My biological mother once left me at the door of an apartment that was not hers.
At that time, I was nothing more than a package wrapped in a blanket, with a note that said “Forgive me”.
Twenty-five years later, without knowing who she really was, that woman returned to my life… as a maid.
“Who is a girl without roots? A ghost”, I once told Mikhail, my only true friend and confidant.
He stirred coffee in my kitchen, listening to my every word.
I grew up without a real home.
Lyudmila Petrovna and Gennady Sergeyevich, an elderly couple with no children, found me that cold October morning.
They gave me a roof and food, but never love.
“You are our responsibility, Alexandra, but not our family”, Lyudmila reminded me every year, like a judgment.
My room was a forgotten corner in the hallway, with a Murphy bed and a box where I kept some of my belongings.
I ate what was left after they d.ied and wore old clothes, always a few sizes too big, worn out by time.
At school, the kids whispered “orphan,” “homeless,” “ghost.” I didn’t cry; I turned that pain into strength.
I worked from the age of 13 to save money and one day escape that cage.
When Lyudmila found out about my pile of bills, she accused me of stealing. But I was just protecting my hard-earned money.
At seventeen, I carried a backpack and a baby photo that I had kept since I had gone on maternity leave and gone away to school.
In the dormitory, I shared a room with other girls, studied, and worked all night at a supermarket.
My mind had only one goal: to find the woman who had abandoned me.
I wasn’t looking for peace, I was looking for justice.
One day, Mikhail told me he had found her.
The woman who had abandoned me on a cold night was now my servant, unaware that I was that unknown girl.
When I saw her enter my house, with the humility of someone who expects nothing, I felt that the cycle was about to be broken.
Now I had a voice and power.
The silence in the living room after I presented my project for an organic cosmetics brand was my silent re.venge: I had gone too far.
She didn’t recognize me, but I knew the past was about to come to light.
