The following days dragged on slowly, like a veil of anxiety hanging over Anna's small house. Every morning, she woke up in the same stupor, with that same feeling of helplessness that gripped her every time she faced her mother, or worse, faced that man, Louis Bernard. The Reaper. He had not yet left their lives. His name still echoed in the house, and the fear he had instilled seemed unwilling to dissipate.
It wasn't just the shadow of the man that weighed on her, but the silent promise he had left behind. Anna knew she wouldn't escape whatever he expected of her. She felt trapped, caught in a web she hadn't woven. Her dreams of a different life, of a future other than the one she had known, seemed to collapse under the harshness of reality. She felt weak, insignificant.
The first days after meeting Louis Bernard were strange. They didn't speak directly, he and she, but every time their eyes met, it was like a silent promise of what was to come. The man seemed to have taken possession of the house, the family, everything Anna thought she knew. He came each time, unannounced, in heavy silence, always more authoritative. He didn't speak much, but when he did, his words were commands, expectations, reminders of a debt her mother had incurred and had no intention of settling except through the sacrifice of her daughter.
"You know what I want, Anna," Louis Bernard had said during his last visit, his voice as cold as ever. "I am not a patient man, and my patience has its limits."
Anna, stunned by the coldness of his words, merely nodded. What could she say? She didn't have the courage to confront him, to defy what he represented. A part of her died each time he approached, but she felt incapable of fighting back.
The days passed, monotonous, devoid of meaning, marked by the endless wait for what he would demand of her. Her mother, as though frozen in a kind of resignation, said nothing. She merely gave orders, guided her, as if she too were a prisoner of the situation, as if she had sold her daughter's soul for a few promises of money, for a temporary respite from the mounting debts. Anna couldn't understand what had pushed her mother to accept this arrangement. Was it the fear of dying in poverty? The dread of losing what she had? But at what price?
Anna knew one thing: her mother was not simply a victim in this story. She had chosen, she had made a decision with full knowledge of the consequences, abandoning her daughter, sacrificing her to settle the accounts with this ruthless man. That was the truth Anna struggled to accept. Her mother had sold her, without a word, without a glance, without any hesitation. Anna felt betrayed, abandoned. She, who had always believed there was a glimmer of humanity in her mother, now found herself alone in the face of her cruelty.
The days turned into weeks, and Anna felt the noose tightening around her. She had become a pawn in a game whose rules she didn't know, a game whose stakes were far beyond what she could have imagined. She felt watched, constantly surveilled. Every gesture, every movement was carefully scrutinized, analyzed. She didn't know what he expected from her, but she sensed that the time would come when she would have to bend to his will. Maybe even sooner than she had expected.
One evening, as night fell, Anna found herself alone in the small room she called her bedroom. The house was silent, barely illuminated by the flickering light of a candle. She stood by the window, gazing at the stars in the sky, searching for a sign, a hope. But there was none. Everything was dark, as if the universe itself had darkened along with her. Her thoughts went in circles. She thought of her mother, of her empty gaze when she had seen her yield to Louis Bernard, of her silence that spoke volumes.
"Why?" she whispered, almost inaudible. "Why did you give me away? Why did you leave me in the grip of that man?"
She had no answer. Not yet. But she knew she couldn't go on like this. Somewhere deep inside, a flame had been lit, a flame of rebellion. She didn't want to be what he expected her to be. She refused to become a mere object in this man's eyes. But she had no plan, no idea of what she could do to escape this fate.
That night, as she slipped into bed, her body exhausted from the accumulated tension, she swore one thing: she wouldn't let Louis Bernard break her will. No matter the consequences. But within her, another question grew more pressing: how could she escape from this man who seemed to have the world at his feet?
The next morning, like every morning for weeks, Anna got up before dawn. But this time, it wasn't just fear that drove her to rise—it was determination. She didn't know yet how, or when, but she knew there was a way to flee, a way to escape the shadow of Louis Bernard. She would prepare herself, she would find a way out. Because the more she thought about her situation, the more she realized a fundamental truth: she could never be free as long as she lived under his control.
But before that, she needed to discover something—understand what he truly wanted, and perhaps even... why her mother had left her in his grasp.