Escape and awakening

The City First Hospital, Late Night

Alice Willson lay still in the sterile hospital bed, one hand resting protectively over her stomach. A soft hum of machines surrounded her, beeping in rhythm with the faint heartbeat she held within her. She was groggy, drifting in and out from the effects of the sedatives they had given her, though her senses felt sharper than they should.

As her eyes fluttered open, voices drifted through the thin curtain that half-shielded her from the dim corridor. She could only make out fragments, but the tones were unmistakable cold, and scheming.

"…a few days, and it's done," one voice said, sharp and familiar.

Alice tensed as she recognized her husband's voice. John. Her husband's words had once brought comfort, but now they echoed with a sinister indifference.

A second voice chimed in, honeyed with malice. Sherlin. Her step sister. "You promised, John. It's simple. Just pay the doctor and let him do the rest." Her voice was calm, as if she were planning an evening out. "Once she's gone, it all comes back to us. I have the book in my hands already,with her gone we can marry openly and stop pretending,and no one will question her death. So it's an easy task"

"I also want to get rid of her quickly, seeing her scar filled face everyday get's me irritated, but we have to be careful."

Alice's mind reeled, the meaning of their words sinking into her bones like ice. They planned to kill her. She was lying in this bed, weak and pregnant, and they were plotting to end her life and that of her unborn child.

She gripped the bedrail, her fingers trembling. Her body was frail, and the drugs dulled her reactions, but her mind surged with adrenaline, cutting through the sedative's haze. She forced herself to lie still, listening to the footsteps fading down the corridor, until silence returned, wrapping her in an urgent solitude.

Alice inhaled deeply, pushing herself to sit up despite the rush of dizziness. She had no time to waste if she didn't leave tonight, she might not have another chance. Weak as she was, she knew she had to find a way out.

The memory of their voices lingered, haunting her as she rose shakily to her feet. How had she been so blind? She'd tried to believe in her family, tried to find some goodness in them. But John's cruelty, Sherlin's betrayal it had all been a plan from the beginning. Their marriage had been nothing more than a convenient lie, a facade to strip her of her inheritance and the precious medicinal book her mother had left behind. Secrets that her mother had entrusted to her, sensing the danger that might lie in the hands of the wrong people.

She blinked against the blinding overhead lights, her gaze sweeping over the room. Her phone was missing from the nightstand. It must have been taken away by the staff no doubt by John's orders to leave her isolated and trapped. Her pulse quickened. She had to be smarter than them, just this once.

Pushing aside the curtain, Alice took a cautious step into the hall, scanning for any signs of hospital staff. The halls were dim and mostly empty, the sterile scent of antiseptics filling her lungs. Her head spun as she tiptoed past the nurses station, hoping her thin hospital gown and tousled hair would make her look ghostly enough to go unnoticed. With each step, her courage grew, replacing fear with a quiet determination. I'm not dying here, she thought, gripping the wall for support.

When she finally stumbled out the side exit into the cold night air, she gasped as the reality sank in she was free. But only for now. She needed to get far away, somewhere that no one from the Willson family could reach her. Flagging down a cab, she slipped into the back seat, her voice barely above a whisper. "The airport Please."

______

On the Plane, Somewhere Over the Pacific

The dull roar of the airplane engines filled Alice's ears as she leaned back in her seat, staring blankly at the cabin ceiling. She was numb. The events of the night replayed in her mind like a cruel theater, each betrayal, each hateful word, replaying with relentless clarity.

She closed her eyes, her mind drifting to a time when things had been different a time when her life was filled with warmth and laughter, back before her mother had died. Those early memories came in flickers her mother's kind smile, the scent of fresh flowers in the garden, the way her mother would braid her hair and tell her she was destined for greatness.

After her mother's sudden passing, everything had changed. Her father, Williston Willson, had remarried within months. Alice remembered the day her stepmother had moved in, the way her father's eyes had softened for his new wife in a way they'd never softened for her. Her stepmother had brought along her own daughter, Sherlin a cunning girl with a smile as false as her mother's.

Alice's heart twisted. She'd been sent to the countryside soon after, told it was "for her own good." And like the obedient daughter she was, she'd believed it. She'd waited for her family to remember her, to bring her home. She'd never guessed they'd left her there to keep her out of sight and mind until she became useful to them.

I was a fool, she thought bitterly, one hand resting over her abdomen, feeling the tiny pulse of life within her. Her family's betrayals had cut deep, but this...this was something else. They had tried to take everything from her, and she'd nearly let them.

But she wouldn't be the same girl anymore. She couldn't afford to be. Her child would grow up with strength, with dignity a life far removed from the Willson family's cruelty. And Alice would make sure of it, even if it meant becoming someone unrecognizable.

The woman who had left Seattle was gone. In her place, a new Alice was being born, forged by betrayal and tempered by pain. She would no longer beg for love, no longer trust where trust hadn't been earned. And she would never be naive again.

........

A New Beginning,,

Three Years Later, London

Alice stepped out of a sleek black car in front of an opulent hotel, the type of place that whispered power and prestige. She smoothed the tailored lines of her coat, glancing up at the mirrored glass that reflected back a woman she barely recognized. Her sleek hair cascaded down her shoulders, framing a face sharpened by resilience. She no longer had those ugly scars on her face, and what we saw was a completely stunning and eye catching face. Her transformation was evident, her eyes looked ahead codly, her posture unbreakable.

The years had changed her. She had cut ties with her past, immersing herself in study, training, and discipline. Under the mentorship of powerful allies she had met in London, she had quickly risen, gaining a reputation in the medicinal field that her stepfamily could only dream of. She was no longer Alice Willson, the discarded daughter of a profit-hungry man. She was something more a woman who knew her worth.

Inside the lobby, people glanced at her, but she met each gaze with an unflinching stare. She had made powerful connections, allies who had guided her in ways she couldn't have imagined back in Seattle. These were people who respected strength and ambition, and Alice had both in spades. She had learned to fight, to defend, to outwit and strategize. And most of all, she had learned to survive.

Yet beneath the new identity, beneath the polished exterior, one truth burned quietly, unyielding: she would return to Seattle. She would take back everything they had stolen from her and make them see the consequences of their cruelty.

Her eyes turned cold as she strode through the lobby.