Chapter 63 Returning Home

• ELARA
• I kept talking to Mateo while lying in his arms with the rain tapping softly against the windows. The memories from my past felt heavy but I did not want to stop now that I had started. After the girl fell from the roof at boarding school everything changed inside me. I became colder and quieter. I learned how to watch people and wait for the right moment. When the school year finally ended I went back home feeling like a different person. The car ride felt long and my heart beat fast because I knew Guilia would be waiting for me with her fake smiles. When I arrived at the big house my father hugged me tight and looked happy to see me. Guilia stood beside him smiling sweetly like she was the perfect stepmother. She even kissed my cheek in front of him and said how much she had missed me. But I could see the cold look in her eyes that only I noticed. That night when my father went to his study Guilia cornered me in the hallway and her true face came out again.
• “You think coming back changes anything?” she said in a low mean voice while grabbing my arm too tight. “You are still the same broken girl. Unstable. Dangerous. I told everyone at the school about you and they believed me. If you cause any trouble here I will make sure your father sends you away forever this time.”