I Am Nina — Chapter 1 — Elizabeth
You know Nina. Her birth name is Elizabeth — and the story starts before her.
Nina was rich, then poor on purpose, then rich again. And neither of the boys knows.
You know me as Nina.
I'm going to tell you something that neither Kim nor Jack knows. A little of my past. Maybe one day they'll find out. Not today.
I know almost nothing about my life before I was three.
At three, I was adopted. By a couple — a man and a woman who wanted me.
I never met my biological parents and I have no interest in meeting them. To me, a father and a mother are the people who chose me. Who cared. Who wanted me inside their lives. My dad and my mom.
Except I didn't have much luck with the second part.
My mother's name was Elizabeth.
Two years after adopting me, when I was five, she got sick. And she died.
I can't really remember her. I have flashes — a hand, a smell, the sound of a voice with no words. Everything I actually know about Elizabeth is what my dad told me, years later, once I was old enough to hear it.
But there's one thing that doesn't fade.
Every time I think about my mother, I feel something much bigger than the memory should be able to hold. It's not missing a person I knew. It's something else. Deeper.