CHAPTER 1: The Road Away
The truck engine roared to life, breaking the suffocating silence left behind in that cold, gilded mansion. Snow fell harder now, blanketing the long driveway as if trying to erase what had just happened.
Sofie sat quietly in the passenger seat, her small hands wrapped around a cup of lukewarm cocoa her father had poured from a thermos. Her cheeks were still flushed from the cold, but her tears had stopped.
“Are we… really leaving?” she asked softly.
Her father kept his eyes on the road, his grip steady on the wheel. “Yeah, kiddo. We are.”
There was no anger in his voice. Just certainty.
They drove for miles in silence. The mansion disappeared behind them, along with everything it represented—judgment, rejection, and a love that was never truly there.
“Dad… was that our family?” Sofie asked after a while.
He exhaled slowly. “Sometimes people share your blood, Sofie… but that doesn’t make them family.”
She nodded, absorbing his words with a maturity far beyond her years.
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The highway stretched endlessly ahead, but for the first time in a long while, it didn’t feel like they were running away.
It felt like they were finally free.
