Everyone had a secret regardless of your nobility or status.
"28143, you can leave now," a female prison guard said to a short-haired woman in front of her. "Once you leave, behave yourself. Do not come back again."
The iron gate clanked open. The short-haired woman dragged her heavy feet as she walked out of prison.
The sun was up and shining brightly. The sunshine hit the surrounds beautifully; the leaves, the trees, and even the woman's face. She raised her head and looked up at the sun, eyes squinting. She was dazzled by the sunshine but she didn't look down. She just kept staring at the sun until she felt dizzy and everything had blacked out. She then bowed her head and closed her eyes. Her mind suddenly flashed back to seven years ago.
"Sally, bitch! I'm going to let you die here like a dog!"
"Well, we'll see who's going to die first."
The two women were wrestling on the floor. Sally hit the woman with whatever she could reach—she'd gone mad.
After a popping noise, everything soon fell into a thick silence.
"Sally, you didn't kill her, did you?" Rachel asked in horror, watching the woman lay still under Sally, her eyes widened. Blood streamed down from her forehead like a waterfall.
Sally got up, but she felt like her world was spinning and she was falling into an abyss. The thing she was holding clattered on the floor. She walked up to Rachel, held her tightly, and said in a calm voice, "Little Pear, promise me that you'll live your life the way you're supposed even if I have to leave you."
"Sally…" Rachel burst out crying. She was only 15 years old, and it was too much for her to bear. "You're not leaving me, Sally! She deserved it! She killed father and mother, and she hurt me!"
Hearing Rachel crying, Sally held her tighter. "Don't go back to the Dragon Island. Go anywhere else. The best gift you could give to me and our parents is you living your best life,"
Sally said seriously, like she was uttering her last words. Then she sat down quietly and waited for the police to arrive.
Sally opened her eyes—back to the present. She paid for the best lawyers to represent her in court and she did all she could so that her sentence would be reduced from ten years to seven years. Seven years had passed now.
Seven years… Seven was a painful number to her. Once, in a lovely evening, she had asked him what the number seven meant to him.
"Seven represents the seven years that I have been in love with you," he answered, and his smile was as bright as the sun.
Sally's heart twitched, and her fist clenched. After seven years, her once-enigmatic eyes just now seemed to be full of bitterness and exhaustion from life.
Sally headed to a small village and found the public phone. She tried to call Rachel's interim guardian but couldn't get through. Frowned, Sally couldn't help but get worried.
Sally never allowed Rachel to visit her in jail. She was afraid that if Rachel visited her in jail, it would just bring back all those bad memories. Rachel had been so young and Sally wanted her to be able to move on and live her life the way she was supposed to.
Sally set out for the downtown area with a restless heart. The city had changed so much after seven years that she hardly recognized it. Maybe it was because she never really knew this city.
*
A month later
At the Romantic Club of T City
"Sally, this wine is for Luxury Cabin 77," said Nina, the chief madam of the Romantic Club. "I already have the information you asked for," Nina uttered as she looked around cautiously. She leaned closer to Sally as she handed her the wine. "Your sister's guardian is now Henrik Ji. The president of the Foreign Electronics happens to be meeting with him today here. Try to find a way to talk to him!" she whispered.
"Thank you so much, Nina!" Sally said gratefully as she took the wine.
Nina nodded and said, "I owe this to your mother. She was so kind to me, and I feel guilty that I wasn't able to help her daughters. If I had come to help you in time, Rachel, my dear Little Pear, wouldn't had been left to someone else's care. But at least Henrik is her guardian. I believe he'll treat Rachel nicely."
"Well," Sally murmured in response, "I should go now."
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Love Began with the First Meeting