A wave of bitterness washed over me. The year I went missing, John and I were a well-known academic couple on campus, inseparable. Our parents had also arranged our engagement, to be finalized after graduation.
The change happened a month after the college entrance exam. John took me to an abandoned factory to watch fireworks.
Halfway through the fireworks, he received a call from Maria, saying it was a very private and urgent matter and it wasn’t convenient for anyone else to be present. So, he left me alone in the middle of nowhere. While I was waiting for the driver to pick me up, I was drugged and sold into the mountains.
For a year after I was abducted, they went to great lengths, weeping constantly. But John never dared to tell the truth about that day. Maria said she wanted to atone for her sins, so John acted as a go-between, arranging my parents to adopt her.
My parents missed me terribly, often looking at me through her eyes. So they gave her all the maternal and paternal love they hadn't been able to give. They even changed her surname.