Chapter 1: The Return
When I was a kid, my summers always smelled like wet earth and pine trees warmed by the sun. Mom would pack my sisters and me into the car with suitcases full of light clothes and drive us out to the countryside, to that wooden and brick cabin where my maternal grandparents had lived. From the outside it looked like any other place, but for a restless seven-year-old boy, it was paradise. Running barefoot through the mud, climbing trees until my arms ached, chasing butterflies until the sun disappeared… every night I'd collapse exhausted, with dirty skin and a smile that not even water could wash away.
It was my home away from home.
All of that broke when I turned eight. My parents started fighting more and more fiercely, their shouts seeping through the walls of the mansion. At first I didn't understand anything. I only knew that Dad came home late, that Mom cried in the kitchen, and that the atmosphere in the house had become so heavy it was hard to breathe. Months later I learned the truth: Dad had diverted money from the company to support a mistress and a secret son he had in another city. The scandal exploded in the newspapers and the divorce became a battlefield.
Mom wanted custody of all of us. Dad, with his lawyers and his fortune, gave her an ultimatum: either she took my sisters and left me behind, or he would fight for everything in court and would probably win. Mom accepted the deal with tears in her eyes. She left me behind.
For eleven years I lived under my father's absolute control. He turned me into his project: private tutors, advanced classes, rigorous physical training to "make me a real man." No friends, no summers in the countryside, no laughter. Only responsibility and silence. He forbade any contact with Mom and my sisters. Every time I asked about them, I got the same cold answer: "They are no longer part of this family."
Until one day I decided I'd had enough.
"It looks the same…" I murmured as the taxi stopped at the edge of the town.
I got out of the car and the midday heat hit me like a wave. The landscape was still exactly the same: tall trees reaching toward the sky, wooden and brick cabins scattered without any apparent order, some small and others as big as the one in the center of the town. It smelled of damp earth, wildflowers, and that fresh air you can only breathe far away from the city. I felt a knot in my chest. Eleven years, and everything was exactly the same.
"Here you go, young man," said the taxi driver, pulling my large suitcase out of the trunk.
He was an older man with deep wrinkles and calloused hands. I paid the fare and gave him an extra fifty dollars. Then I looked him in the eyes.
"If anyone asks, you didn't bring anyone here today."
The taxi driver quickly pocketed the bill and nodded.
"Understood, sir. Have a good trip."
The yellow taxi drove away down the dirt road, leaving a cloud of dust behind. I stood alone at the entrance to the town, with my suitcase at my feet and the sun beating down hard on my head.
My name is Ethan. I'm nineteen years old, I'm almost six foot three, and my body is marked by years of training my father forced me to do. Dark brown hair, green eyes like Mom's, broad shoulders, and a jaw that no longer looks like a child's. But inside, I'm still the same boy who used to run along these paths and dream of coming back home.
I took a deep breath and grabbed the handle of the suitcase.
'Even if Dad comes, I'm not going back…'
The wind ruffled my hair as I took my first step toward the town.
End of Chapter 1