Chapter 2: Escaping Misery Only to Meet Tragedy

With her long, silky pitch black hair flowing along with the blowing wind, crimson red irises glued on the path ahead of her, Cassidy silently strides down the airport boarding gate.

As she does so, she can hear a round of chatters and murmurs ensuing all around her. People's heads keep turning to her direction, drawn to her eye-catching profile and imposing aura. She just has this prepossessing figure that dazzles anyone she comes across with despite the fact that she's only wearing a plain apparel this time.

Little did these onlookers know that what comes with her captivating appearance is her distinguished title as the wife of the prominent owner of the country's largest conglomerate businesses.

"Not that I'll continue to be that person, though..." Cassidy pondered quietly, looking through the glass windows with a frown marring her frame.

"Seems like wearing a simple attire doesn't help at all."

In an attempt to avoid garnering attention like this, she decided to dress up as an ordinary person for the first time in her whole five years of marriage life. She also even went here on her own - without any bodyguard, chauffeur or any companion of the likes.

"But then again, escaping this life will not be as easy as changing clothes alone," she thought in dismay before heaving a sigh.

For five years, Cassidy lived a miserable life under the shadows of her unfeeling husband, his contemptuous relatives, and the toxic workplace that he had ignorantly placed her in.

She kept asking herself where exactly she went wrong, but it all just seemed to boil down to the fact that she had hoped too much. Now, it took her this long to wake up to the harsh reality of this fantasy-like, luxurious world.

On her way to board the commercial plane, Cassidy couldn't help but recall this certain chain of events that served as the main reason why she's here now - one that made her realize that enough was enough.

It was during the annual family reunion of the Millicent's the other day.

A stormy whirlwind of happenings went down.

"I can't believe I'd be seeing your ugly face here again."

"You little thing sure knew how to dream big, huh?"

"Staying married for five years? Just how desperate were you this whole time?"

"Then again, you have nowhere to go back to but the slums."

"Leeching off of your huband's wealth like this... How scandalous, indeed."

"Aren't you trying too hard? No matter how much you overwork yourself, you'll still be as worthless as ever."

"You don't belong here at all."

Everyone's venomous words had shot her ruthlessly like a rain of missiles. But as the refined and complaisant wife that she is, she just stayed quiet the entire time.

It's not like she's still not used to this kind of situations, anyway. She often gets by if she'll just play along and let them have their fun.

At any rate, their scornful remarks aren't really the one that hit the nail on the head here. It was what these people did next to her.

Just remembering it made her insides churn in dread and agony. It made her look at the glass windows again - her gaze chained on her back that's just below her nape.

"They really went physical this time..." Cassidy winced, recalling the burnt mark that's marring her flesh on that particular spot of her body.

It just happened that some of her husband's relatives who used to despise her openly had smacked a hot curling iron on her skin that night, causing her to receive a third-degree burn. Until now, the ineffaceable scar remained, but she was too powerless and voiceless to do anything to retaliate.

They had tortured and humiliated her - the worst one they did so far.

Then, that burn has ignited something within her. It ignited the will to just throw everything away to the fire.

"Not only that, though... During the night of the reunion as well, another thing happened..." she continued recalling, her blood red irises slowly losing their vibrance and turning to look as dead as a corpse's.

"I saw Adrian cheating on me."

As for this one, she can't bear to play the exact scene in her head again. It's worse than being burned. That time, she felt like she's drowning deep into the furthest part of an icy cold body of water.

She was suffocating, shaking, and feeling as hopeless as ever.

She was dying.

"I-It's alright now, though. It's alright..." Cassidy murmurred tremulously, wrapping her arms around herself to cease her trembling.

"I'll be out of here starting today, anyway. This time around, they won't get their hands on me anymore."

Before she can have another anxiety attack, she goes ahead and board the plane. Doing so has been seamless and smooth so far.

For some reason, the passenger seat of that commercial airplane feels a lot more comfortable than the one she used to sit on when she's riding their private jet plane. She can't help but relish this moment of freedom, the increasing distance between her and that hellish cage as the aircraft finally departs, and the very thought of finally unshackling her chains.

"Indeed, this is when I'll finally flip over a new beginning."

Now, she's all filled with new hopes and expectations -

Only to shatter at once as soon as a horrendous turn of events went down - an uncalled-for, deadly explosion.

Not even reaching half an hour of flying through the sky yet, everything suddenly crashed down in just a matter of minutes.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Aciee_GelaTin

Hello everyone! It's my first time exploring the contemporary romance genre, and I really decided to go out of my comfort zone this time. This is my entry for WFC #23. Please, do leave a power stone, and I promise I'll update as often as I can.

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