The Day Our Promise Breaks

"Mom..."

Even in her unconscious state, Charlie kept whispering for her mother.noveldrama

The woman glanced over at Charlie's thin, fragile form, her eyes colder than ice as she reached for the girl's neck.

Her fingers tightened slowly, squeezing the air from Charlie's throat, little by little.

Charlie's breath caught, her pale face turning a bluish purple as she struggled for air.

But just as the darkness started closing in, the woman let go.

No, strangling Charlie here would be far too easy on Charles and Evelyn.

Now that Charlie had lost her memory, there were better ways-crueler ways-to make Charles and Evelyn really suffer.

"Drive," the woman ordered, her gaze finally leaving Charles and Evelyn and settling on the driver.

"Yes, Ms. Sena."

The driver was loyal-he'd been with her since she was a child, watching her grow up and taking her wherever she needed to go.

She'd been born into the cutthroat Rochette family, where weakness meant you were tossed aside. Sickly from the start, she'd been sent away by the lady of the house, raised far from the family estate.

Ms. Sena had always been gentle, kind to the drivers and housekeepers, never letting her illness break her spirit.

Three months ago, after a successful surgery, she finally got her health back.

Everyone should have been happy for her. But then, something changed-almost overnight, Ms. Sena seemed like a different person. Her moods swung wildly, her expression often clouded over with a strange darkness.

She had never meddled in family affairs before. Yet here she was, taking in the Rochette family's unwanted child.

At first, the driver thought maybe she was just being kind.

But after seeing Ms. Sena nearly choke the little girl to death, he realized he'd been wrong.

The old Ms. Sena might have acted out of empathy. The new Ms. Sena? She definitely had her own agenda.

He knew better than to ask questions. The last three months had taught him that lesson-every time he'd spoken out of turn, he'd paid for it.

In the back seat, the woman's demeanor flipped again as she cradled Charlie, who was coughing violently from lack of air.

She patted the girl's back, voice suddenly soft and reassuring, “Shh, Mom's here. Everything's okay."

...

Evelyn was a bundle of nerves, unable to calm down.

The hotel arranged a car, and she and Charles climbed into the back seat.

At Charles's request, the driver took it slow, winding through the streets near the hotel.

They peered out the windows, searching each block, but Charles didn't really think they'd find Charlie.

He wanted nothing more than to bring her back, but the dead don't just show up out of nowhere in a foreign country.

He searched mostly to keep Evelyn from falling apart.

They circled the neighborhood several times, but Evelyn refused to give up.

She got out and kept searching on foot, stubborn to the end.

Charles tried to stop her, but Evelyn snapped, her voice shaking with

help, Charles, just go away

"If you're not g

She shot him a cold, angry look.

She'd never counted on him for anything not when Charlie got sick, not when she was lost, not even

now when the impossible hope of seeing Charlie again was all she had feft. sŵnovel

Charles looked into Evelyn's red, swollen eyes. He knew they wouldn't find Charlie, but he couldn't just leave Evelyn alone.

They walked the streets again and again, but Charlie was nowhere to be seen.