A escape plan

Aria...

The guilt refused to leave me. No matter how hard I tried to push it away, Natalia's tear-filled face kept appearing before my eyes. I couldn't bear it any longer, so I quietly walked toward the front of the mansion. As I stepped outside, I saw Natalia standing near the gates with her little boy, who couldn't have been older than four or five. Her face was swollen from crying, and her son clung tightly to her hand, confused by his mother's tears. The moment she noticed me, she gave me a weak smile before looking past me toward the mansion.

"Mrs. Devereux," she said through trembling lips, "please... I don't want to speak to you. I need to speak to Mr. Lucian. Please tell him to see me just once. I only need five minutes."

My heart tightened painfully.

"Natalia..." I whispered helplessly. She shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks

. "Please... my salary for this month has been deducted. I have rent to pay. I have groceries to buy. My son has no one but me. I just want to beg him to give me my job back.

" Before I could respond, one of the maids hurried toward us with two security guards behind her. She lowered her head respectfully and said, "Mrs. Devereux, Mr. Lucian has ordered them to leave his property immediately." Natalia's eyes widened in panic. "No... please!" she cried.

"Just let me see him once. I'll kneel if I have to. Please... I need this job." The guards showed no emotion. One of them stepped forward and said firmly,

"You need to leave." Natalia refused to move, clutching her son's hand tighter. "Please... I have nowhere else to go!" she sobbed. "My son needs food. We have no money."

Without another word, the guards gently but firmly pulled her away from the gates. The little boy became terrified. He wrapped his tiny arms around his mother's leg and burst into tears. "Mama...!" he cried, his small voice breaking as the guards escorted them away. His frightened cries echoed through the air, and my heart shattered into a thousand pieces. I stood there frozen, unable to help, unable to stop any of it. If only I had obeyed Lucian...

If only I had swallowed my pride and eaten breakfast... none of this would have happened. Natalia wouldn't have lost her job. Her little boy wouldn't be crying in fear. Back home, I had worked alongside my father, helping people in need. I donated to charities, visited orphanages, and even stopped to rescue injured animals whenever I found one. Helping others had always come naturally to me. Yet today, I couldn't even protect one innocent woman and her child. I had never felt so helpless in my life. With tears blurring my vision, I returned to my room, locked the door behind me, and took out the small diary I had found earlier. Opening to a blank page, I began writing every painful thought in my heart. I wrote about Natalia, about her little boy, about Lucian's cruelty, and about the guilt that was slowly consuming me. When I finally closed the diary, I wiped my tears and looked around the luxurious bedroom. It wasn't a bedroom. It was a cage. And I had made up my mind. No matter how impossible it seemed, I would escape this prison. One day, I would walk out of this mansion... and never look back.