Chapter 1Spring Breeze Caresses the Wild Grass

My father was a human trafficker. My mother was the daughter of a billionaire he’d kidnapped.

The day the police finally found us, he fell off a cliff during the chase and died.

My mother and I were sent back to her family, the Wentworths.

But my mother’s mind was broken. She screamed and shoved me away. "I never gave birth to a trafficker's child."

My grandfather trembled with rage. "The Wentworth family will not have such a mongrel in our house."

They sent me away to a prestigious boarding school.

The school's top bully tormented me, forcing me to eat from a dog bowl.

"Your father was an animal," he sneered. "So you'll eat like one."

After one forced bite, I started to cry.

No one had ever told me that a dog's dinner could be this delicious.

* * *

The moment the bully's lackey, Gabe, shoved my face into the dog bowl, an incredible aroma of savory meat shot up my nose.

I stared at the chunks of salmon and beef, and I couldn't help myself. I took a small bite.

The next second, a tear plopped into the bowl.

In my entire life… I had never tasted anything so good.

Ignoring the hand still pressing down on my head, I buried my face in the bowl and began to eat ravenously, swallowing my tears along with the food.

"What the hell?" Gabe yelped, snatching his hand back and stumbling away. "She's… she's actually eating it!"

The head bully, Jax, stared for a moment, then nudged his other friend, Porky. "Are you sure that food is clean? The dog hasn't eaten from it, right? No germs? Why's she acting so weird?"

Porky looked just as stunned, scratching his head. "I watched my housekeeper make it fresh. To teach her a lesson, I even used yesterday's leftover salmon and beef. The bowl's new, though."

While they were talking, I had already licked the bowl so clean it shined. I looked up, my eyes wet and pleading, and asked in a small voice, "Is there… any more? I haven't eaten in three days…"

Jax kicked a nearby chair over, his face a mask of fury. "What, you like it now? You're addicted?!"

But I wasn't scared.

When my father got drunk, he liked to beat me. He was a big man, well over two hundred pounds, and his fists were the size of sandbags.

Once, my mother tried to run away. When he caught her, he was so angry he broke a dozen thorny branches beating her with them. I threw myself over her, begging him to stop, but his eyes were bloodshot with rage. He grabbed a hoe and swung it at my head.

I was unconscious for three days after that. I still have a long scar on my forehead.

Besides that scar, my body was a map of other injuries—from pinches, from scalding water, from the thorny branches…

No matter how fierce these boys tried to be, they could never be as terrifying as that man.

Bianca, the most popular girl in school, walked by with her lunch tray and rolled her eyes. "Are you guys stupid? Just give her the stuff you don't want to eat."

With a blank expression, she dumped all the broccoli, carrots, and fatty meat from her tray into my dog bowl.

The students around us had a collective lightbulb moment.

Soon, a mountain of food piled up in my bowl.

"I hate bell peppers!"

"Here, you can have this. The shrimp smells weird."

"Crab is too much work."

"This pork belly is way too fatty. You'll get sick."

I stared blankly at the ever-growing pile of leftovers: steamed lobster, a whole Dungeness crab, glistening braised pork belly…

No, these weren't leftovers.

This was my paradise.

"Is… is all this really for me?" I asked timidly, my voice barely a whisper.

"Weirdo. She really is an idiot." Gabe muttered as he walked away, but not before tossing a chicken leg into my bowl.

Porky stared at my bowl for a long moment, then turned to Jax. "Hey, man, you think that dog food is really that good? She looks like she's really enjoying it…"

Jax gritted his teeth and yelled at me, "You're not leaving until you finish every last bite! You hear me?!"

Then he spun around and kicked Porky. "What are you looking at! You want some too?!"

Once most of the students had left, I cradled the heavy bowl and found a quiet corner to squat in. Sunlight streamed through the window, making every grain of rice sparkle.

I grabbed a piece of meat with my hand and shoved it into my mouth, then scooped up a huge mouthful of rice, my cheeks puffing out like a hamster's.