Four years ago, a little girl in Country Z was adopted by an affluent family in Country U. At that time, the little girl, Leah was three years old. She was a cute little sack of joy. Through the connections of the Miracle Foundation, the Macy Family, was able to adopt Leah into their family. In the beginning two years, the Macy Family truly treated the little girl as one of their own. They were originally a family of two children, one girl and one boy, but they wanted one more to round out their family. In the end, they agreed that adopting Leah would be a good option.
The family head, Mark Macy ran a construction company and was able to generate large profits every year. Leah, being added into their family equation would not have made any difference in their financial pool. Everyone lived a happy and peaceful life. Until…
"A large fire broke out in the Westham District. A construction building was sighted to have combusted in flames due to an employee's mishap. The employee had not extinguish the cigarette butt properly and as a result, the materials room had caught on fire." The news had reported on the Macy family's construction company. The accident had not only resulted in significant financial damages that were not fully coverable by their insurance, but they had to reimburse customers for not being able to meet the deadline on projects. Costs started adding up and within a year, their startup had failed and the Macy family had declared bankruptcy.
When news of such a magnitude reached the ears of the relatives in the Macy Family, no one was willing to lend a hand to help them out. The Macy Family was one that truly embraced the notion of 'blood is thicker than water', yet when they needed help from their family, they were ruthlessly rejected and ignored. It not only broke down Mark Macy, but also the family mistress, Jocelyn Macy. Even the two teenager children, Jack and Jane were unable to get used to their new lifestyle.
The trauma had driven the four of them into a corner and Leah bore the brunt of their wrath. In their heads, why were they freely raising this little girl when they themselves were not able to live properly anymore? As a result, Leah, at the age of six, had taken on the responsibility of doing many house chores and also became the punching bag of the family. Whenever they felt aggrieved by their situation, they would vent it on Leah. The girl suffered many bruises on her arms and legs, though they made it a habit to not overly injure her to prevent her from doing her house chores.
A year passed like so and the abuse never stopped. Leah grew more sensible in that one year, more so than any young child her age. Although her adoptive parents never sent her to school, she learnt English from secretly watching television in the corner of room. It was also from television where she learnt about the act of running away from home. The idea was daunting for Leah as she had never really left the house premise in the past two years. As such, to escape from their current housing apartment, the little girl planned out the best time to run was when Mark and her siblings were not home and Jocelyn was taking her afternoon nap.
When the time came, Leah sneakily entered her abusive parent's bedroom and took out the keys from Jocelyn's bag. Thankfully enough, the mother was a deep sleeper and was aware of Leah's action. With the key she had gotten from the bag, Leah quietly tried out the different keys and managed to unlock the doors. In her pajamas and slippers, she left the house quickly. Without any thoughts of coming back, she never turned around.
Eventually, Leah got hungry from the many hours of walking. She had reached the Ramen Bar where the smell of the food was extremely tantalizing to the seven-year-old child, much less a girl who never really got to eat breakfast at home. The offer from Sato had made the girl apprehensive at first, but her hungry eventually got the better of her. Now, after Sato had seen the bruises and wounds on Leah's body, he gotten a better grasp of the situation.
The young man was furious and extremely livid. When he turned his eyes to look at Leah, his eyes started watering in pity. What did a seven-year-old do to deserve such a beating? There was no scenario where he could imagine a child warranting such a punishment.
"Big brother will call the police for you, okay?" Sato spoke reassuringly.
"No, no. Police scary." Leah panicked. Any time she watched the television, the police would always arrest people and she thought that it would happen to her too.
"Then, what would you like to do?" Sato compromised.
"No police. No police." Leah repeated herself. The child didn't know better either.
Sato was lost as to what he should do. It was then Madel stepped in and tried to help out. "Master Sato, why not ask if she would like to follow you back? You can then ask for help when she is with you."
Sato understood what Madel was suggesting in terms of help. And so, in a calm voice, Sato offered, "Would you like to follow big brother then? I will protect you."
Leah looked into Sato's eyes closely. It was at this moment where the saying 'the eyes are the windows to the soul' was especially true. It was like Leah was peeking deep into Sato's soul and trying to see into his personality. The girl had been through a lot and being able to read a person's personality was one of the key skills she had developed. After a few short seconds, Leah nodded and agreed to Sato's suggestion.