Chapter 3 Nothing’s the Same After Five Years
Five years had passed.
The gates of Torsville Prison slowly opened. A thin, skeletal woman slowly stepped out. Olive’s dull black hair barely reached her ears. If anyone looked closely, they could see a long, ugly scar across her pale forehead.
The sunlight touched her face for the first time in years, and she felt rather uncomfortable.
She raised a hand to shield her eyes.
She was no longer the Olive she used to be. This kind of sunlight was too bright for her now.
“Ms. Swanson, congratulations on your release. Take this as a lesson and start over,” Ceri Green said softly as she stepped forward. Then, she handed Olive her belongings along with a hundred dollars in cash.
“Thank you, Officer Green!” Olive took the things with a small smile and left.
Ceri watched the woman walk away and couldn’t help but sigh. Olive had spent five years in prison, and she was no longer the queen of Torsville’s high society.
Olive’s hands were ruined, and so were her feet.
They said she used to play the piano beautifully and dance just as well. But unfortunately, she would probably never play or dance again.
After five years of knowing Olive, Ceri felt that the woman wasn’t as vile as the newspapers made her out to be.
What exactly had happened during that time?
Ceri was very puzzled.
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Olive used the money Ceri gave her to ride the four-hour bus to White Ridge, a town in Torsville.
She found Annie Plinkton’s childhood home. The woman next door gave her a bundle of things, along with a little girl who was around four years old.
The child was adorable, with a round, pretty face. Her dark eyes looked a little like Olive’s.
After thanking the woman, Olive took the little girl back to the city and went straight to the cemetery.
When Olive saw her grandfather’s photo on the tombstone, she struggled to her knees. Tears immediately poured down her face.
“Grandpa, I’m such a disgrace!”
Liam Swanson, her grandfather, died of a heart attack when he found out she had been sentenced to five years in prison. She never got to see him one last time, and that became the greatest regret of her life.
As for her father, he kicked her out of the Swanson family and stripped her of her inheritance.
After she placed some flowers by the tombstone, Olive dug a small hole next to Liam’s grave. She buried the bundle of things from earlier, then smoothed the ground back over.
She had planned to visit Janice’s grave after saying goodbye to Liam’s, but couldn’t find it. Olive supposed Janice had been buried in the Hortons’ family plot.
“Mommy, where are we going?” the little girl holding Olive’s hand asked shyly.
Olive paused for a second, then smiled and replied, “Lana, I’m taking you somewhere with no sadness, okay?”
“Lana? Is that my name?” The little girl giggled and said, “Mrs. Waltz always called me Silly Girl!”
Olive didn’t know what to say. Still, it wasn’t something within her control back then.
“No. From now on, your name is Lana. Solana Swanson!”
Olive hoped Solana would live up to her name, a life filled with sunshine, never clouded by sorrow.
“Yay! I have a real name now! Mrs. Waltz didn’t lie. She said my mommy would give me a pretty name!” Solana beamed.
Olive looked at Solana’s innocent grin and found herself smiling as well.
At that moment, all she wanted was to leave this place with Solana. She wanted to leave Torsville behind and maybe forget everything that happened.
But Olive had no money. When she was arrested, all she had on her was the ring on her finger and her ID.
The ring was the wedding ring she wore when she married Trevor.
Olive stared at the large diamond in her palm, but her eyes remained calm and empty.
