People say a new beginning can change everything. But what if the past refuses to stay buried?
Velena leaned against the tiny window of her cramped Osaka apartment, her fingers tightening around the half-empty mug of cold coffee. Below, the city glimmered with lights, a constant reminder of the life bustling around her—a life she felt utterly detached from. Osaka was supposed to be her escape, her chance to rebuild. Five years had passed since she walked away from everything—Russia, Vladivostok, the pain that had consumed her entire world.
Yet no amount of distance could free her from the past.
Her voice was barely a whisper as she muttered to herself, "I should feel free. Grateful. But why does it feel like I've only traded one prison for another?"
The weight of survival clung to her, heavy and unforgiving. The money she had brought with her from Russia was long gone, stretched thin over the years until there was nothing left. And the worst part? She had known this moment would come. It wasn't a surprise, just a ticking clock counting down to the inevitable.
Velena sighed and placed the mug down on the counter. The harsh fluorescent light of the kitchen reflected the stark truth she didn't want to face—her savings were gone. She needed a job. No more running, no more hiding behind what little comfort she had managed to scrape together.
Her gaze drifted to the stack of papers on her desk. Her degree. The one she had fought tooth and nail to earn while working odd jobs to keep herself afloat. She wasn't that lost, desperate girl anymore. She had clawed her way out of the abyss, brick by brick, building herself into someone stronger. Now, it was time to prove it.
But even as she tried to focus on the future, her mind betrayed her, pulling her back to the past she had tried so hard to forget.
THE LIFE SHE NEVER CHOSE..
"People look at me and assume I had an easy life," Velena thought bitterly, staring at her reflection in the fogged-up window. "They think I grew up in luxury, never had to fight for anything. They don't know the truth."
Born into wealth and privilege in Vladivostok, Velena's childhood had been a gilded cage. Her family name once carried power and respect, but beneath the surface, it was all rot. Her father, a man once admired, drowned himself in alcohol and gambling after her mother's death. The woman he married afterward wasn't a stepmother—she was a predator, a vulture circling what was left of their crumbling home.
Velena had been fifteen when it all fell apart. Her father's debts swallowed the family whole, and when there was nothing left to take, his new wife cast Velena out like garbage. Alone, homeless, and abandoned, she did whatever it took to survive—scrubbing floors, washing dishes, taking on jobs no one else wanted.
And then, she made a choice.
The kind of choice no one ever talks about, the kind that leaves invisible scars. But that part of her story wasn't for today.
THE NEW BEGGINING THAT WASN'T...
Velena shook her head, forcing herself back to the present. Dwelling on the past wouldn't solve her problems. She had come to Osaka for a fresh start, to leave behind the weight of her old life. But no matter how far she ran, the shadows of her past always found her.
Now, at twenty-five, she had reached a breaking point. She tightened her resolve as she stared at the papers on her desk. It was time to stop running. Time to face the reality she had been avoiding for years.
The person she used to be—naive, scared, desperate—was gone. In her place stood a woman who had fought for every scrap of dignity she had left.
Velena straightened her back and whispered to herself, "This time, I'm not giving up."