Chapter 80
Episode 80
The air in the small Maine town always held a certain damp chill, even in the height of summer. It clung to the salt-laced wind, seeping into bones and memories. Bar Harbor, with its picturesque harbor and grand old houses, felt like a gilded cage. My parents, trapped in their own cycles of self-destruction and blame, saw it as a place to hide, a place where their failures might go unnoticed. For me, it was just another stop on a road paved with broken promises and whispered accusations.
The cruelty had escalated since we left Canada. The death threats, the assault—they had left scars that ran deeper than skin. Back in Maine, the whispers followed us, a constant reminder of the shame my father had brought upon himself, a shame he now projected onto my mother and, by extension, onto me. The all-girls school, a place of forced piety and stifled laughter, was meant to be a penance, a way to isolate me, to ensure I wouldn't bring further 'disgrace' upon the family. But even within those hallowed, yet restrictive walls, Vlad was there.
He was a silent observer, a shadow at the periphery of my vision. Sometimes, in the hushed quiet of the dormitory, I’d feel a prickle on my skin, a sense of being watched, not with malice, but with a fierce, protective vigilance. It was a strange comfort, an anchor in the tempest of my adolescence. He saw the fear in my eyes, the way I flinched from every harsh word, the way I internalized the blame. He saw the truth of my innocence, a truth my own family refused to acknowledge.
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