The Don's Kryptonite

Aurora examined herself in the mirror for the umpteenth time, adjusting the folds of her emerald green dress with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Today was supposed to be a joyous occasion, a meeting with her fiancé, Jason, to discuss their upcoming wedding. She couldn't wait to marry him, to start a new chapter of her life filled with love and happiness. With a final glance in the mirror, she dashed out of the room, eager to see Jason.

As she made her way to the hotel room Jason had arranged for their meeting, Aurora's mind wandered back to her past life, to the memories of her suffering and anguish. But as quickly as the memories came, she pushed them aside, unwilling to let anything dampen her spirits.

Arriving at the fourth floor of the hotel, Aurora walked down the corridor, her heart pounding with anticipation and excitement. But as she reached Jason's room and prepared to knock, a strange noise from within gave her pause. Confusion furrowed her brow as she hesitated, her hand hovering over the doorknob. Curiosity got the better of her.

Turning the knob slowly, Aurora pushed open the door, the smile fading from her lips as she took in the scene before her. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Jason, her beloved fiancé, entwined with Jenny, her stepsister, on the bed. Anger and betrayal surged through her veins, threatening to overwhelm her.

Jason scrambled to cover himself with the sheet, his eyes wide with panic as they met Aurora's. "What... what are you doing here?" he stammered.

Aurora choked back a sob, her gaze shifting from Jason to the smirking figure of Jenny on the bed.

"How could you, Jason? I trusted you!" Aurora asked, her voice breaking. The sight of her stepsister's betrayal fueled the flames of anger within her, and before she knew it, she was charging towards Jenny, her fists clenched in fury and ready to strike.

Before she could reach her, Jason intervened, grabbing her arm and holding her back. "Let go of me now, Jason!" she screamed, her voice trembling with rage and hurt.

Instead of letting go of her arm, Jason held her firmly in place, while Jenny squatted in a corner of the room, looking pitiful.

"Aurora, it's not what it seems like..." Jason's voice wavered with desperation.

"Oh, spare me the excuses! I walk in here, expecting to see my fiancé, and what do I find? You, in bed with my stepsister!" Aurora lashed out, her words laced with venom and her eyes blazing with fury. For a split second, Jason trembled slightly from the fury emitting from her. To him, Aurora had always been gentle, meek, and soft-spoken, but maybe it had all been a lie.

"Aurora, please, just hear me out..." Jason pleaded, releasing her arm.

"There's nothing left to say, Jason. You've made your choice," Aurora said, taking a step back, her voice breaking.

"It's not that simple, Aurora. You don't understand..." Jason's voice was strained, his eyes filled with regret.

"What don't I understand, Jason? That you've been lying to me this whole time? That you've been sneaking around behind my back?" Aurora's hands trembled as she struggled to contain her anger and suppress her hurt.

"It's not like that..." Jason tried to explain one more time, his voice cracking.

"Then what is it like, Jason? Enlighten me, please!" Aurora's voice was cold, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Jason heaved a sigh and moved to sit on the bed. He rubbed his hand over his hair in sheer frustration and regret, but he knew he owed her at least an explanation and needed to set her free with the truth.

"I... I can't do this anymore, Aurora. I can't pretend to be something I'm not," Jason finally admitted, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

"What do you mean?" Aurora's eyes widened in shock. She wasn't expecting that from him.

Jason raised his head to look her deep in the eyes. His voice turned harsh as he replied, "What do you expect me to do? You refused to let me touch you. Hell, I can't even kiss you, and the only thing I am permitted to do is hug you. What will you have me do?" He yelled the last words out, demonstrating how frustrated he was at the turn of recent events.

"But you agreed to wait. Our wedding is happening next month!" Aurora's heart ached with betrayal. She had thought for a long time that Jason was okay with their decision.

"So? I didn't plan for this to happen, but since it has, there is nothing I can do. I'm sorry, Aurora. I am. But I can't go through with this wedding. I want to be with Jenny." Jason sighed heavily.

"You are willing to throw away five years of us being together?" Aurora asked, her voice masked with emotion.

Jason didn't bother to give her a reply, but his silence was loud and clear enough. After getting the answer she needed from him, Aurora finally moved her focus away from Jason and her gaze landed on Jenny, who was still squatting on the floor with a deceitful look. If it had been when they were still young, she would have believed that Jenny was truly remorseful, but she knew better that Jenny was just a pretentious woman.

"Jenny...?" Aurora called her voice barely a whisper.

"Aurora, I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen." Jenny spoke up tearfully, cutting off Aurora's words.

"How could you, Jenny? How could you betray me like this?" Aurora's voice was filled with disbelief.

Faced with Jason's piercing eyes, Jenny's eyes brimmed with tears. "I know I messed up, Aurora. But I love him..."

"What about me, Jenny? What about your sister?" Aurora's voice cracked with pain.

"I never meant to hurt you, Aurora. I swear..." Jenny's voice was pleading; her expression one of sorrow, but the minute Jason had his back to her, her face contorted to one of mockery and smirk. Her gaze bore into Aurora's, letting her know Jason now belonged to her.

Noticing her deceitful pleas, Aurora's gaze turned hard, and she didn't let Jenny finish her utterances before cutting her off with her own. "Well, congratulations. You've succeeded."

"Aurora, please... I know this is hard to understand, but..." Jason's voice was urgent.

Aurora cut him off, her irritation mixed with fury. "Save it, Jason. I don't want to hear another word from you."

"Jason..." Jason and Aurora both turned towards Jenny as she called out weakly. "Plead with her on my behalf. I am sorry this happened; it was all my fault for falling in love with my sister's fiancé. I am sorry, Aurora."

"This isn't your fault, Jenny. I love you as well." Jason responded as he walked to the corner where Jenny squatted and carried her towards the bed to sit. Unable to stomach the scene anymore, Aurora turned swiftly and walked out of the room.

The picture of their betrayal kept playing in Aurora's mind as she walked away from the hotel. It took all her strength to refrain from hitting Jenny and Jason. She kept blaming herself for their breakup. As she strolled into her living room with tears on her face, she was stopped by her father and stepmother.

"How dare you lay your filthy hands on Jenny!" Daniel's roar echoed through the room.

Shocked, Aurora looked from her father to her stepmother, confusion written all over her face.

"It is my fault, Daddy. I didn't mean to fall in love with Jason, but it happened, and Aurora is angry with me," Jenny confessed, her voice filled with false innocence.

"So? She wants to kill you because of a man?" Daniel's eyes blazed with fury.

"I didn't touch you..." Aurora's voice was desperate.

The words had barely left her lips when her father's palm connected to her right cheek. "You ungrateful child, you dare lie?"

Tears pooled in Aurora's eyes from the physical and emotional pain she was suffering. She wished she hadn't walked away calmly from them earlier and had beaten Jenny. She wouldn't have been angry over being lied to.

"It has been decided, Jenny and Jason's wedding is fixed. You had better get used to that." Daniel's voice was cold.

"I thought..." Aurora's voice was a whisper.

"One word from you and I will throw you out of this house, you bastard child. I don't want to see your face. Because of what you did today, there will be no dinner for you, and you will return to the basement for the night." Daniel's voice was filled with finality.

The tears that she had been trying to hold back since she caught Jason and Jenny in bed suddenly let loose. She wept as she walked to the basement with a broken heart.

As she lay on the cold floor with no dinner or any warmth on her body, she snuggled in a corner, dragging the worn-out blanket over her body to protect herself from the cold night and a grumbling stomach. It wasn't as if the blanket could protect her much, but it was better than having nothing over her body. She shivered in the cold room as she lay in the stillness, praying for sleep to come, but the worms in her stomach decided to hold a party there tonight.

Aurora kept tossing and turning on the cold tiled floor with the events of the day plaguing her dreams. She kept seeing Jenny and Jason entangled, and her father's actions thereafter. As she struggled to sleep, she sat on the cold floor and allowed misery to take over her mind.

"I have become a slave in my own home, a home I was born into. What was my offense? I was not the cause of..." she thought.

"Aurora, you bastard child," she heard the voice that she feared most, pulling her out of her thoughts. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet as she dreaded what was coming her way. She needed no soothsayer to tell her all would not be well because the anger in that voice showed that all was not well.

"Where are you, devil child?" Sandra shouted. Aurora hurriedly left her room for the living room, where her father, Daniel, stood in the center of the room, and Jenny sat beside her mother.

"I am here, mother," she said weakly. She had barely finished speaking when she felt the sting on her left cheek. Her father, Daniel, had just slapped her. Moving her eyes swiftly, she saw her father in front of her with a deranged look. If looks could kill, she would be lying on the floor lifeless.

"She is not the mother to a bastard," he bellowed. Aurora shrank from his outburst, looking for an escape route, for she knew better than anyone that it wouldn't stop with just the slap. Just as she had predicted, she felt a kick that brought her down to her knees on her left rib.

"Don't you ever..." Another kick landed on her arm: "Call her..." and "Your mother!" Another kick landed, this time on her torso. She lay on the floor sprawled out as she welcomed the assault for what seemed like a century, but it eventually stopped, and she watched from her peripheral as her father walked back to the center of the room and started pacing. He was muttering to himself, and she could pick out what he was saying.

Ever since her mother died along with her brother, her father had always said to her face that she was the daughter of a bastard, as he was not her biological father. He claimed Aurora's mother wasn't faithful to him while they were married, and she was a child of one of her scandals. In her younger years, she didn't understand this, but now that she was older, it hurt Aurora whenever he insulted her mother.

She had been wondering, "If he claims I am not his biological child, why hasn't he conducted a DNA test to prove this?" She had at one point wanted to carry out a DNA test but was scared to find out the truth. "What if he was right?" She trusted her mom, though she was faithful, but she wasn't ready to know the result either. It was a split emotion that she had been battling with; despite his maltreatment, she still craved a family, and he was the only one she knew and had left.

"You will be coming with me tomorrow to meet with a client." He said as he cast a glance toward her. "Sandra, darling, please make her a bit presentable; we wouldn't want Lorenzo to see her this way, not that he would care though."

"Lorenzo?" she asked weakly. Ignoring what she had said, he approached Sandra, and they spoke in hushed tones. All the while, Jenny was seated right there, throwing a smirk in Aurora's way. Suddenly, she stood and walked toward her. Aurora unconsciously moved back, as she didn't want any pretentious accidents from Jenny.

She bent down slowly and whispered to Aurora, "I can't wait to see you destroyed, bitch."

"Why do you hate me this much?"

"Why? It has always been you; from our high school to college years, you've always been the chosen one. You even took Jason from me, but as you know, I took him back from you. I will ensure you are destroyed, and I will take everything from you."

"You have everything already, including my father's love and Jason. What else do you want from me?"

"I hate seeing your face; I hate hearing you talk. I just want you dead, bitch. Just die."

"To think I have never been bad to you, yet you are always bringing me sadness; now you want me dead?"

"Now that I think about it, I don't want you dead. I want to see you suffer."

Just as she finished speaking, Jenny fell off her own volition and screamed, holding her ankle. Aurora frowned at the sudden change of events, as she could sense what was to follow her shenanigans. As expected, Daniel and Sandra rushed to Jenny's side, concern etched deeply into their faces.

"What happened to you, darling?" Sandra's voice trembled with worry as she gazed at Jenny, tears streaming down her face.

With a sharp intake of breath, Jenny pointed accusingly at Aurora. "I was trying to talk to her, but she pushed me," she sobbed, her voice trembling with feigned pain.

Aurora's heart pounded in her chest as she watched the scene unfold before her. The weight of Jenny's betrayal bore down on her, threatening to crush her spirit once and for all. She was left shocked; "Why?" she couldn't say. She was not supposed to be surprised, as she was aware of Jenny's antics and shenanigans, but still, she was amazed at how fast her plan was concise.

"You ungrateful wench, how dare you lay your filthy hands on her?" Daniel thundered. He moved towards her with great anger, ready to devour her.

Without warning, Daniel hit Aurora on her right cheek, then on her body, until she lost awareness of where his hands had hit. But the pains erupting from her body show she's been hit everywhere.

By the time he stopped, she had a swollen cheek and a bleeding mouth. Sandra was pretentious enough to act as if she cared and stopped him, but what she said next brought Aurora back to a state of panic. She had nearly forgotten it was mentioned so early.

"It's enough, darling. We wouldn't want her face to be damaged before we delivered her to Lorenzo. He might not care about her, but we can't afford to bring curious eyes our way with the way she looks."

"She is an ungrateful child. Jenny was trying to be nice, but she just had to be wicked."

"I know, but no more hands on her."

"I still don't know why you insist we lock her inside the house; left to me, I would rather disown her and throw her out of my house." Daniel fumed.

Aurora had tuned them out as she had a bigger problem than whatever was being discussed. What they were saying was no longer news to her, but the fact that she will be given to Lorenzo tomorrow is no small news.

Catching Jenny and Jason in bed didn't even break her to this extent or get her heart to beat with great trepidation. Not even Jason's betrayal could equal what she is experiencing at the moment. Raw emotions of fear, and brokenness surge through her as she tries to decipher what she just heard from Sandra.

"Deliver her to Lorenzo" kept ringing in her head.

Why would her father deliver her to Lorenzo? Is it because of the lies Jenny spewed yesterday about hitting her?

She tried to sit upright to think more about her situation.

"Living in her father's house is a much better state than being under Lorenzo", she thought to herself.

"What on earth am I coming with him to meet with Lorenzo for?"

"Lorenzo, who has been rumoured to be a notorious, deadly Mafia lord. Inarguably, he is the most influential person in Italy. His influence is well known, and he's feared not just in Italy but in Mexico, Russia, and America as well. Rumours have it that he eats the flesh of men and drinks their blood. It is also rumoured that he detests the presence of any females coming next to him. From what I had read and heard about him at the university, he was called gay because no one had ever seen a female with him. What business transaction does my father have with the devil himself?" She thought.

"I guess you now see the benefits of having her around all this while" Sandra replied, casting a glance at Aurora with a smirk plastered on her lips.

She couldn't sleep a wink all through the night as she dreaded what the morning would bring. Come morning, her fate will be twisted. She is not looking forward to this meeting, but it is beyond her judgement.

Early the next morning, Sandra had dragged her out to the car park to meet her impatient father. She wasn't even allowed to have her breakfast or look decent enough. The bruises on her body and face are still evident. Sandra had tried her best to use concealer to hide the bruises on her face, and she had stolen a glance at the mirror to see how she looked. Thankfully, she hadn't turned her into a clown with her make-up. If there's one thing she loved the most, it was leaving her natural face void of make-up.

Sandra did a good job hiding the cuts, but the swollen cheeks... not so much. As she sat in the car with her father, they were both silent. He didn't even spare her a glance or respond to her greetings. He was just eager to get things done and be back in his office.

As her father raced out of their gate, she looked back at the house that had been in her memory for years with a gloomy face. Will she be back or is it a complete farewell? She didn't know.

She withdrew her gaze from the building and stared ahead at the road, which stretched without an end, thinking about what fate had in store for her. She'd suddenly been thrown into a journey of the unknown, one she would rather not embark on.

"Better keep those tears to yourself!" Daniel barked. Instantly, she wiped her face off; she didn't even know when the tears had started falling. Leaning on the seat, she closed her eyes and welcomed the uncertainty; there was nothing she could do to change it. Why would she stress herself?

***

"How dare you dirty my shoe?" Lorenzo roared.

Aiming his gun at the lifeless body on the floor, he rains a bullet into the dead body. The body jerks as the bullet pierces different parts. He had shot the lifeless man in the head earlier, and the blood splattered and stained his shoe.

Annoyed by the stain, he rained down bullets into the already lifeless body.

In the corner of the room sat a man in his urine, dreading his fate. He and the lifeless body had been caught trying to steal funds from the casino, and Lorenzo's men had caught them and brought them to the oven to receive their judgement.

"Bring that bloody fool who dares try to steal from me!" he ordered his men who were with him in the room. Instantly, the pleas of the man filled the room.

Without waiting for the man to be dragged to his front, Lorenzo aimed the gun at him and clicked, but it was empty. He hated the noise the man was making and couldn't wait to have a pin-drop silence. Staring at the man in his right hand, another loaded gun was placed in his palm.

"You better be thankful that I have already emptied the bullets into the body of your accomplice here. If you know what's good for you, you'll keep quiet." He ordered in a cold voice, which shut him up.

He motioned for his men to place him on the empty iron seat in the centre room, and they quickly obliged.

"Why did you steal from me?"

"Boss," he stammered. "We didn't mean to steal from you; we were only arranging the money when we were brought here." He managed to finish his sentence.

"You dare lie to me?" Lorenzo thundered, which made the man on the seat wet himself all over again, afraid of his fate because of the deadly look on Lorenzo's face.

"No boss..." He didn't get to finish his statement before he slumped from the chair, and his eyes rolled to the back of his skull. He gripped his neck where a bullet had just pierced. He gurgled before his body suddenly went lifeless.

"Clean up this mess," Lorenzo said to no one in particular, and with that, his long legs strolled out of the room. He hadn't gone out of the room when his assistant, Lawrence, rushed to his side, walking quietly behind him. As Lorenzo's chilling command hung in the air, Lawrence couldn't help but feel a surge of anticipation mixed with a healthy dose of apprehension. He adjusted his glasses, his mind swirling with questions and uncertainties.

"Daniel Bennett is at the down-street office, sir," Lawrence reported, trying to keep up with Lorenzo's powerful strides. Lorenzo's eyes narrowed, his gaze piercing as he considered Lawrence's words. "Alone?"

"No, he's got company." Lawrence shook his head.

Lorenzo's lips curled into a slight smirk, a silent acknowledgment of the scheme surrounding their unexpected visitors. "And who might this 'company' be?"

Lawrence shrugged, "He is with a lady. Her identity, I can't confirm yet, boss. But something tells me it's not going to be a simple meeting."

"Daniel wouldn't dare me! He owes me, and I'll draw blood from him if he refuses to comply."

In the darkened and rough path of their world, every encounter held the potential to reshape their reality. One no one can predict.

With a nod, Lawrence braced himself for the imminent encounter, knowing that in the battle for power, nothing was ever as it seemed and anything could as well happen, but he was confident that he would come out unscathed.

As the door creaked open, casting a ray of light into the darkness, Lorenzo stepped into the room, ready to face whatever awaited them on the other side.

"I need to clean up so as not to scare our guests away. I will be out soon." Lorenzo uttered with a smirk dancing across his lips as he stepped into the room without waiting for an acknowledgment from Lawrence.

With Lorenzo inside his private room, Lawrence quickly dashed out of the Oven to the car park to prepare the ride back to the Russo's office. He wouldn't want to irk Lorenzo more than he is already pissed. He pitied those whom his boss would be meeting with as his anger was already all over the place.

The oven is a code name given by Lorenzo; it is where he deals with any mafia and underground work. It was nicknamed 'The Oven' for the lynching of eight houses that planned to overthrow Lorenzo; since then, it has become a place where Lorenzo deals with any traitor or any dirty job. Within their mafia world, everyone dreads being brought into the oven as any living soul that enters, comes out in a bloodied sack.

***

As Aurora sat with her father while they waited for Lorenzo, she kept remembering how her father had warned her several times to tell Lorenzo that she was his most beloved daughter.

"Why are you laughing?" her father's cold voice brought her back to the present. She had laughed out loud at the irony of being her father's favourite daughter when in truth she couldn't be considered as his daughter at all. She is keen to know if Lorenzo will know the truth, but then again, her family has hidden the knowledge of her maltreatment from the public. Only a few knew her to be his daughter; to the outside world, he only had one daughter, who is Jenny.

At the young age of five, she had lost her mother and elder brother of age eight to a ghastly road accident. According to what she learned, they had died on the spot. She couldn't exactly grasp the meaning of death and had wanted nothing more than to see them the next day. In her younger years, she had gone to her father, asking him about the whereabouts of her mother and brother, but she was met with something deeper. Right in her father's room, she saw her father and another woman naked. She had run out that day, but after barely a few minutes of running, her father came and beat her severely for intruding on his privacy. She had cried to bed that night, wanting nothing more than to see her mother and brother. The next day, her father brought home a woman and her daughter, whom she was later informed were her stepmother and stepsister. Since then, she has been living in hell.

A hand landed heavily on her head, and she turned sharply to see the angry face of her father.

"Are you deaf?"

She quickly searched my mind to see what his last question was but came up empty. She decided to go along with what She heard last. "I am not laughing," she replied. He stared at her, angry, and was about to rebuke her when they heard the shuffling of feet behind them. Shortly after, the door to the waiting room, where they were seated, opened. Daniel jumped to his feet instantly, and on instinct, Aurora followed suit. The room's temperature dropped instantly. Everything suddenly became colder. She had her head lowered, and she needed no soothsayer to tell her who had just walked in. The devil himself has finally made his presence known.

Unconsciously, Aurora trembled slightly as the sound of the feet drew closer. Her hand instinctively rubbed her arm to calm herself a bit.

"Mr. Russo, good day, sir." She heard Daniel greet him.

Her eyes widened in shock over the revelation that her proud father just greeted someone first and in a humble and respectful tone.

"Where is your promise to pay off my debt?" she heard a voice colder than that of her father and instantly, she felt the air on her body rise higher at the tone of his voice. She dare not look up.

"Here she is my precious daughter. Thank you for accepting her and leaving my business and family."

"You realise you'll be signing a document that states she will be my property forever?'

"Yes, and I must thank you for your generosity."

Everyone went quiet for a while before he spoke again. "And she is your daughter?"

"Yes sir. I assure you."

"Quiet!" he thundered. Aurora shivered lightly again and felt her father shiver too. Quietly, they both stood there waiting for what was going to happen next.

"Get out"

Daniel turned sharply and moved towards the door with Aurora following after him, but the words that came out next made her stand transfixed.

"I wasn't talking to you, but your father."

Aurora watched transfixed as Daniel left the office, not even sparing a glance at her until he disappeared. She couldn't control the tears that had gathered in her eyes and allowed them to flow freely.

"Come here," he ordered. She turned and walked back to where she had stood earlier with her father.

Lorenzo's eyes scan over her body, watching her and wondering why she looks so thin. His eyes lingered longer on her hair; she had her head dipped; hence, her face was not in view. Her black, wavy hair cascaded down her shoulder, and her tiny body was wrapped in a gown that stuck to her body like a second skin. He felt angry and couldn't explain what could have caused his anger at not being able to see her face or could it be her presence. He hates women and doesn't want any woman to come close to him. Despite his hatred for women, he had never laid his hands on them. He just hasn't found anyone worthy of being in his presence, except his mother.

"Sign that document," he commanded, his voice laced with authority. With trembling hands, Aurora complied, the weight of her submission heavy upon her soul.

She moved to the front of the table, picked up the paper with a trembling hand, and scribbled her signature on it. She didn't even bother reading the document.

"Get out" his words rang out like a death knell. She rushed towards the door for fear that his voice would swallow her whole.

Confused and clueless, she wanders outside his office but not for long as Lawrence appears in her line of focus.

"Follow me, please." She heard him utter in a calm voice. She raised her head in surprise at the gentleness of his voice. It was the last thing she expected. Although she hadn't witnessed their cruelty first-hand, she had heard a lot about them and didn't expect gentleness from them.

The gentle voice, however, did not match the stern look that adorned the face that she came in contact with and she dropped her gaze immediately for fear of upsetting him.

As she followed behind him, memories of her cascading storm kept playing in her mind, suffocating her. To keep from melting down, she kept repeating words of assurance to herself in a low voice "You'll be fine, Aurora."

But will she be fine? When Sandra dropped the bomb on her yesterday that she'll be delivered to Lorenzo, she thought it was to further punish her, never in her wildest imagination did she think father would be selling her off to pay his debt.

Suddenly, she fell to the floor, clutching her neck as the harsh reality hit her hard, strangling her. She couldn't breathe and her emerald green eyes shone with anxiety and terror with great intensity.

Noticing that no movement was heard following him, Lawrence turned to see the suffocating body on the floor. Confused and flustered, he contemplated what to do. Should he help her himself or call the medical team? He didn't deliberate for long as the urgency of the moment made him take matters into his own hands.

He crouched to her face level and helped her up. As he sensed that she was having a panic attack, he rubbed her back gently and repeatedly told her to breathe.

Aurora didn't obey at first but as seconds passed, his voice rang in her head and she noticed she was not breathing, hence, her suffocation. But she has forgotten how to breathe. Listening to his voice and demonstration, she began to breathe slowly, and some seconds later, her breathing returned to normal.

With the help of Lawrence, she stood on her feet and cleaned the tears on her face. Lawrence studied her face for a while and after ensuring she was better now uttered 'We are going to the house you'll be staying in." He said in a calmer voice.

"Thank you," Aurora muttered to him weakly, her voice barely audible.

He nodded in acknowledgment and resumed his walk. He didn't know why he suddenly felt the urge to reassure her but he just wanted to protect her and ensure she was fine.

As Aurora resumed her walk behind Lawrence, she tried hard to shove the bitter truth of her harsh reality down her mind, but it clung to her throat like a second skin, threatening to tear her apart.

As they stepped outside into the harsh light of day, the sight of two familiar figures disappearing into the car sparked a glimmer of recognition, she was surprised and confused at the same time at whom she had just seen.

"Is that her?"