Chapter 9

At first, everything went well.

Her days were peaceful.

Until one night.

Rossa closed her eyes for a moment, as if the memory was still painfully vivid.

“That night… Robert came home drunk.”

Rossa’s voice trembled again.

“Mrs. Melly was out of town.”

The big house felt unusually quiet that night.

“He entered my room…”

Rossa gripped the bedsheet with trembling hands.

“And did that.”

Tears fell again from the corners of her eyes.

“I truly resisted. I was very afraid. But I was not strong enough to fight him.”

The next morning, the incident was discovered by Melly.

Her anger exploded.

“She dragged me into a very dark storage room,” Rossa said in a voice that was almost inaudible. “I was locked in there for a week.”

During those seven days, she was treated like an animal.

“I was only given food that was not even fit to eat.”

She was beaten.

Tortured.

And left alone in the darkness.

Rossa’s body trembled violently as she told the story.

“But one night… somehow… the door of the storage room opened.”

Rossa herself never knew who had opened it.

Or perhaps someone had simply forgotten to lock it.

But she took that opportunity.

“I immediately ran away.”

She kept running without any destination.

Without money.

Without a place to go.

“Eventually I arrived at a remote village. That was where I hid.”

She lived in fear every single day.

Afraid of being found by Melly.

Afraid of being dragged back to that house.

“Some time later… I began to feel that something was wrong with my body. My stomach slowly grew bigger.”

“But I did not understand what was happening. I truly knew nothing about pregnancy.”

Rossa spoke while looking at Livia’s beautiful face, which appeared very pale with dry lips.

“The only thing I thought about was one thing. I thought… I had a serious illness.”

“A deadly illness. I had even resigned myself to waiting for death.”

Livia looked at Rossa with tears falling from her eyes.

“But one day, something moved inside my stomach.”

Rossa smiled bitterly as she remembered it.

“I even thought… maybe I just had worms because I often ate unhealthy food.”

Livia could not hold back her sobs when she heard that.

She did not even know how she should react.

Rossa continued her story in a soft voice.

“Until one day… I gave birth to you.” Rossa smiled.

“I gave birth alone.

Without anyone’s help.

Without a midwife.

Without a doctor. In a small hut… just you and me.”

Rossa looked at Livia with eyes full of tears.

“I truly never imagined… that I would give birth to a child.”

There was no one to help her at that time.

She cleaned herself.

She recovered her body on her own.

And from that moment on…

she raised Livia by herself.

Livia truly had never imagined that her mother had gone through such a difficult life.

So painful.

Her chest felt tight.

She hugged Rossa even tighter, as if she wanted to protect the woman from all the suffering she had endured.

“Mom, I promise… one day I will take you away from this place.”

Livia spoke softly while gently wiping the tears from Rossa’s cheeks.

Rossa looked at her daughter for a few moments. Then she gave a faint smile and nodded.

“I will wait for you,” she whispered softly. “No matter how long it takes… I will keep waiting.”

Livia held her mother’s hand tightly.

“We will definitely be happy, Mom.”

Rossa could no longer hold back her tears. She pulled Livia into her arms and embraced the girl with all her love, as if she wanted to protect her from all the suffering in the world.

But deep in her heart, Rossa knew one thing.

For her, happiness had always felt like a rainbow in the sky.

Beautiful to look at…

but it does not always appear, even after the heaviest rain.

Not long after that, Livia’s exhausted body began to feel heavier.

The pain from her wounds slowly drained her strength.

Her eyes began to close.

Finally, the girl fell asleep in her mother’s arms, still holding Rossa tightly—as if she was afraid the woman would disappear if she let go.

Rossa remained awake.

She looked at her daughter’s sleeping face with a heart filled with both love and sorrow.

Her hand gently stroked Livia’s hair.

That night, on a thin mattress that barely offered any comfort, a mother could only pray silently…

that one day, her daughter’s promise would truly come true.