Chapter Fifty-eight Estera Roberts’ POV (Ten Years Before)

My eyes were blurred with tears and snot was streaming down my nose as I ran out of the Sterling’s building and into the pouring rain. It was just my blasted luck that it was raining or perhaps it was a good thing. The sky was dark and the rain made it hard for me to run as fast as I could have managed but it also hindered my pursuers.
I imagined I must be quite a sight, running in the rain with nothing but my underwear and clutching a letter opener dripping with blood.
A hand grabbed me from behind and I swung around with the letter opener slashing the skin it came in contact with. A loud grunt rented the hair and I kicked the big man in the groin just like Evan had taught me and he went down on the paved path, groaning in pain.
I didn’t stop to look back. I couldn’t tell if it was the man that I had stabbed in the study or more of Mr. Edward Sterling's bodyguards were after me now.
I ran into the woods, hoping my knowledge of the grounds would help my escape. I knew I couldn't go back to Aunt Sophia’s chalet. I figured they would have driven there to wait for me to complete whatever evil act they'd planned for me. And so I headed out of the estate, taking the path in the woods I had walked uncountable times to work and school.
I was so scared of what they might do to me now if they found me, and I just needed to get away. I needed to survive to tell my story. And each time the realization that I may never see Evan again hits me, my heart would clench so painfully and I would grunt hard to keep the pain locked in. It was excruciating.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I got outside the Sterling estate, and that was when it really hit me: I was naked, on the road with no money, no phone to call for help, and no one close enough that I could walk to for help. Brian's house was too far away, and the hospital where my Aunt was admitted was about three kilometers away.
And for a minute, I let the despondency grip me. I cried hard, calling Evan’s name repeatedly like a prayer. But after a while, I had to accept my fate. Evan wasn’t there to help me neither was my aunt. I was alone and no help was coming, I just had to find a way to pull through.
Wrapping my arms around my chest, I started to walk at the hem of the road, staying close to the woods. I was cold and literally a drowned rat.
After working for what seemed like forever, I heard the sound of a car approaching from behind me. I quickly darted into the woods, staying still, and wishing whoever it was to drive past so I could continue on my way.
When they did, albeit slowly, I saw Evan’s mother behind the wheel. My heart clenched, recalling the conversation between the woman and Evan, wondering how he would feel when he finds out he had brought me into the lion’s den and asked the lioness to watch out for me, failing to realize I might be food to the cannibals.
I didn't even know the woman could drive. She always had a driver at her disposal. I was scared to come out and let her see me. I couldn't tell if she was in cohort with her husband to get rid of me -- the nobody, wanting to trap their precious son. The car drove past me, and I heard something disturbing the shrub behind me. I squealed and jumped out into the open. My first thought was that one of Mr. Sterling's men had caught up with me, the second was the sheer terror of an unknown crawlers in the dark woods.
To my dismay, Charlotte Sterling’s car stopped and then started to reverse. I turned in the opposite direction and ran but the woman appeared to be an excellent driver. She raced to my side and swerved the car to block me.
“Haven’t you all done enough?! I am already leaving! Can’t you leave me alone!!" I screamed with the fear, frustration, and anguish tearing me up inside. Brandishing the letter opener forward in a fighting stance.
"Estie!" she cried as she exited her car to join me in the rain. She walked towards me, gingerly, trying to reach for me, but I flinched backwards, preventing her from touching me. She halted about four feet away from me, studying me. I couldn’t look up to meet her gaze. I have never felt so small in my entire life. If it was possible to cry for my mother I would have. I felt low and exactly what I was treated like -– a nobody.
"Let me help you, please, Estera," she said, and I could detect a hint of guilt in her voice.
"Thank you, but I do not need a Sterling’s help! Just leave me alone and let me go. I promise you, you will never see me again!" I screamed. And tried to turn away.
“Darling, please—” she said again and reached for my forearm and I flinched. It was then I saw that I had a scratch on my hand and I was bleeding. My shoulders shook with anguish. I felt defeated.
“All I did wrong was love him—All I did wrong was love your son!" I cried in utter despair. Charlotte lunged forward, ignoring my protest and the blood to wrap her arms around me. I cried brokenly in her arms.
She cupped my face and said, "Let me help you get out of here, please darling," she said. And her eyes which were so much like Evans’, pulled me in, silently telling me I should give her the benefit of doubt.
I nodded gingerly, and she shepherded me into the car but not to the front seat. She opened the back door for me and helped me settle inside. I did not drop the letter opener.
The heat of the car enveloped me and I shivered.
Charlotte shut the door and ran to the driver's side. When the car moved, my eyes went to the dashboard of the car. It was then I realized the car was the one Evan had bought for my logistics.
"There's a bag back there. The clothes might be a little big on you but you can manage it till you get out of town," she said and I paused contemplating whether to accept anything from her. But I knew I couldn't go on walking about naked I reached for the tissue paper behind me and used it to wipe off the blood on my arm and hands before reaching for the bag. I found a pair of jeans, a woolen top, canvas, and a fabric belt with a face cap. I wore them, using the belt to hold the loose band of the Jean tightly around my small waist. It was a relief to get out of the soaked sneakers. Afterwards, I settled comfortably on the leather seat with my legs folded on the seat.
"He threatened to hurt my Aunt—" I found myself confiding in her with the hope she might grew a heart and help my aunt Sophia.
"He wouldn't dare. I will not let him … I am so sorry I couldn't get to you on time—" she said, and I detected that note of guilt and regret in her voice again. Tears spilt from my eyes. Something told me she was in on it too. I felt a bit calmer now but disillusioned. My heart felt frozen in the wall of my chest and I doubted this was an ordeal I would forget in a hurry.
Charlotte drove for about a mile, then parked by the roadside in front of a convenience store, and then turned around to face me.
"I have to leave you to continue your journey from here,” she said. I nodded and reached for the doorknob.
"Where are you going?" she asked in a panic.
"Getting out of your lives—" I replied, sounding drained.
"No. This is your car. My son bought it for you. It is in your name. It belonged to you!"
"I'm sorry. I don’t want anything from you or him or anyone with your last name," I said with trembling lips.
"So, you are going to let him win?”
"What do you mean? Can you not see me?! Do you think I would ever look at Evan again knowing his father tried to rape me?!"
"What?!" the other woman exclaimed. Her face turned pale and her eyes widened in shock.
"Why do you think that I am naked?! Do you think that I did this to myself?! For what?!" I yelled, directing all my frustration and pain at her. I watched as she struggled with her emotions and when she spoke again her voice was a tad shaky but had a determined edge to it.
"Estera, I am so so sorry. This will haunt me for years to come. You have no idea of how sorry I am—but you shouldn't let him win. Especially with what you just told me. You shouldn’t let him off so easy—"
"What would you have me do?!"
"Take his offer, go to the med school, be what you want to be, and leave Evan to sort out his life for now. If you two were meant to be, he will find you again, but then you would not be the girl you are now, but a woman -– a strong woman who would have achieved something of substance. If you let him win, then you will not only lose Evan, you would have lost an opportunity -– an opportunity to be someone worthy,” she said and picked something from the passenger seat, raising it up for me to see. You have all the documents here, including money, take it and use it to become someone -– someone my son will fight for!"
"What kind of a woman would I be if I accept a gift from a man who tried to rape me so I would leave his son?!"
"-- a calculative, smart one. Life is not plain white or black; right or wrong. My young, innocent girl. You will soon discover there's a path paved with a neutral color that is neither black nor white in which people like us tread. People like us who run the affairs of this world. If you can’t learn to walk on that path, I doubt you would survive in my son's world,” she said.
It felt like a challenge like she was challenging me to prove something at that particular moment, I didn't know what it was but I was willing to take it. "I will leave the car and call a cab home," she added.
"Can you help me to give my Aunt a message?" I asked.
"Of course. Where will you go now?" she replied.
"Home," I said.