CHAPTER 2 - THE NIGHT I RAN FROM EVERYTHING

THE NIGHT I RAN FROM EVERYTHING

I walked out of the mansion with my eyes still burning, the cold evening air slicing through my skin. The sky had darkened without warning, turning the garden into something eerie and quiet. Too quiet.

I forced myself to keep going, even though anger still twisted inside me like a knife. I didn’t care where I was going. I just wanted space. Space to breathe. Space to curse. Space to be far away from Guerrero Holt and his endless lectures.

The path leading away from the mansion was lined with tall flowers and trimmed bushes. Normally, the beauty would have calmed me. Tonight, it felt like everything watching me. Everything whispering, judging, and agreeing with him.

Spoiled brat.

His words replayed in my head again and again until they felt carved into my skull.

I kicked a stone just to release something. It flew into a flower bed.

And then something moved inside the flowers.

I froze.

My chest tightened instantly. My breath stopped halfway.

For a second, the whole world stilled. Not a bird. Not a wind whisper. Nothing.

Just that rustling sound.

My mind did the one thing I hated: it panicked.

“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no… don’t be something crazy…”

The rustling grew louder. Something pushed the leaves apart.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

I stepped back slowly, palms sweating.

Then the bushes shook violently.

I shrieked and stumbled backward—

And a squirrel jumped out.

A small, brown, fluffy squirrel.

It twitched its nose at me.

I screamed like it was a demon crawling out of hell.

“Are you possessed?!” I shouted at the creature as if it understood English. “Why would you jump at me like that?!”

It chattered. Or maybe it cursed me back. I didn’t wait to find out.

I turned around and ran.

Not jogged.

Not walked fast.

Ran like something from the underworld was behind me.

My heart hammered so loudly I could hear it in my ears. My footsteps slapped against the pavement. I kicked off my heels halfway because they slowed me down. I didn’t stop until the mansion’s massive doors came into view again.

I sprinted up the stairs like a thief being chased and grabbed the doorknob, yanking it open.

The staff in the hall looked up at me like I’d gone mad. Maybe I had.

I doubled over, panting. “So you all… don’t care… that I almost got bitten by a possessed squirrel?!”

Silence.

A heavy, cold silence.

The maids looked at each other. The butler pretended to straighten a vase. A guard scratched his head, avoiding eye contact completely.

They didn’t say a word.

Not one.

They just slowly walked away to their rooms like I wasn’t the heiress of the entire Holt empire. Like I wasn’t their employer’s only grandchild. Like I wasn’t the person who paid their salaries.

Actually, no. Correction: grandfather paid their salaries.

I stood alone in the grand hall wondering how my life had become so pathetic in a matter of hours.

“You people are unbelievable,” I hissed. “Something almost chewed my flesh off, and you all act like I said nothing. A squirrel literally jumped out of the dark. It could have been rabid! Are you dumb or pretending!?”

Again—no one answered.

Doors closed one by one as everyone disappeared into the staff quarters.

The mansion fell completely silent.

Rage flared inside me again.

“Oh, great,” I spat. “Ignore me like you ignore dirt you sweep off the floor. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

I turned and slammed the front door hard. Loud enough to shake dust off the chandelier.

I leaned my back on the door to steady my breath.

This house.

This staff.

This life.

Everything felt wrong.

It felt even worse when memories of my parents slammed into me.

They used to laugh with me here.

They used to lift me onto their shoulders in this hall.

They used to chase me around the dining room table.

Now the house felt like a grave I was forced to live inside.

“Of course,” I muttered bitterly. “Ignore me. Just like my dead parents.”

That sentence hung in the air like poison.

I didn’t mean it.

But I said it.

I pushed myself off the door and walked into the living room.

And there he was.

My grandfather.

Standing beside the fireplace like a statue carved out of old stone.

Hands behind his back.

Eyes on me.

Expression unreadable.

He startled me so badly I almost screamed again.

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked, annoyed and breathless.

“Long enough,” he said calmly.

I rolled my eyes and walked past him. “Don’t start.”

He didn’t move. “Vindel, I am done with your nonsense.”

There it was.

The tone.

The one that meant whatever came next would change my life again.

I paused but didn’t turn. Not yet.

“You will leave this house tomorrow,” he continued. “You will find a job. And until you learn respect, courtesy, and manners, you have no place in this family. And no place in the inheritance.”

I spun around so fast the wind from my hair blew dust into the air.

“What did you just say?”

“You heard me.”

“You’re throwing me out?” My voice cracked but not with fear. With offence. “You’re really throwing me out of my parents’ house?”

“This house is mine,” he said simply. “You are welcome only if you act like a human being.”

I stepped closer, anger boiling so violently I could barely think. “You are sick. You are absolutely sick.”

His jaw tightened. “Say what you want. I am finished watching you destroy people with your temper.”

“I don’t destroy anyone!” I barked. “I only treat them the way they deserve.”

He shook his head slowly, disappointed. “And that is why you will leave.”

Rage burst inside me like a bomb.

“Are you insane?!” I shouted. “Do you want the press to laugh at me? Do you want the board to say you raised a useless heiress? Do you want the world to call me homeless?!”

“If you behave like a child,” he said, “then you will start from the place children start.”

My hands curled into fists. “You hate me. Just say it.”

He didn’t answer.

His silence was worse than words.

Something inside me snapped.

“Fine!” I screamed. “If you hate me, then I’ll give you something to hate!”

I grabbed the nearest trophy on the shelf. A heavy agricultural leadership award he won years ago.

And I smashed it on the floor.

The metal base cracked. The golden upper part broke off and bounced across the room.

He didn’t move.

I grabbed the family portrait next. The one of him, my father, my mother, and me when I was four.

I threw it against the wall.

Glass shattered into glittering pieces.

Still he didn’t speak.

My breath grew wild, uneven, angry.

A vase sat on the coffee table. I snatched it up and slammed it down.

It exploded into tiny shards.

“You want a reason to kick me out?!” I shouted. “Here you go! Plenty of reasons!”

My chest heaved. My throat burned. My eyes were wet from pure fury.

He watched everything silently.

The tears slipping down my cheeks only made me angrier.

“I’m not begging,” I said, voice hard as stone. “I’m not apologizing.”

I walked toward the door.

“You want me gone? Fine.”

I snatched my phone from my pocket and opened the ride app.

A taxi was five minutes away.

My fingers trembled—not from fear, but from adrenaline.

My grandfather spoke suddenly, voice so soft I barely heard it.

“Vindel…”

I paused.

Not turned. Just paused.

His voice was different.

Not cold.

Not angry.

Something else.

I kept my back to him.

Behind me, I heard him inhale shakily.

Then, so quietly, he whispered to the empty room:

“I tried.”

For a moment, I felt something in my chest twist painfully. Something that reminded me he wasn’t just a billionaire. He was a man who buried his son and daughter-in-law and tried raising their daughter alone.

But that softness lasted only a second.

I didn’t let it sink in.

The taxi honked outside.

I wiped my face, lifted my chin, and pushed the door open.

I left the mansion without looking back.

And somewhere behind me, in that enormous silent house,

the man who ruled the world tasted his own tears

and whispered to my dead parents again—

“I tried.”