As Lara stepped out of the room, she saw only Sandoz sitting quietly in the living room and deep in thought. The early morning chill had vanished, replaced by the gentle warmth of sunlight streaming through the window, casting golden patches on the floor like quiet blessings.
The house was alive with sound: clinking utensils, animated chatter, the unfiltered joy of children whose laughter spilled from the dining area like sunshine through an open door. Their excitent lit the morning with a vibrant energy—news must have spread that they would be sent back to their families.
But Sandoz remained. Still. Silent.
"What are you doing here, Sandoz? Why did you not join the children and have your breakfast?" Lara asked.
"I am waiting for you, Sis," the little boy replied, his voice trembling with a hint of sadness, like a soft breeze rustling through the leaves. His big, innocent eyes glimred with a mix of hope and longing, making his small fra appear even more fragile.
Lara’s heart lted. This young boy had depended so much on her in the last two years. He was her healing balm, a reminder that she wasn’t the cold-hearted, unloved sister her old life had painted her to be.
Her siblings told her that they didn’t have a sister who was a monster because they saw her once, covered with blood after her dear father forced her to put a gun on the head of one of his enemies.
She learned that she was capable of kindness and could speak softly, the opposite of the stern voice that she would normally use to scold the two brats who played pranks on her every ti she was ho in her previous life.
"Sis, please promise you won’t send back." Shimring with unshed tears, his eyes held a desperate plea, reflecting a world of fear and longing. Every word dripped with emotion as he searched her gaze for assurance, his vulnerability laid bare in that fragile mont.
Lara sat beside him, taking his fragile hand in her own. Their fingers entwined—hers slender and graceful, his barely able to wrap around hers. They sat like that on the edge of the wooden chair, his legs dangling, her sundress brushing the floor, sunlight spilling over them like a fragile dream.
"Sandoz," she spoke gently, "No matter what, they are still your family, your closest kin. They hurt you in the past, but that was two years ago." She looked at the boy, who was saddened by her reply. "Your mother...I know that she must miss you a lot."
’Does she not want anymore?’ Sandoz wanted to cry but, rembering how much he cried earlier and how Ivan had mocked him and called him a sissy, he fought the tears that threatened to fall.
Lara squeezed his hand tighter. "Listen, if you don’t want to go ho with the others, you don’t have to. You can co with when I go to the capital. I’ll take you ho myself. And if anyone dares hurt you again... they’ll answer to ."
"Promise?"
"Promise," she replied, lifting his pinky and wrapping it with hers. "Pinky promise."
Sandoz smiled brightly as he got off the chair and headed to the dining area for breakfast.
Lara watched him go, a soft smile tugging at her lips. But then... a mory crept in, unbidden.—a mory of that first morning of a new year when she was sixteen. It seed distant, but sohow, it still left her reeling in pain when she rembered how her siblings cursed and rejected her.
Azurverda, four years ago
"Dad, Mom, I don’t want to dine with her. She is a monster. A murderer. I saw her covered in blood when she slipped into her room. She thought everyone was asleep, but I saw her." Her brother Alfonso shouted the mont he saw her stand at the door.
"I don’t want a sister like her, Mommy. What if my friends learn about this? Will they call the sister of a murderer?" Rhianne, her younger sister’s voice echoed in the dining room, full of disdain.
Lara paused and stood by the door, shocked by what she had heard, the words striking her like daggers. Her head throbbed from a sleepless night, and sothing inside her cracked—finally, irrevocably.
"You think I wanted this?" she scread, eyes wide, wild. "You think I enjoyed pulling the trigger? Watching the life drain from soone’s eyes?! Ha! I hate it!"
Her voice broke, hysteria bleeding into every syllable.
"Who made do it?! Why ?! Just because I was the eldest? Was it my fault?!"
"You hate ! I hate you as well! I hate this family!" Her eyes were red as she continued to scream.
The two children, shocked by the change in their usually silent sister, were trembling. Their mother comforted them while she cast a worried glance at the man sitting at the head of the table. His face darkened with fury as he stood abruptly, his chair falling on the floor with a loud thud.
"Lara Star!" He called her by her full na, and she knew he was very angry, but Lara did not tremble as she usually did. She returned his icy gaze with defiance and the sa hate her siblings projected at her.
It was his fault. He made her into sothing hateful, sothing she did not want —a murderer.
A frown appeared on his father’s stoic face as he approached her, his aura filled with nace. But Lara did not flinch. She stood there, the hate emboldening her.
For the first ti, Lieutenant General Leon Starr felt that Lara was getting out of his control. Had he pushed her too hard? She was even looking at him with eyes full of hate, which was not there before.
"What did you say?" He roared.
He moved toward her like a storm unleashed. The slap was swift, the punch to her gut even swifter.
She rembered nothing else until she woke up in the family clinic. A gentle face hovered above her.
"There you are, Lara. You are awake. My na is Doctor Karina Sanchez, but you can call Karina, and I will be your psychiatrist."
Lara smirked. ’So he found a psychiatrist.’
...
A voice pulled her back to the present.
"Sis, I brought you breakfast." Sandoz’s voice rang bright and proud. "There’s no more space at the table."
He held a tray, his tiny hands steady, carrying two bowls of porridge and mugs of steaming chocolate.
Lara rose and took the tray from him. "How about we eat outside? Under the Narra tree?"
Sandoz nodded. Lara could see the affection and trust in his eyes when it lit up.
As they stepped outside, the sunlight kissed their faces, and Lara smiled—wide and real.
They were all wrong.
She was capable of love.
And she would protect Sandoz.
No matter what.
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