me into a blind spot.

Hoarse screams and sadistic laughter mingled on the tape.

Fear, despair, and excruciating pain seemed to wrap around me again, swallowing me whole.

Right before I disappeared from the camera's view, my blurry, half-ruined face was exposed for a split second.

The officers in the room looked grim, some stepping forward to pat Damian's shoulder in sympathy.

"This is the latest attack. A lot of women have gone missing or been hurt lately. Dont you have a sister? Keep her safe."

"Don't let her end up like this poor girl. Shes been missing for two days, and no one even filed a report. We don't even know who she is."

Damian didn't say a word, his eyes glued to the screen.

I lowered my head with a bitter smile, looking at my own shattered soul.

Damian hated me. Why would he ever protect me?

If he cared, I wouldn't have been dead for two days without them even noticing.

It hurt so bad.

After a long silence, Damian spoke, his voice hoarse and dripping with sarcasm.

"The watch belongs to that girl. Its highly likely the victim is someone my sister knows. I'll ask her when I get back."

"Both cases are tied to her. Theres no way she doesn't know something about this."

"As for protecting her? She doesn't deserve it."

The tension in the room vanished, replaced by a suffocating silence.

It only eased when Damian offered to lead the officers to find me for questioning.

"Damian, does your sister like to hang out by the river at night? Why would she be out there?"

"Hey, I get it. Sibling drama, right? My sister drives me crazy too!"

"But shes your blood. Who else is going to spoil her? Just swallow your pride and make up. Don't hold a grudge against a kid."

"I told you, she doesn't deserve it! She can rot for all I care!"

Damian snapped, as if a raw nerve had been touched.

In a fit of rage, he hurled his phone onto the ground, his chest heaving.

Everyone stared at him, bewildered and concerned.

"You don't know the truth! The victim of the first attack years ago was my mom!"

"Sienna killed her! She is a walking curse!"

"If she hadn't whined about a stupid fever and forced Mom to take her to the hospital in the middle of the night, Mom would still be alive!"

Damians voice cracked, his emotions spiraling.

He covered his face, trying to suppress the agonizing pain buried deep in his heart.

By the end, he was screaming, sounding like a wounded, helpless child begging for his mother.

"Because of her, I don't have a mother anymore! How could I ever protect a murderer?!"

"My dad and I wanted to build a memorial, but we didn't even have a body to bury!"

Damian cried, and I wept right alongside him. My chest ached so badly I felt like throwing up.

For years, every time I knelt by that river, those were the exact words hurled at me.

Dad called me a curse, a murderer, the most evil child on earth.

Damian hated me. He hated me for taking Mom away, for having a fever that night.

They said I was the one who destroyed our perfect family.

So, they would grab me by the neck, shove my head into the freezing water, and ask me over and over why it wasn't me who died that night.

They wanted to prove a pointthat between me and Mom, Mom was the only one who mattered.

But they forgot. Once, I was the little girl they held in the palms of their hands.

An officer sighed heavily, breaking the silence.

"The living are what matters now. You guys are family."

"I said, she doesn't deserve it!"

The light in my eyes died out. I shook my head bitterly.

If Damian knew I was dead, would he feel a little happier? A little relieved?

Would he... forgive me just a little?

"Captain! We searched the entire riverbank! No sign of her!"

"But we found a mess of chaotic footprints. And thisa strawberry hairpin."

That hairpin was hand-crafted by Damian. It had a tiny GPS tracker hidden inside.

Back when I was in middle school, Damian forgot to pick me up, and I got lost.

My family and the police searched for six months before rescuing me from a trafficking ring.

I never forgot Damian's guilt-ridden eyes back then, or my parents' terrified, loving faces.

Damian had sworn he would protect me from getting hurt for the rest of his life.

Yet, all that love turned into a double-edged sword, sending me straight back to hell.

Damian only spared the hairpin a cold glance before stepping forward to inspect the footprints.

My heart began to race with a spark of hope.

I wasn't kneeling there like I usually did, and my hairpin was on the ground. Damian was smart; surely he would notice something was off?

If he just mentioned it to the police...

Maybe... they could still find my body.

"Damian! Where is your sister? Could she have been kidnapped?"

The officers immediately grew tense.

Connecting my disappearance with the vagrant attack from earlier, the truth was staring them in the face.

My heart climbed into my throat.

But Damian just let out a cold laugh, pulling up his call log and showing it to them.

"Her? Kidnapped? Where could a cockroach like her go? She called me this morning, playing the victim again!"

"She loves lying. She loves directing her own little dramas! Killing my mother wasn't enough, now she's pulling this stunt!"

I frantically spun around them, wishing with everything in me that I could scream the truth into their ears.

I wasn't lying! I wasn't playing victim! Everything I said was real!

Why won't you believe me?!

But my voice couldn't reach them. Damian, convinced of his own theory, looked eager to drag me out and expose my "lies" to the world.

Eventually, the last drop of hope drained from me. I just stared at him, numb.

He was on the phone with Dad, talking about me.

"Sienna is pulling her old tricks again. Shes probably out hooking up with some trashy guy."

"She doesn't feel a shred of remorse! Even if she dies, she deserves it! Let's see how many days she can last out there!"

Dads final words hit me like a physical blow.

The pain in my chest was blinding, and a familiar coldness washed over my face.

Of course. Even if I died, they wouldn't care.

The police search was called off. I followed Damian back home.

The next morning, before nine, my school counselor called.

He was a good man, always worried that my family issues would ruin my education. He cared about me when no one else did.

"Hello? Damian? I heard from the teachers that Sienna hasn't been in class for days. Is everything okay?"

The voice was filled with genuine warmth.

My eyes welled with tears, and they spilled over instantly.

If there was anyone left in this world who cared about me, it was Mr. Sterling.

I wanted so badly to thank him, to thank him for remembering me.

But I would never get the chance.

"Mr. Sterling? Or are you just one of the trashy guys Sienna is fooling around with?"

"Is she standing right next to you, telling you what to say? Does she want to see us worry? Why is she so obsessed with these cheap dramas?"

"No, you misunderstand"

"Save it! Tell her to get her ass back to the river and kneel. If she keeps this up, Im legally disowning her!"

"And you! Aren't you afraid shell ruin your life too? Shes a monster who didn't even spare her own mother!"

Before the counselor could explain, Damian slammed the phone down.

His face was still flushed with lingering anger.

Dad walked out of his room, frowning. "Was that Sienna?"

"Don't worry about her. If she doesn't want to come home, she doesn't have to."

"She kept me up all night. I just finalized the disownment papers and posted them on social media."

"Shes dead to this family now."

I stared at Dad, frozen.

My heart sank to the absolute bottom of a frozen lake, aching with a dull, throbbing pain.

I curled up on the floor, hugging my knees, wanting to cry but having no tears left.

Damian's number was only listed as my emergency contact because Mr. Sterling had insisted on it.

Back then, the counselor had comforted me, saying Damian and Dad were just angry, that they would understand one day.

He told me guys express love differently, that Damian probably cared deep down.

He even said he sometimes saw Damian lingering near the school gates.

I had believed him. I wrote down Damian's number, hoping I would never have to use it, hoping I would stay safe and not be a burden.

Only later did I realize Mr. Sterling had just been trying to comfort me.

Damian didn't care. He never came to see me. And now that his number was finally used as an emergency contact, it was completely useless.

It only brought anger to everyone and pushed Dad to legally cut ties with me.

Dad, do you really hate me that much?

So much that you had to sever our very last bond?

The pain in my chest intensified, suffocating me.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Richard! Sienna! Damian! Open the door! My undercover mission is over! I'm home!"