Chapter 6
543words
In the quiet of night, my mind drifted back to when I first met Lawrence Sullivan.
I was fifteen when he returned from abroad to finish high school in the States. We met on campus.
Back then, I knew nothing about him—just that the Sullivan heir had mysteriously returned home. Everyone assumed it was to groom him for the family business. I didn't learn until after our marriage that he'd already been a monster then.
At seventeen, he'd killed someone overseas. His family rushed him home to bury the scandal.
By then, his mask of normalcy was already flawless.
Handsome, wealthy, charming—he made schoolgirls blush and giggle whenever his name was mentioned.
I wasn't one of them.
From the start, I approached him purely for money.
Dad's business had tanked, and suddenly we were struggling to pay bills. When Lawrence needed a tutor, I walked into his world armed with nothing but my perfect test scores.
"Think you can help me?"
"Absolutely. I'm top of the class in everything. Whatever you need help with, I can handle it."
"Anything at all? Interesting. What's your name?"
"Victoria Bennett."
"Perfect. Then I'll be counting on you for everything, Vicky."
He emphasized "everything" with a strange intensity, but I had no idea those simple words would devour seven years of my youth and my grandmother's life.
His smile seemed like warm spring sunshine then, but behind it lurked an endless, hungry darkness.
That's how I walked step by step into the hell called Lawrence Sullivan. I placed myself on the altar, a willing sacrifice to a false god.
My thoughts snapped back to my painful present.
I couldn't sink any deeper. I had to escape this living nightmare.
But God, it seemed impossible.
Could I really trust Olivia? Yet she was my last connection to my grandmother—my last link to family. I had no choice but to gamble on her.
I was already in hell—how much worse could it get? Time to roll the dice.
Night has its own beauty—peaceful, without daylight's harsh demands. It seems to absorb suffering, wrapping pain in merciful darkness. The stars scattered across the sky were like distant hopes—unreachable, perhaps, but their light still found me, offering direction.
But even if I escaped this house, where could I possibly go?
Lawrence's influence reached everywhere. His money bought loyalty, information, violence. Could I really spend my life as a fugitive, always looking over my shoulder?
If I could vanish completely, maybe. But if he caught me—and he had resources to find me—what new tortures would he devise?
He wouldn't kill me, but Olivia... No. I couldn't let anyone else suffer because of me.
Where could I go to live freely in the sunlight? What place existed beyond his reach, beyond his control?
Suddenly, a name flashed in my mind.
If it was her—maybe there was a chance. She lived somewhere Lawrence couldn't touch, somewhere he wouldn't dare approach.
If I could reach her, there might be a sliver of hope after all.
Starlight caught the tears of hope that spilled from my eyes, casting everything in a dreamlike glow. For the first time in years, I felt something stir within me—possibility.
