The Vasiliev mansion was more than a palace: it was a golden cage glittering with false promises. Anna had realized this belatedly, but with painful certainty. Lucian's every word was a caress with hidden blades. Every smile, a silent pact of obedience. And though love, or something she mistook as love, still beat faintly in her breast, the seed of doubt was beginning to bloom.
It was a silent night, almost unreal. The wind barely murmured through the trees and the lights of the mansion seemed dimmer than usual. Ana, lying on her bed, tried to decipher her own heart. She didn't know if it ached for what she felt for Lucian...or for what she had lost of herself by loving him.
And then, the whisper came.
It wasn't a voice, not at first. Just a note. A folded sheet under the crack of her door. The paper was crumpled, hastily inked:
"If you still wish to be free, there is a way out. Midnight. Greenhouse door. Trust no one. Not even your heart."
It had no signature. It had no promises.
Just a thin thread of hope.
Anne held the paper in trembling hands. A trap? A taunt from Viktoria? A desperate move by someone inside the house?
Or perhaps... a real opportunity?
The idea of running away had been, for a long time, just a buried longing. She had learned to love the walls that enclosed her, to find refuge in the hands that also oppressed her. But now... something inside her was beginning to crack. Like a cracked mirror that could no longer reflect the same image.
What if it were real? What if she could escape?
But then she thought of Lucian.
In his face as he watched her sleep.
In his low voice, whispering that she was his, that he would protect her from the whole world.
And for a moment, she hesitated.
Who would Ana be without Lucian?
Would she be free... or would she simply be lost without her chains?
The clock struck eleven-thirty when she stood up. Her bare feet touched the cold floor as if walking on invisible decisions. The paper was still in her hand, crumpled, sweaty, but vibrant. As if it had a life of its own.
She took one last look at the room: that place that had been her cell and her hiding place. The darkness did not answer her. Only silence awaited her.
-I only want to know who I am when I'm not afraid," she whispered to herself, her eyes filled with a meek sadness.
And so, with her heart beating like a drum, she walked out the door.
Midnight was waiting for her.
And with it, the whisper of a freedom that ached... but also promised something more.