39 parts Complete Prologue
The rain hammered against the apartment window as Freen stared at her phone, hands trembling. Her mother's voice still echoed in her head from the devastating call.
'Mind is gone.'
Her sister-her only ally-was dead. A car accident. Gone in an instant, leaving behind ten-year-old Annie.
"Freen?" Nam's voice came from behind her. "What's wrong?"
"My sister..." The words came out as barely a whisper. "She's dead."
Three pairs of arms surrounded her as the sobs came. Nam, Heng, and Noey-her chosen family for the past five years since she'd left home with nothing but a guitar and broken dreams.
Through her grief, her mother's other words echoed: 'Annie is to be in your care. Not ours. Yours."
Mind had chosen her. Even after years of separation, Mind still believed in her enough to entrust her with the most precious thing in her life.
But how could she? Someone who jumped at loud noises, who had panic attacks, who could barely take care of herself-how could she care for a grieving child?
"I have to go back," Freen whispered. "I have to go home."
Home. The place she'd sworn never to return to. Where her father's voice still echoed, calling her worthless, saying her music was a joke.
"Then we'll help you pack," Heng said simply.
Freen looked at her friends-the ones who'd held her together through everything. Now she had to leave them behind to face her past.
But somewhere in that hometown, a little girl was waiting. A little girl who'd lost everything, just like Freen had once lost everything.
Mind had trusted her with this. The sister who'd snuck into her room to hear her practice, who'd believed in her dreams when no one else did.
Maybe it was time to prove that belief hadn't been misplaced.
Maybe it was time to go home.