The Life She Was Given

by Ellen Marie Wiseman

“There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfectly normal except for the color of your skin. That’s all. And guess what? There are other people just like you. They’re called albinos.” Lilly looked up, her chin trembling. “There are other people like me?”

Awww...so sad that this is why her parents hid her away.

Trying to figure out the woman who had brought her into this world at an age when most mothers were watching their children get married or sending them off to college wouldn’t change anything. Mother was who she was, and now she was gone.

Life was too big and too short and too important to talk about the lack of rain or the latest gossip. She wanted to know how people felt about themselves and one another, whether they were happy or sad. She wanted to know what made them feel loved and what hurt them to the core. She wanted to know about their past, how they got where they were, and their relationships with their mothers and fathers and siblings. She wanted to know if she was the only mixed-up person in the world who felt completely and utterly alone.

So this is what it felt like to be hugged by another person. And maybe, just maybe, this was what it felt like to be loved.

People get mad at animals for acting like animals all the time.”

Lilly made a face. She didn’t have a gift. The elephants liked and trusted her. That was all. Her cat, Abby, used to be the same way. She did what Lilly wanted because they loved and trusted each other. Maybe people didn’t give animals enough credit. They were smarter and had more feelings than anyone realized.

You can’t punish a mother for acting like a mother, or an animal for acting like an animal.”

Pepper had killed Merrick, and now, somehow, Pepper was going to pay for following her natural-born instincts. Just thinking about someone taking Phoebe made Lilly’s heart cramp with panic and her stomach churn with fear. No wonder Pepper went wild. Lilly would have too. The difference between her and Pepper was that no one would shoot her for trying to save her baby.

CHAPTER 31 LILLY

OMG this chapter...

Every beat of Lilly’s heart felt like an explosion beneath her ribcage. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Mr. Barlow was going to execute Pepper, and in front of all these people. People who had come to see her killed. And humans called animals bloodthirsty.

people who were cold and aggressive were not happy people. They treated others the way they did because they were unhappy within themselves.