Chapter 007: The Good Girl Is Gone

Evian

By the time I stepped out of the car, the sky was completely dark.

10:07 p.m.

The mansion was blazing with light.

Waiting.

Of course.

The gates shut behind me with a heavy metallic sound that echoed longer than it should have. The air felt colder than usual. Or maybe that was just anticipation.

I walked in without rushing.

The moment I pushed open the front door, I knew they had been sitting there for hours.

My father stood near the fireplace, his walking stick planted firmly in front of him like a judge’s gavel. My stepmother sat upright on the sofa, arms crossed tightly. Kate leaned casually against the armrest, but her eyes were sharp and restless.

“You dare to come home at this hour?” my father’s voice thundered across the room.

I paused deliberately and looked up at the large clock hanging above the staircase.

“It’s only ten.”

“Only?” my stepmother repeated, as if I had said something outrageous.

I slipped off my heels slowly and placed them neatly by the door. “What if I came home at two?” I asked lightly. “Or didn’t come back at all?”

The silence thickened.

My father’s knuckles tightened around his stick. “You think this is funny?”

I looked at him calmly. “Aren’t I still the perfect good girl? I came home early, didn’t I?”

Kate scoffed under her breath.

My father took a step forward. For a second, I thought he might raise his hand again like yesterday. My cheek almost remembered the sting before it even happened.

But he didn’t.

He stopped himself.

Perhaps because of the servants watching.

Perhaps because of the Limousine name still lingering in the air.

Instead, he pointed the stick at me.

“You will explain yourself,” he said, voice shaking with restrained fury. “Who is that man?”

I tilted my head slightly. “Which one?”

The vein in his temple throbbed.

“Don’t test me, Evian.”

Before I could answer, Kate pushed herself upright, smoothing down her dress like she had been waiting for this exact moment.

“I looked into him,” she announced sweetly.

My stepmother turned to her immediately. “You did?”

“Yes.” Kate smiled faintly, but her eyes never left my face. “He’s not what he pretends to be.”

I folded my arms.

“Oh?”

“He works at a bar,” she continued smoothly. “A waiter. That’s what he is.”

My stepmother gasped softly.

“And,” Kate added, her voice gaining confidence, “he also works as a part-time driver for the Limousine family.”

The room went still.

“That’s how he had access to their car,” she finished. “That’s why he could arrive like that.”

My father’s face darkened instantly.

“A waiter?” he repeated.

I looked at Kate slowly.

“You figured that out so quickly,” I said.

The slap came before I even finished speaking.

This one was harder than the first.

My head snapped to the side. The taste of blood spread across my tongue. The room tilted for half a second before steadying again.

I didn’t touch my cheek.

I didn’t react.

I didn’t cry.

I just straightened my neck and looked forward again.

“How dare you mock your sister?” my father shouted. “How dare you embarrass this family with some bar boy?”

I said nothing.

Silence unsettles people more than arguments ever do.

“Break it off,” he ordered. “Immediately. You will never see him again.”

Still, I didn’t respond.

“Do you hear me?” he roared.

“I hear you,” I said finally.

“And?”

“And I don’t care.”

The words fell gently between us.

But they hit like a bomb.

My stepmother stood up. “You shameless girl!”

“It’s not a crime to date someone who isn’t rich,” I continued calmly. “I have money. I can spend it however I want.”

“You will disgrace us!” my father thundered.

“It’s not a requirement that he be wealthy,” I said. “It’s my money.”

The walking stick moved before I could step back.

It struck across my shoulder.

Pain exploded down my arm.

The second hit landed against my side.

The sound was dull but violent.

The servants turned away.

I bit down hard enough to almost break skin, but I refused to make a sound.

“You think because you froze the accounts, you control this house?” he spat. “You are nothing without this family!”

Another strike.

My body swayed but did not fall.

Kate watched with wide eyes. My stepmother looked both furious and satisfied.

“I will not allow you to drag our name through the mud for some waiter!” my father shouted.

I lifted my head slowly.

“You dragged this family’s name long before I did,” I said quietly.

That was the last straw.

“Lock her up,” he ordered coldly.

The servants hesitated.

“Now!”

Two of them stepped forward reluctantly. They didn’t grip me roughly. They didn’t need to. I walked on my own.

Back down the hallway.

Past the staircase.

To the door at the end of the corridor.

The cold room.

The one they used whenever I was “too much.”

The door opened with a creak.

The air inside was damp and stale.

They pushed me inside and locked it from the outside.

The sound of the bolt sliding into place echoed.

Darkness swallowed me slowly as the hallway lights disappeared.

For a long moment, I stood there.

My shoulder throbbed. My cheek burned. My side ached with each breath.

Then—

I laughed.

Soft at first.

Then louder.

The sound bounced off the cold walls and came back to me.

They thought this was punishment.

They thought locking me away would shrink me back into the obedient, silent daughter who never fought back.

They didn’t understand.

That girl was gone.

She died the moment I transferred money from that account without asking.

She died the moment I kissed a man in front of them and didn’t feel shame.

She died the moment I looked my father in the eye after he hit me and felt nothing.

I leaned back against the cold wall and slid down slowly until I was sitting on the floor.

“This is just the beginning,” I whispered into the darkness.

They wanted a perfect good girl.

Someone quiet.

Someone grateful.

Someone afraid.

I closed my eyes.

Let the pain settle.

Let the anger sharpen.

They didn’t know it yet.

But they had already lost.

And tomorrow—

Tomorrow I would make sure they felt it.

The good girl was dead.

And she wasn’t coming back.