Chapter 274: An Indelible Mark

It had been some time since Isobel had visited her uncle, Leon, and her nephew and niece.

Julian and Morgan accompanied her to the apartment on Downtown Street, where the family had settled after everything that had happened.

Life had not become luxurious, but it had become better.

With Nancy’s help, Leon and the children had managed to keep the small grocery store running. It was modest, but it provided enough for them to live with dignity.

There was food on their table now, decent clothes on the children’s backs, and, most importantly, they no longer had to worry about where their next meal would come from.

The moment Leon opened the door and saw Isobel standing there, his tired face immediately brightened.

"Bel! You came."

Before Isobel could even answer, two small figures came scrambling toward her.

"Aunt Isobel!"

"We missed you!"

Randy and Yana threw their arms around her waist at the same time.

Isobel laughed and bent down to embrace them.

"I missed both of you, too." She looked at them carefully before pinching Yana’s cheek playfully. "Look at you! You’ve both grown. And you’re getting chubbier, too."

Yana giggled.

Randy, however, lowered his eyes shyly, his cheeks turning pink.

Isobel smiled.

They were different from the last time she had seen them.

Their faces were fuller now. Their clothes were clean and new. There was even a little more light in their eyes.

They were finally beginning to look like children who had been given a chance to simply be children.

Isobel’s smile faded slightly as she looked around the apartment.

"Where’s Cousin Alena?"

The change in the room was immediate.

Leon fell silent.

Randy’s smile disappeared.

Even Yana, who had been laughing moments earlier, lowered her head.

"She’s in her room," Leon finally said quietly.

"She doesn’t like coming out anymore," Yana added in a small voice. "Sometimes she just sits there and stares at the window."

Isobel’s heart tightened. She already knew. But hearing it from the children somehow made it worse.

"How long has she been like this?"

Leon sighed.

"Since she came back."

Isobel looked toward the closed bedroom door.

"Uncle, I think Alena needs professional help."

Leon nodded slowly.

"I know."

Isobel’s gaze remained fixed on the door.

She had once thought that rescuing someone meant bringing them out of danger.

Now she understood that sometimes the body could be rescued but not one’s psyche.

Julian and Morgan had investigated what happened to Alena.

Years ago, a woman who used to be their neighbor, had approached her and promised her a job as a saleslady in a department store.

Alena believed her.

She was young, naive, and desperate to escape poverty.

The woman promised her good wages, decent accommodation, and a chance to build a better life.

At that time, Alena was dreaming of a better future for her children.

Instead, she delivered Alena into a nightmare.

The woman was a pimp who preyed on young women from the provinces, luring them with promises of legitimate employment before trapping them in the city’s red-light district.

At first, Alena was told she would work as a waitress. Later, she was made to work as a massage therapist.

Those jobs were nothing more than a facade.

The women were expected to provide whatever "extra services" wealthy customers were willing to pay for.

Alena tried to resist. She cried. She begged.

She wanted to go home.

But she had nowhere to go.

She was locked up and every attempt to escape was met with threats.

Then, by what Alena had once believed was a stroke of luck, a politician noticed her, a congressman.

She resembled Rosella in certain ways, meaning she was beautiful than the other ladies, and that what caught his attention.

He offered to take her away from the club. He promised her a better life.

For a brief time, Alena believed she had finally been saved.

She was wrong.

The man who appeared generous in public was a monster behind closed doors.

At first, he treated her kindly. Then the violence began.

He controlled where she went, whom she spoke to, and what she wore.

When he was angry, he beat her.

And behind the locked doors of his bedroom, his cruelty became something even darker.

He hurt her deliberately.

He treated her pain as entertainment.

There were nights when Alena would lie perfectly still, staring at the ceiling, praying for morning to come.

Sometimes she would count the cracks above her.

Anything to keep her mind somewhere else.

There were moments when she no longer felt like a person. Only a body. A thing that belonged to someone else.

The woman who had once dreamed of working in a department store had slowly disappeared.

What remained was someone who flinched whenever the man raised his voice.

Someone who could no longer sleep peacefully behind a closed door.

Someone who sometimes woke in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, convinced she was back in that room again.

Eventually, Alena reached the end of her strength.

She tried to end her life.

That was when Julian, Morgan, and Dawn Umali, the founder of EOS, found her. They pulled her out of that hell.

But rescuing her did not mean the nightmare ended. The bruises faded. The wounds healed.

But the memories remained.

Julian had wanted to sue the congressman immediately.

But they had little evidence, and at that time, the country’s legal protections against domestic violence were woefully inadequate.

The case became one of the reasons Dawn began lobbying government officials for stronger protection for women.

With Julian and Morgan supporting her efforts, Dawn fought relentlessly for legislation that would protect women and children from domestic abuse.

Eventually, the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children law was enacted.

It became a shield for countless women who had once been trapped in situations like Alena’s. But there was a painful irony to it.

The law could protect women in the future.

It could punish abusers.

It could give victims somewhere to turn.

But it could not erase what had already happened to Alena.

No law could return the years she had lost. No courtroom could erase the memories. No amount of justice could make her forget what it felt like to be afraid of the person who was supposed to protect her.

Alena survived. But surviving was not the same as healing.

Isobel lowered her eyes.

She suddenly imagined her cousin sitting alone in that room, staring at the ceiling again.

Perhaps she was remembering things she desperately wanted to forget. Perhaps, despite being surrounded by family now, some part of her was still trapped in that locked room.

An indelible mark.

A mark that time might soften...but could never completely erase.

Isobel took a quiet breath.

Then she looked at Randy and Yana.

"What if we invite your mother to the twins’ and Alexander’s birthday party?"

Both children’s faces immediately brightened.

"Really?" Yana asked.

"Yes."

Randy’s eyes widened.

"Mom can come too?"

"Of course."

Isobel smiled.

"We’ll bring her with us."

For the first time that afternoon, something resembling hope flickered across the children’s faces.