"Uh…uhm.." Raina stutters "It's fine if you don't want to" She inches backward and looks away. "If that is what you want, so it is" Gerold affirmed with a smile.Raina smiled sadly as she recalled when Jude told her to think about the country they would go to for their vacation after his exam. He had told her that he would skip prom and had also out of jealousy asked about who her date was during her prom. Raina only smiled and said she wasn't able to attend as a regular student. She had practiced dancing choreography to entertain the students for money instead. Jude then promised to make his own prom night to be the best night for her. He had said they would send it together but it all seems impossible now. Raina jerked when she felt Gerold stretch his hand across the coffee table in an attempt to tap her. Apparently, within that time she had drowned in a deep trance, he had ordered two cups of Espresso and he was saying something. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?..." Raina trail

"Your father told me the strangest thing I have ever heard and I do want to believe that it's one of his tricks to make me let you go because what will happen to our vacation? What about me? We made promises, Raina. Promises aren't meant to be broken" he says as she cries bitterly. "Are you manipulated by your father again? What happened? Where did things begin to go wrong? Do you want me to rip my heart out to make you believe that it truly beats for you? Just tell me and I will find a way to fix things up. Please my dearest" he pleaded. He was totally exhausted. He never expected things to turn out this way. He desperately hated himself for not talking to her throughout the last week. "I am getting married…." Raina bit her lips. "You will get over it very soon. I can assure you that if I risk everything to be with you and then you later leave me alone with the thought that I am worthless… I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. Jude…nothing can make me change my mind. I hope you live

~~~~~~For the past 35 hours, Raina waited patiently while trying not to make her kids suspect her dilemma. She called and messaged both Gerold's phone number and that of Mrs. Alexander, but there was no response. She felt a gut feeling of an upcoming bad occurrence after her daughter ran to her room the night before while sweating profusely and crying about them being tormented by a devilish creature in her dream. Raina had slept in their room and lured them to sleep as Noelle kept murmuring for her not to let them go. Ever since then, she considered her daughter's revelation and the message from Mrs. Alexander as a threat to their life. She realized that she was despised beyond what she had imagined, even though throughout the last few years, she had tried her best to form a bond with them but had given up after Gerold's restriction. Raina sighed in anguish as she thought of escaping again. She doesn't want to be a coward again, or else she would continue to do that for the rest of