Length of Happiness

[Prologue] Chapter I - Alone

An 8-years-old girl named ­­­­­­­Taeyeon struggled to take her eyes off the door that was shut in front of her. Frozen on the spot as she wondered why the lady had pushed them in here, a dark corridor with the only light source coming from a rectangular glass panel and the faint outline of an exit sign at the end of the long hallway. She grabbed her stepsister's hands and quickly moved next to the large glass panel. There they saw a dozen or more strange men that were not in the room before. Fortunately, they could not see the girls kneeling inside a secret passageway that was built behind a two-way mirror. The men looked menacing and wore black from head to toe. Each of them was well-built and held something sharp in their hands. Before she realized what was happening, the men held onto the lady that was kneeling on the hard carpeted floor and to her surprise, they did not stab her, and something was forcefully shoved into her mouth instead. Nevertheless, from the lady's hopeless expression, Taeyeon knew she will never be able to see her again. Feeling a surge of anxiety and despair, her heart sunk and collapsed to the floor as the lady was dragged towards the bedroom. She covered her stepsister's eyes and her own mouth to prevent any noises escaping.

Second to her stepsister, the lady was the only other soul inside the mansion that did not act coldly towards her and for that reason she cherished the lady more than her adoptive parents.

The lady visited them often and was a close friend of the master of the mansion, the CEO of a large tech company called Celerity. Despite not being married to the master, they were an amazing pair that brought the company to where it is today. Ever since the lady joined the company, they distanced themselves by a large margin from their competitors both in economic performance and influence. No wonder she was involved in a love triangle when she was younger, she was both smart and beautiful. That, Taeyeon always loved to joke about, indirectly complimenting the lady. And only in the presence of the lady she dared to act in such carefree manner.

According to the family, her birth parents had left her when she was just a few months old. It was during one of their business trips, they had found her wrapped in a jacket at the foot of their hotel door. And because how badly her adoptive grandmother loved and pitied her, the master agreed to adopt her.

Nonetheless, they treated her as if she were their own and when she became aware, she wasn't sure whether she should be grateful or not. Her days were filled with studies ever since she could spoke her first complete sentence. Only on seldom occasions she was allowed to go out and play, which most of the time was with her sister. It's not like she could make a lot of friends anyway with the amount of work she had to do.

Unlike her sister, she took most of the responsibilities and hardly ever get the chance to act like a normal kid. At times, Taeyeon felt tired of all the work and would throw fits. Why did she have to study and do all the work, when her stepsister, who was only two years younger, received all the slack. Even still, she and her stepsister were very close. In addition to the similar appearance, they got along just like blood related sisters.

...

"Go get the doctor to make sure she is dead and report back." One of the men commanded his subordinates, his deep voice penetrated through the walls.

After the doctor came, she could not bear the thought of the lady being announced dead. Feeling miserable, her eyelids lowered, and her first tears dropped.

"Am I going to die?" She asked herself as she saw the scene unfold before her, fear gripping every inch of her tiny body.

Death was just a concept that she had grasped earlier that morning.

"Death is the very last moment of her life when she must go somewhere far, far away. So far away that nobody will be able to see, nor hear her."