The next morning I was greeted by an empty house when I went downstairs or at least that's what I thought at that moment.

I ate my breakfast as fast as I could so that I could return to my room before any of them returned.

I wasn't used to eating a lot so I only ended up eating a half piece of toast and a glass of milk.

Just when I was leaving the dining area, Daniel came in front of me out of nowhere. "I'm free today. Let me take you out for a short trip," he said as he looked at me expectantly.

My initial thought was to deny immediately but then I found myself slowly nodding my head. Well, maybe it's a good idea to spend a few hours out of the mansion.

Within twenty minutes, I was sitting on the passenger seat of the same Red Porsche Cayenne as Daniel settled into the driving seat.

I had hurriedly changed into a black jumpsuit that covered me properly and a pair of black sneakers. My long hair was tied in a loose ponytail.

I stared at the beautiful scenery as the car raced out of the residential area.

"If you don't mind can I ask you something?" Daniel asked after about five minutes of silent driving.

I had no idea about what he wanted to ask or if I would even want to answer his question or not. But since I had no particular reason to refuse without sounding rude, I nodded my head giving him a green signal.

"Why do you have such long hair?" Daniel asked as he looked at me curiously. His eyes went towards my hair which was almost touching my butt, before once again settling on me.

To be honest I wasn't expecting him to ask this question. There was no perfect answer to his question.

My mother never let me cut my hair when she was alive since she liked them long. After her death, I was too busy saving myself from getting bullied by the older children in the orphanage or sometimes running away from foster homes, that I never got the chance to ever think about my hair.

Though there were moments in the past when I hated my hair to the core and I wanted to cut them as short as possible.

"There's no one who could have cut them short. I once tried to do it on my own but the result was not good," I finally answered him, hiding the story behind what actually happened when I tried to cut my hair on my own. Hiding about how I almost ended up in the hospital with a broken rib.

"Oh!"

That was his reply. Either he wasn't expecting such an answer or probably he didn't care. But I didn't try to prolong the topic.

About after fifteen minutes or something, Daniel stopped the car outside a three-story building. It was painted in light pink, violet, and lemon yellow shade.

I looked at the board that was hanging above its front door and looked at Daniel in confusion.

"Why are we here?" I asked him, forgetting to keep my tongue in control but thankfully Daniel didn't comment on it.

He just grabbed my hand and dragged me inside. The receptionist politely welcomed us and immediately led us to the second floor.

We entered into a huge room where an old woman probably in her mid-fifties was sitting on a sofa as she flipped through the pages of a fashion magazine.

She looked up towards us as she heard our movements inside the room. I looked behind me and found the receptionist leaving the room as she closed the door behind her.

I once again turned to face the old woman who was now standing a few feet away in front of us.

My fingers tightened around Daniel's hand and he gave me a light squeeze in return as he spoke to the woman.

"Miss Marta, it's been a long time." He smiled at the woman softly.

"Oh my dear, it's indeed being so long. May I know what made you come to this miserable place?" the woman asked him as her eyes looked at me.

There was no judgment in them, no questions, no opinion, she just gave me a soft smile, and I finally relaxed a little.

"Miss Marta, this is Emilia. The princess of Alessandro's and our little sister."

Daniel introduced me to the woman who immediately beamed at me with sparkles in her eyes.

Though the way she became so happy that she started crying was too shocking but my mind was still stuck on Daniel's words to even pay any attention to her or her words that she was trying to say through her hiccups.

Who knew how long it took her to finally calm down. All this while I just stood there looking at her with expressionless eyes. And to my surprise even Daniel didn't try to comfort her, he just also kept standing beside me.

When the old woman finally quieted down, Daniel finally opened his mouth.

"I want you to give my baby sister a pretty and cute haircut. Something that she would like and be comfortable in."

The woman immediately nodded her head as she gave me a final soft smile with her watery eyes, before returning to her professional self.

She ringed a bell and a team of about seven or eight people entered the room, whom she immediately started giving orders.

I turned around to stare at Daniel. I was both shocked and confused. But he only gave me a soft smile before moving towards the sofas and taking a seat on one of them.

Meanwhile, I was dragged into another room by two girls who immediately started their experiments on my hair.

I had no idea how long it took. Maybe it was only an hour or two or probably ages later but when I finally looked at my new haircut, I would have to say that I was really surprised.

My hair was still waist length long and Daniel strictly prohibited them from coloring my hair.

I was amazed to see that they still somehow found a way to make my hair look better, shiny, and softer.

"You are looking beautiful, Sorellina," Daniel said as he watched me staring at my reflection in the mirror.

I just passed him a small smile but stayed silent. Fortunately, he didn't question my behavior, and soon enough we were walking out of the building.

The next stop came after ten minutes of drive and Daniel parked the Porsche in the underground parking lot of the biggest mall that I had seen in my real life.

"Why are we here?" I asked in a soft voice as he opened my side of the door and pulled me out of the car.

************

AN :

You can rise up from anything. You can completely recreate yourself. Nothing is permanent. You are not stuck. You have choices. You can think of new thoughts. You can learn something new. You can create new habits. All that matters is that you decide today and never look back.