Country B, 7:00 PM.
Rain poured mercilessly, drenching the city streets that had long forgotten what summer rain felt like. It was supposed to be the hottest year in decades, yet tonight the heavens seemed to mourn with her.
A woman in her mid-thirties trudged along the sidewalk, soaked to the bone. Her once-elegant face now looked far older than her thirty-five years, tired, lifeless, and worn down by regret.
Whispers followed her wherever she went.
"Isn't that Lauren Yates? The young madam of the Yates family?"
"What's she doing here? Shouldn't she be living in luxury?"
Lauren let out a hollow laugh, her fingers clutching the cheap umbrella that barely shielded her from the downpour.
Yes, she thought bitterly. I am Lauren Yates, the young madam of the Yates family, blessed with a loving husband and two beautiful children. But look at me now working like a live-in nanny for my cousins. How utterly stupid of me.
Her heart twisted as memories flooded back, the day she left her home, believing her husband and family no longer loved her. She'd thought their distant behavior meant indifference. She hadn't known how badly she had misjudged them.
Earlier that morning, when she returned from walking her nephews to school, she had overheard a conversation that shattered her world.
Her cousins and their in-laws were laughing mocking her, boasting about how easily she'd been manipulated. How they'd fed her drugs to make her anxious, how they'd twisted her mind with lies until she couldn't tell truth from deception.
Her "escape" to this faraway city had never been freedom. It had been their victory.
Rain mixed with tears as Lauren stumbled forward, her heart breaking under the weight of realization.
I left the people who truly loved me… because of their lies.