Chapter 1 Leaving the Heart Behind

Hope

I put my foot on the accelerator to speed up my car through the empty road. 'Thunder' by Imagine Dragons was blaring through the speakers of my Porche. I had just crossed the borders of Texas and was speeding my way inside the city.

I checked the map on my brand new phone once more to make sure that I was going the right way. It showed that I would be reaching my wanted destination in just two more hours.

I could not help but notice the calmness and relaxation that had suddenly covered my heart. This was a feeling that I had not experienced in five years. And right now, I felt like I had just accomplished the biggest task of kindness that had ever been given to me.

Like I had just saved a life.

Mine.

Three days ago, I had left North Carolina and five years of torture behind. And since then, I was on a run, trying to make sure that the army of monsters somehow leave me unharmed.

Now you would start to think that why would a girl living in North Carolina, moreover driving a Porche would try to make herself look like a torture victim so pathetically.

So let us clear the story now. My story.

See, at the age of twenty one, where nobody else was even thinking about if they would be getting an employment or not, because of my hard work and determination, I was set to score the highest marks in the university.

My parents had gotten killed just a year ago. It was a car accident.

The accident had left me in peices for a while. I did not succumb to depression, but it had left a gruesome mark on me for the following couple of months.

They had loved me unconditionally all my life. Being the only child, I was the apple of their eyes. Loved and spoiled rotten by them. I was living in heaven on earth.

And then the accident happened and suddenly my world had gotten snatched away from me in a night.

I had been distressed and angry. Desperate to the point of taking sleeping pills to calm myself and have a peaceful sleep instead of memories and gruesome details of accident haunting me.

But then I remembered the amount of their love that they had showered upon me. The pride that they had showed every time they had introduced me to someone. The shine in their eyes. The affection in their eyes.

That is the only thing that helped me stand up again. So a year later, I was doing my best to live a life that my parents would have been proud of.

They had always said that I was their hope. I was the ray of sunshine that had lit up their lives since the day of my arrival in the world. This is why they had named me the feeling that they had gotten after seeing me for the first time- Hope.

I had a super hot, and rich Italian boyfriend whose family owned a business so large, it was hard to keep the track of their properties.

I was in love with him. He was the man who made me see stars in broad daylight with the love that he showered upon me.

On the day of graduation, he proposed me for marriage. I was on the top of the world that day.

I had felt like this was it! This is how the rest of my life is going to look like. This is how much happy I am going to be with this man. My Ethan.

I agreed to marry him. We got married the next month in a beautiful ceremony with his parents and some close relatives present there to congratulate us.

The first three months were heaven. As the fourth one started rolling around, I realized how big of the puddle of mud it was that I had gotten myself stuck into.

Slowly, the people associated in business with my husband and his parents started coming around our house.

Strange people.

People with guns, and bodyguards, and gangs with hockey sticks and knives tied to them.

And that is when I realized, I had just fucked up my whole life.