That was when I discovered the truth: I had already been flagged as an unregistered individual, a ghost in the system.
Legally, I did not even exist.
Furious, I confronted Paul and Eleanor, demanding an explanation. But they just brushed me off, tossing out vague excuses like it was no big deal and like I was the one being dramatic.
With no way to restore my original records, I had no choice but to register temporarily under the Wilson family's address. And that decision came with consequences I never could have imagined.
Due to that registration switch, my family's farmland, which spans over eighty acres, was seized by the state.
Just like that, it was gone.
And my job? I lost that, too. Not having legal status meant I couldn't work. I was stuck, trapped in a marriage far from home with no options and nowhere to go, and forced into becoming a full-time housewife, shackled to my mother-in-law's daily insults and endless torment.
Years dragged by.
And when Nathan turned eighteen, he failed the college entrance exam and missed the cutoff by exactly fifteen points.