Dawn came like an open wound on the horizon. A sky ablaze with shades of crimson and gold rose over the sleeping gardens of the Vasiliev mansion. It was as if the world was on fire... and at last beginning to purify itself.
Anna awoke before the first ray of sunlight touched her window. She hadn't slept, not really. She had spent the night listening to her soul breaking... and reassembling itself. Thinking about the weight of every step, of every silence, of every lie turned truth.
Lucian slept in the armchair in front of the fireplace, like a child exhausted by his own sins. He was not the monster he once believed, but neither was he the hero he wanted to be. He was a man. Broken, damaged... human.
And she, for the first time, understood that.
She got up without a sound. She walked down the hallway that had so often seen her chained to fear. That hallway now seemed different to her. It was no longer a prison. It was a decision.
She walked past the mirror in the main hallway and looked at herself.
She did not see the little girl who came trembling into that house. She didn't see the obedient maid. He did not see Lucian's shadow.
He saw Ana.
And she knew what she had to do.
She went down to the kitchens, where Katia was waiting for her, nervously, with a small backpack. Inside, just the right things: some papers, money, a key, a promise to run away.
-Are you sure? -Katia asked, whispering as if the wind might give them away.
Ana held the backpack in her hands. The tension in her shoulders was a memory that had not yet faded.
-No," she answered, "But for the first time in my life... I'm going to choose what I want.
She walked toward the back door, feeling the weight of each step. The fire of dawn enveloped her, burning away the last remnants of her prison.
But before she crossed the threshold, she heard her name.
-Ana.
Lucian.
She turned around. He stood there, barefoot, his eyes misty with grief, his heart exposed in every word.
-Where are you going?
She held his gaze. Not with rancor. Not with fear.
-Where fear will not follow me.
Lucian took a step forward, as if wanting to cling to her, but he did not.
-Don't you love me?
Anne smiled, a tear crossing her cheek like a salt scar.
-I love you," she said, her voice trembling. But not at my expense.
Lucian looked down. The man who had everything was losing everything.
And then, the unexpected happened.
-Then go," he whispered, "Because if you run out of freedom, you can never really come back to me.
Anne looked at him one last time. And walked towards the fire of dawn. The chains that once bound her... turned to ashes in her wake.
And though she did not know what she would find on the other side of the road, for the first time, she was free.