Chapter 8

Rossa immediately shook her head.

“It’s not possible. If we leave together… they will definitely notice right away.”

Running away was not something the thirty-seven-year-old woman had never tried before.

Rossa had tried many times to leave this place.

But every time she tried to escape, Robert always managed to find her again.

Rossa herself never knew how the man could always find her.

As if she could never truly escape from Robert’s shadow.

“Then… I won’t leave either.”

Livia refused without hesitation.

She knew what would happen to her mother if she really ran away.

“Livia, you don’t need to worry about me,” Rossa said gently. “They might beat me… but they won’t kill me. I will be fine. Go.”

The pain in her body was still extremely intense. If Robert beat her again without stopping, she could die. However, that pain and fear disappeared because of her love for her daughter. She truly hoped that Livia could survive and live a proper life.

Livia slowly shook her head.

Her eyes were still wet.

“If I have to leave… I want to leave together with you, Mom.”

She took a deep breath before continuing.

“But if that is not possible… then I will marry that man.”

Her voice was calm, but there was strong determination in it.

“It’s alright. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Livia looked at her mother with a small, bitter smile.

“I am very strong. I can endure it.”

Her hand held Rossa’s hand tightly.

“And when the right time comes… I will take you away from this place.”

Rossa only felt overwhelming pain as she looked at her daughter.

Livia then lay down on the thin mattress. Gently, she pulled Rossa’s hand and asked the woman to lie down beside her.

“Mom… I want to hug you. While I am still here… I want to hug you all the time.”

Rossa did not refuse. She lay down beside Livia and embraced her daughter’s thin body tightly, as if she was afraid of losing the girl.

For a while, they simply held each other in silence.

“Mom… I’m an adult now,” Livia said softly. She looked at Rossa’s beautiful face that appeared so pale. “May I hear the story about my existence?”

Rossa fell silent.

“How… did you become pregnant with me?”

Livia gently held her mother’s hand.

“Mom, I want to know. I promise… I won’t judge you.”

But Rossa did not answer immediately.

Instead, tears began to flow from her eyes again.

Livia said nothing.

She only held her mother tighter, letting the woman cry as much as she needed.

Time seemed to move very slowly.

Only after quite a long time did Rossa’s sobs finally subside.

In a soft voice, she began to speak.

“Since I was born… I never knew my parents,” she said quietly. “Because from the very beginning, I had already lived in an orphanage.”

She stared blankly at the dull ceiling of the room.

“Life in the orphanage was never easy. We had to learn to do everything ourselves. Cooking, cleaning, washing… even work that was too heavy for children our age.”

Rossa took a slow breath.

“When I began to grow into a teenager… I was always curious about life outside. I wanted to know what it felt like to live like other people.”

Eventually, she made a decision that changed her entire life.

“I left the orphanage… and started working.”

At that time, she was only sixteen years old.

Very young.

But Rossa had already been used to working hard since childhood.

“I was quite good at doing housework. That was why I applied for a job as a servant in this big house. My application was accepted immediately.” Rossa smiled faintly as she remembered that happy moment.

“In this place… I became the youngest servant.”

However, her work was not only as a servant.

“Besides cleaning the house… I was also asked to become Claire’s caregiver. Claire liked me very much because I often played with her like an older sister. At that time Claire was six years old. I was also already used to taking care of small children when I lived in the orphanage.”

Livia remained silent as she listened to Rossa’s story without asking anything.