"My God… no. This cannot be happening…"
Leah's voice broke, barely audible. With hands shaking violently, she touched the surface of the rough paper. Her eyes were fixed on a single line of names written in bold black ink: Jackson Sterling. The world seemed to stop spinning. That name was not just a sequence of letters, it was the man who held her when she had nightmares, the man who cared for her with boundless affection since she was small. Her father.
"Father… Father…" Leah whimpered, her voice choking in her throat. Instantly, an intense pain struck her chest, as if an invisible hand was crushing her heart until it shattered. Her naked body trembled violently on the cold floor, while tears began to flood her eyes, blurring her vision.
Her eyes shifted to look at the red ink streaks brutally crossed out over her father's name. The same red mark also adorned dozens of other names on that list.
