Chapter 11 — A New Beginning

Mother didn't really care. She never did.

Grandmother had been sending us money from Germany for years, trying to make sure we had food on the table and clothes for school. Her new boyfriend—our step-grandpa—was a good man. The kind of man who, despite not being blood-related to us, never once complained about sending money. Every month, without fail.

But it was like pouring water into a leaking bucket.

The number of times I went to bed hungry because Mother gambled away the money… countless. The number of times I showed up to school without the books I needed because she used the money Grandma sent for them on slot machines… it was insane.

But now? It was finally over.

We were in Germany.

The first couple of days felt strange. My brother and I were out exploring, walking through streets that felt both foreign and somehow familiar. He was fascinated by everything—the clean sidewalks, the orderly traffic, the sheer quiet of it all.

"Look, Ivan! The buses actually stop when people wave!" he shouted the first time we waited at a bus stop. It hit me then just how different life was here. In Croatia, it was chaos—you'd be lucky if the bus even slowed down.

When we walked through Schlossplatz, his eyes lit up at the giant open square, the fountains, and the people just sitting around, doing nothing but enjoying the day. "Why is no one yelling?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

At the Wilhelma Zoo, he practically dragged me around by the arm, seeing animals he had only read about in books—elephants, flamingos, even crocodiles. He stood frozen in front of the aquarium for nearly twenty minutes, his eyes wide as he watched the fish swim by.

But what hit him the hardest was the peace.

No loud arguing.

No beer bottles clinking.

No slot machines buzzing in the background.

Just… peace.

And I kind of missed this.

It was a culture shock for both of us. The silence at night felt strange—too quiet, almost. I wasn't used to falling asleep without the background noise of yelling or blaring TVs. But I didn't miss it. Neither did my brother.

Of course, the decision to move had been rushed. We didn't have proper beds at first, so we slept on the floor, wrapped in blankets. But that didn't matter. We were safe.

School was starting in May. Both my brother and I were set to join the VKL classes, the ones meant for foreign kids learning German. In the original timeline, that was a death sentence—I spent two whole years in those classes before I could speak fluently.

But this time?

This time, they had no idea.

Both of us already spoke German fluently. I made sure of that. The teachers thought we barely knew the basics, but I had no intention of wasting two years again.

One day.

That's all I needed. One day to show them I didn't belong in VKL and move on.

This wasn't just a second chance—it was the fresh start I'd been waiting for.

" I will start my plan when the school starts."

Ivan tought.

And this time, I wasn't going to screw it up.