Prologue
Stepping out of court that day, Arella could breathe a bit more freely. The road ahead would be quite hard, but with the first step she's taken, she knew she had to keep going. She had to take a couple of therapy sessions to move on and it helped her a lot. She seemed to be getting out of her depression, but the nightmares kept dragging her back. Her nightmares and panic attacks started to go away little by little with time. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a good night’s sleep without any sleeping pills. Or through a day at work without her anxiety medication.
On her last day of therapy, Arella cried her heart out. She felt she could finally breathe without having the fear of breaking down any moment, without looking over her shoulder every second.
Arella couldn’t stay in her old apartment anymore. The apartment was filled with memories that haunted her, memories she wanted to get rid of. She sold it and moved in with her parents for a while. Once she was doing better, she moved into a house a little farther than before, but not too far from her workplace.
Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Arella slowly healed herself and started feeling comfortable in her skin again. Years went by, and she could see the progress she made. She could finally smile when she stared at herself in the mirror without questioning her flaws. Arella never went on a date or tried to get in a relationship again. She was so scarred by her past that she didn’t even dare to think about a relationship.
She was going on with her life, but still it felt like she was stuck in one place. Having a support system, her family and friends, around her made her fake the smiles she had. Fake it till you make it. But when she was alone, in the night everything rushed back and she felt her mood weighing her down again. Arella still felt the pain, the heart ache and she wanted it all to go away, but it never did. With the hope that the weight of those feelings would lessen over time, Arella started adjusting her life and she learned to live with them.
However, she didn't know what life had in store for her on the next turn in her journey...
