The nights had grown colder, and not only outside the confines of the large mansion now home to Sophia and Victor. What once was a place that seemed like a palace now felt more like a prison, a fortress whose walls were closing in on her with every passing day. Victor-the man who once showed flashes of tenderness beneath his otherwise stern exterior-had grown distant. Every night felt like a countdown to hear the door open, only to find Victor stumbling in late, tired, irritated, or worse yet, intoxicated.
It had started some weeks ago: Victor's late nights at work began to blossom into full-fledged disappearances into the wee hours of the morning. If Sophia did ask him where he had been, he would say nothing except grunt or some vague excuse about business meetings. Other times, he'd utt
