4
It was evening by the time I got home. As soon as I entered the house, I sensed something strange about the atmosphere in the living room. All the maids kept their heads down, deliberately avoiding my gaze.
What was going on?
Isabella stammered: “Sister, Lucky…Lucky…”
Lucky was the little dog my grandfather had left me. I had raised him for fifteen whole years. You could say he was the last family I had left in
this world.
¡ shoved Isabella aside and started searching the house for Lucky: “Lucky, sister’s home! Come out, boy!”
Isabella’s eyes turned red. Crystal tears hung from her long lashes as she tugged at my sleeve: “Sister, Lucky…Lucky’s gone.”
“Aiden and I were taking Lucky for a walk today when he ran off on his own and got hit by a car.”
I grabbed Isabella’s shoulders, praying this was just another one of her cruel jokes: “Isabella, what did you say?”
She turned away from Aiden and flashed me a vicious smile, speaking in a voice only the two of us could hear: “Lucky wasn’t killed by the first hit. He was still crawling on the ground, whimpering pitifully. It sounded so sad!”
I raised my hand and slapped her across the face: “Isabella, you’ll pay for this!”
Aiden rushed over and shoved me to the ground: “Sophia, it was just a dog. Why are you overreacting?”
Just a dog? Overreacting?
This was the only thing my grandfather had left me. On his deathbed, he had held my hand and smiled as he comforted me: “Sophia, don’t worry about me being gone. You’ll still have Lucky to keep you company!”
Aiden avoided my gaze as he said: “That dog was already 15 years old. It was time for him to go anyway!”
I glared at Aiden, feeling like I was seeing his true face for the first time: “Aiden, you should have died long ago. You’re an accomplice!”
12:30 PM
<
He glared back furiously: “Sophia, I’ll let this slide since your dog just died!”
Isabella had the maid bring out Lucky’s body. I picked him up.
The dog who used to run to my feet and bark happily every time I came home now lay motionless on the cold floor. His once snow–white curly fur was matted with blood. Both his hind legs had been crushed by the car.
“Where’s the person who hit him?”
Isabella put on an innocent face: “Sister, it wasn’t intentional. The driver even had a 5–year–old child with him! I felt bad, so I let him go.”
Lucky’s cries kept echoing in my ears, but the body in my arms was already starting to grow stiff and cold.
Lucky was really gone. It felt like my grandfather had left me for a second time.
Isabella crouched down, pretending she was going to help me up. But she leaned in close to my ear and imitated Lucky’s whimpering, mocking me: “Sister, you must really want revenge right now, don’t you? But you have nothing. People with nothing don’t deserve revenge!”
Isabella laughed gleefully. She had always resented me for causing her disappearance. But she forgot that when she went missing, she was only 3 years old, and I was just 6.
I had long since repaid my debt to her. She shouldn’t have…she shouldn’t have taken it out on my Lucky.
With bloodshot eyes, I set Lucky’s body down and suddenly lunged at Isabella, wrapping my hands tightly around her throat.
Aiden and the maids swarmed over to pull me off her. Ignoring the pain, I clawed chunks of flesh from Isabella’s neck: “Isabella, you murderer! I won’t let you get away with this!”
I was dragged back to my room like a madwoman. With a loud bang, the door slammed shut. I was locked in for a day of solitary confinement
as punishment.
It wasn’t until the next day that I received a phone call – a call that would ensure no one dared stop me from leaving.
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