Chapter 2 - The Golden Fortress
I had never been inside a real car before, let alone a luxury SUV.
The leather seats felt like clouds, and the heater blasted warm air over my frozen face.
Julian was sitting in the ambulance behind us, being monitored by a team of doctors.
Arthur sat next to me in the backseat, holding his phone to his ear.
He was speaking rapidly to a team of lawyers, ordering them to freeze all of Victoria’s bank accounts.
He wanted her destroyed before she even reached the police station.
When he finally hung up, he looked down at me with a soft, heartbroken expression.
“Where are your parents, Maya?” he asked gently.
I looked out the tinted window at the passing city lights.
“They died in a car crash when I was five,” I muttered.
“The foster home was bad, so I ran away.”
Arthur’s eyes darkened with a mixture of immense sorrow and quiet rage.
“You survived three winters on your own?”
I nodded, clutching his expensive coat tighter around my small body.
“I had to,” I said simply.
The SUV pulled through a set of massive iron gates.
We drove up a winding driveway until a literal mansion appeared in the headlights.
It looked like a castle from a fairy tale, with glowing windows and towering stone pillars.
A team of maids and a private doctor were already waiting at the front doors.
When Arthur carried me inside, the warmth of the grand foyer wrapped around me like a blanket.
“Draw a warm bath, prepare a hot meal, and get the doctor in here,” Arthur barked his orders.
An older woman with kind eyes gently took my hand.
“Come with me, sweet girl,” she smiled.
An hour later, the dirt of the streets was washed away down a golden drain.
I was dressed in soft silk pajamas that belonged to Julian.
I sat at a dining table longer than a subway car, eating a bowl of hot chicken soup.
Julian was wheeled into the room in a plush wheelchair, wrapped in thick blankets.
He saw me and immediately demanded his father push him closer.
He reached out and grabbed my hand, exactly like he had in the park.
May you like
“Thank you,” Julian whispered, tears filling his eyes again.
I squeezed his hand back, finally allowing myself to smile.
