“Listen to me, Harry.”
My words were razor-edged with urgency.
“This household is dissolving into dust.Let me go—and get out of here yourself.”
His smirk faltered, fear flickering across his face like a crack in his armor.
The weight of my words settled into him, and whatever satisfaction he’d found in my downfall shriveled beneath the truth.
He moved quickly, hands trembling as he fumbled with bridles and harnesses, the echo of his mockery gone.
Mary and I exchanged a glance—silent understanding forged in fire, refined under years of shared fear and loyalty.
The morning light filtered through the stable’s slats, casting long shadows that seemed to chase us here.
The carriage groaned as Harry hitched the horses, every creak a countdown to freedom or capture.
When it was ready, we threw our satchels onto the seat—each thud a punctuation mark to our frantic, pounding hearts.
I climbed to the driver’s bench, hands trembling as I seized the reins, the leather biting into my palms like a vow.
Mary followed, sitting beside me like a lifeline, a thread anchoring me to sanity in a world undone.
“Where are we going?”she whispered, as if afraid that speaking might shatter our fragile escape.
I clucked to the horses.
They lunged forward, hooves striking the ground with a fierce, eager rhythm.
Just like us—ready to run.
“To the cottage first,” I said, my eyes fixed on the winding road ahead.
“Then...we go to the Americas.”
A beat of silence.
The words tasted foreign but strong.
An unfamiliar sense of peace settled into me—hard, cold, unshakable.
I had been forged in betrayal.In fire.
Now, I would rise from the ashes.
And across oceans, beyond the reach of my father’s shadow, the next chapter waited.
One I would write in my hand.
The carriage wheels crunched over the gravel path, each rotation a thunderous reminder of all I’d lost.
We arrived at the cottage?—
A place that once whispered secrets now stood eerily silent, its door ajar like an open wound.
I dismounted, heart thudding against my ribs, panic clawing at my throat.
Inside, chaos reigned.
