Zoe Jensen's parents kick her out because she doesn't want to share them with Alice Reed. She ends up homeless on the streets. She ultimately dies of starvation.

When she's reborn, she finds herself standing before Alice. The latter is crying and begging her.

Zoe is delighted by this. Alice can have her parents if she wants them—Zoe doesn't want to lose her life because of them again!

Mom and Dad were the nicest doctors at the hospital—way nicer to their patients than they ever were to me.

When they talked about adopting Alice Reed, a patient with a heart condition, I didn't hesitate to agree.

"She's your real daughter now," I said.

Alice was treated by Mom and Dad in my past life. They absolutely adored her, spending my living expenses on fruit for her and even tutoring her every night.

Alice was even willing to risk her health just to win over Mom and Dad. She threatened not to go through with surgery if I tried to stop her from being adopted.

I fought and argued, but all I got was a lecture from Mom and Dad. They looked at me like I was the biggest letdown, asking, "How did we end up with a daughter as thoughtless as you?"

Alice's health got a lot worse after she delayed her surgery. I became the scapegoat—everyone blamed me for her decline.

Mom and Dad made me kneel by her hospital bed and beg for forgiveness. They even took my tuition money and spent it on Alice's surgery.

Meanwhile, Grandma was in critical condition. I had to drop out of school and take on odd jobs.

Everyone kept raving about how generous Mom and Dad were, while Grandma and I starved to death on a brutal winter night.

In this life, I decided to step aside so Mom and Dad could build a new family with Alice.

…

The girl before me was gasping for air, clutching her chest as she stood in the doorway, shouting in panic, "I won't have the surgery unless you agree to be my parents! If not, I'm not doing it!"

Her desperate cries echoed through the hallway, filled with the harsh scent of antiseptic, drawing a crowd of patients. She was crying so hard, she could barely catch her breath.

"I just want parents who love me! Even if I survive the surgery, what's the point of living if no one cares about me?"

Mom and Dad rushed over to try to calm her down. "Take it easy, Alice. Let's get the surgery done first, okay?"

Alice grabbed onto the hem of Mom's white coat. "Dr. Clarke, I really want you and Dr. Jensen to be my parents. I swear I'll be good."

Then, as if she just noticed I was there, she peeked out from behind Mom and asked in a sweet, soft voice, "Zoe, you're not mad, are you? Please, let me be your little sister. I promise I won't take your parents away from you."

That was when Mom and Dad finally noticed I was standing there. They shot me a look, their brows furrowed in disapproval.

"Why are you here again, making her upset?"

"She's already dealing with enough—can't you show some compassion?"

As I watched this all play out, it hit me that I had been reborn. The same thing happened in my past life.

Everyone at the hospital praised Mom and Dad as models of medical kindness—too gentle to watch patients suffer.

They used our savings to help anyone in need, and our living room was always overflowing with thank-you certificates.

Their colleagues loved them, too, since they were always picking up extra work and treating everyone's problems like their own.

My whole life, I was taught to be understanding—understand how tough life was for others, and how hard Mom and Dad worked. But why did no one ever try to understand me?

Mom and Dad were always the busiest doctors at the hospital. Growing up, I could count on one hand the times they actually spent with me.

Any savings we had went straight into helping patients, so I never even had a decent set of clothes. Grandma and I were all each other had.

People envied me for having such well-known parents, but they had no idea what I was really going through. Still, I never complained because I knew they truly loved their work.

Everything changed when Alice came in for her heart surgery, with Mom and Dad treating her. They felt sorry for her and poured all their energy into making sure she was okay.

They spent my living expenses on fruit for her, tutored her, and gave her all the attention that should've been mine.

Alice cried, saying she'd never known what it was like to have loving parents, begging Mom and Dad to adopt her.

I absolutely refused. I was willing to share a lot of things, but not Mom and Dad.

Alice flipped out, throwing a tantrum and screaming that if Mom and Dad didn't adopt her, she wouldn't go through with the surgery.

Mom and Dad lost it. They pointed at me and shouted, "How did we end up with a daughter as thoughtless as you? Why can't you just be a little more understanding of Alice?"

In the end, Alice missed the best window for surgery, and her health got worse every day. Mom and Dad were disappointed in me. They cut off my living expenses and tuition.

When Grandma fell seriously ill, I begged them for financial help, but they just shrugged and said, "This is what you owe Alice. We've already given all the money to charity."

I called them fools, and they got so angry, they blasted me online, starting a wave of public hate against me.

With no other choice, I dropped out of school to work and support Grandma. But no one would hire a minor, and in the end, she and I literally starved to death together.

Now, I had a second chance at life.

My anger toward Mom and Dad ran deep, and there was no way I'd ever consider them my parents again. I wanted to take Grandma and get as far away from them as I could.

With all that on my mind, I didn't even look up. "Yeah, yeah, I agree."

Mom and Dad looked frustrated and snapped, "What's with you? Now you're suddenly being all nice? Wasn't it you who said no in the first place? Alice wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for you!"

Then, they turned back to Alice, trying to calm her down. "This is all Zoe's fault for not agreeing. Just get the surgery done first. Once you're better, we can figure everything else out."

I crossed my arms and scoffed. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted? I'm done fighting. She's your real daughter now."

Looking at Alice, I added, "I'm cutting ties with them. They're free to adopt you."

Mom and Dad stared at me, shocked, then blew up in anger. "When did we ever say we were cutting ties with you? Can't you just be reasonable for once? We keep telling you, this is only temporary. You're still our daughter! Stop causing a scene!"

The moment Alice realized that Mom and Dad were just trying to placate her, she lost it again. Her breathing got shallow, and her lips started turning purple.

Panicked, Mom and Dad rushed to pick her up and took her straight to the operating room, not even glancing at me.

I looked down at the bag of medication in my hand. It was for me and Grandma. No one ever bothered to ask if I was sick. Ever since I was a kid, I had always been the one getting ignored and brushed aside.

Patients in the hallway who'd been watching everything started pointing at me and whispering to each other.

"That girl is so selfish. Her parents are always busy, and she still makes a scene."

"Poor Alice was finally starting to calm down, and now look—she's upset again, all because of that girl."

"The hospital turns into a mess every time she shows up. I don't get how Dr. Jensen ended up with such a troublemaker for a daughter."

I was so tired of hearing the same old accusations. Everyone was always blaming me for being difficult and ungrateful. I was seriously fed up with it.

I blocked out the gossip and headed straight downstairs to Grandma's ward.

She was getting up there in age, dealing with heart problems, a stroke, and a ton of other health issues. Not long ago, she fell at home and broke her pelvis, so she ended up back in the hospital.

Grandma's face lit up when she saw me walk in with her medications. She asked right away, "Are your mom and dad done with work? I miss them."

I felt a lump in my throat and could only tell her they were tied up with work. She looked down, her face falling with disappointment.

I knew my excuse didn't sound convincing. It was just one floor away, but neither of them had come by since Grandma was admitted.

Grandma's broken pelvis needed surgery, and the longer they delayed it, the worse she felt—especially at night when even getting out of bed was a major struggle.

I asked Mom and Dad if there was anything they could do to help.

Dad got all high and mighty and said, "Your grandma has to wait her turn for surgery. We can't just skip the line. That wouldn't be fair."

But just a few days ago, when it was almost Grandma's turn, a little boy came in with a broken leg, and Mom and Dad let him jump ahead.

They even told Grandma, "He's just a kid. Let's give him priority."

Grandma didn't get what skipping the line meant. She just knew it meant she'd get to see her son. Happy, she nodded and went along with it.

I was furious and tried to argue.

But Dad snapped at me for talking back, "How can you be so thoughtless? It's not the same. That boy has his whole life ahead of him!"

What a load of crap! He'd even told me a bypass surgery was no big deal. He must've thought I was an idiot. Eventually, another doctor said he'd try to move Grandma's surgery up.

Just thinking about it now made me so mad.

Right then, my phone rang. Mom asked me to bring the toiletries upstairs. A glimmer of hope shot through me—maybe Grandma's surgery was finally going to happen.

I told Grandma to hang on and wait.

But when I got upstairs, Mom led me into a ward, and I realized it was all a lie.

She looked down at Alice on the bed with the sweetest expression. "Didn't you say you were keeping an eye on Grandma downstairs? While you're at it, you can keep Alice company, too. She's young, and you two can chat. Plus, you've got the experience, so I'm counting on you to take care of her."

In other words, she wanted me—her daughter, still in my senior year of high school—to play babysitter.

I was hauling around bags of stuff for Grandma's surgery, but Mom acted like she didn't see any of it and kept yammering.

My stomach sank. I looked at Alice, lying on the bed with her lashes fluttering a little, and snapped, "Not my problem."

Then, I turned to leave. But Mom lost it, grabbed my arm, and wouldn't let go. All my frustration came to a head.

I tossed the bags at them and shouted, "She's a total stranger to me—why should I take care of her? And I'm swamped! Don't you remember I'm in my senior year of high school? You're such a selfish mother! You're a doctor, aren't you? If you're so eager, why don't you take care of her yourself?"

Mom was left speechless, her finger shaking as she pointed at me. "How did I end up with a kid who's so heartless?"

Since we were already at each other's throats, I didn't care about keeping up appearances. I pointed right back at her and snapped, "That's bullshit! Want to talk about being heartless? When was the last time either you or Dad checked on Grandma?

"She's stuck in bed, in pain, can't keep anything down, losing weight every day, and I don't see either of you lifting a finger for her!"

Mom was quiet for a moment. After a while, she fired back, "That's different. You can't just leave Alice here by herself. She's still so young!"

I picked up the stuff from the floor and walked out without looking back. "Alice wants you and Dad to be her parents, so it's only fair you two take care of her—unless you've been lying to her this whole time.

"She'll lose it if she finds out the truth. She might even have a heart attack, and that'll be on you! This isn't my problem anymore. I don't need you and Dad as my parents."

I pushed past Mom and ran downstairs, only to run straight into Dad, who was standing outside Grandma's ward. He was talking to her doctor.

"Dr. Lander, you're seriously just going to stand by and watch a kid suffer?"

I heard what Dad asked, but I had no clue what he meant.

Dr. Lander was the same one who promised he'd do whatever it took to get Grandma's surgery moved up. When he saw me, he motioned me over, looking worried.

"You're here, Zoe. Your dad said you're okay with your grandma donating blood?" he asked.

Asking someone over 80 to donate blood? No way I was going along with that.

Dr. Lander explained everything to me. Alice's blood type matched Grandma's, so Mom and Dad wanted Grandma to donate blood to her.

I was fuming. I shoved Dad aside, pointed at them, and shouted, "I'll never go along with this! If you even think about touching Grandma, I'll jump off this building to show everyone how shameless you all are!"

Dad shot me a look of disgust. "How can you say something so cruel? How can you just sit there and watch someone die? Your grandma could be doing something good. Plus, going through the regular process takes too long. If she donates willingly, it'll be done right away."

I let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, sure, you're such a saint for having your mom save someone's life!"

Dad raised his hand like he was about to hit me. I saw it coming, so I threw everything in my arms at him, my eyes burning with tears of anger.

"How many times have you even come to see Grandma since she got sick? Yeah, you were busy, but now that you're here, you want to take her life away!" I shouted.

The surgeon handling Grandma's hip replacement surgery was actually hesitant to go through with it because of her age and the high risks. And now Dad was asking her to donate blood. It felt like he was just playing with fire.

Mom came downstairs with Alice and shot me a look like I'd somehow let her down in every possible way.

"Good grief! I honestly wonder if I got the wrong kid when I had you. You can't even lift a finger to help anyone. Alice even said she didn't want to bother you earlier. How are you so different from her?" she questioned.

Alice hid behind Mom, peeking out like she was the one being picked on. I was so disgusted by all three of them together that I grabbed a broom without thinking and started swinging it at them.

"Listen, we're done!" I yelled. "Stop trying to drag Grandma and me into your mess! Other people's daughter is none of our concern!"

Grandma heard the noise and called out from her bed, clearly worried. I rushed in to calm her down, hoping she wasn't too scared.

When she saw I was fine, she let out a big sigh and patted my hand. "Don't worry, Zoe. I know what's going on. It's okay."

That was when my tears started to spill. How could anyone care so much about helping others and ignore what was going on with their own family?

Dad and Mom walked in with Alice.

Then, he talked to Grandma like he wasn't even asking her opinion. "Oh, you're up, Mom. We've got someone who needs a blood transfusion, and lucky for her, your blood type matches. Why don't you help her out? She's so young and helpless.

"And by the way, stop coddling Zoe so much. She's lacking the compassion and softness someone her age should have. She's like a ticking time bomb. And don't worry, this procedure's no big deal. You're not the type to just stand by and let someone die, right?"

What a "perfect" son Dad was.

Grandma was so mad, her breathing got shallow and her heart rate spiked on the monitor. I quickly tried to help her calm down.

She pointed at the door and yelled, "Get out—take your precious kid and leave! Zoe's way better than all of you put together. She must've had the worst luck to end up with parents like you two!"

Dad and Mom exchanged looks, still trying to make their point.

Without thinking, I pressed the call button. "Nurse! These people are disturbing the patient's rest. Can you do something about it?"

Worried about their reputation, Mom and Dad quickly left with Alice.

…

The next day, I took a day off from school. My homeroom teacher didn't mind at all since my grades were always good.

I picked up some meat and headed back to Grandma's to cook her some meals. She could only eat soft foods now—stuff that was easy to swallow.

She needed all the nutrients she could get at her age, so I usually made everything myself and fed her with extra care.

But when I opened the door to her place, I saw that the drawers in the living room had been completely ransacked. I thought someone had broken in, so I checked the security footage.

Turned out, it was Mom and Dad. They'd taken Grandma's property deed and her bankbook.