My life was about to go through a life-shattering change. I would lose both parents, fall in love with my stepbrother and be sold to save my stepfather’s farm. My father did not live with my mother and me; he would show up several times a year and spend a couple of days. When he was around we would have the best time together. When I was eight, my mother remarried and we had to move to the farm where my stepfather and stepbrother lived. They had a lot of farm hands to help them run it. My stepbrother was four years older than I and so very nice to my mother and me. On the farm, the summers were always so hot and the winters were so very cold. We were so far away from everyone and everything. My stepbrother and I became very close. We became quite the little family; so I thought! I must say, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be rented out and sold like livestock.