His first life as Xavier Lambriquet had brimmed with love. His mother, Virginie, transformed their familial misfortune into joy and warmth. His second life, nameless and rotten, was filled with hatred for self and cowardice because he could have ended his suffering at any time. A monk gave him hope of a third life, a better one if he could find the way, and he called this cycle saṃsāra. Birth, suffering, death, rebirth. The Wheel of Time. But the monk was wrong. Xavier’s wheel is going to shatter on this mountainside tonight. He had two lives, one made Heaven by his mother, the other made Hell
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