Chapter 35: More Foredooming

Sharon and Peter had their dinner and both sat beside each other in the living room. They snuggled up cosily as it was a cold night.

"So, how long did you stay with Victoria and Hector, and what happened next?" Peter asked, wanting Sharon to continue with her story.

"I stayed with them for more than two years. Eventually, I opened up to Victoria and Hector about who I was and why l was running. Took me a while to talk but I did." Sharon said.

"And how did they take it?" Peter asked.

"They took it quite well, actually. I was a bit surprised that they didn't seem worried even after I told them about all the horrible things Addicus had done. They still wanted me to stay. At first, I thought it was because they had found their personal painter, their business was doing well and they didn't want to lose that, but later I discovered that they were just nice people who wanted to help me just from the goodness of their hearts.

**BACK TO THE PAST...

It was finally time to close up the shop. The crowds had cleared out and only a few paintings were left and none of them was Sharon's. It was indeed the craziest and busiest day the shop had seen in months.

Hector was cleaning up with a big smile on his face and his sister noticed.

"Someone's happy," she said teasingly.

"Of course, I'm happy. Do you have any idea how much we made today? We're so lucky to have met this woman." He said excitedly.

"Ahh, so you're happy about her being here? Just two days ago, you wanted her gone," Victoria said to her brother and waited smartly for his response.

"Look, Vic! I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong and I admit it, I was wrong about Sharon. I thought having her here would be a problem and I didn't trust her but now, I see that she's an angel, sent by the virgin of Guadalupe to help us and we're going to repay her by providing her with anything she needs," Hector said proudly.

"Wow, brother. You really don't play around, do you?" She joked.

They got everything in order and closed the shop for the day. They both went back inside and Hector headed straight to his room to calculate exactly how much they made selling all of those paintings.

Meanwhile, Victoria went to talk to Sharon who was still in her room. She knocked on the door. "Sharon, are you awake?"

"Yes, I am. Come on in," she said from the other side of the door.

Victoria went in and sat beside Sharon who lay on the bed. She was staring straight at the ceiling with a tear streaming from her eye. Victoria noticed this and wondered what was wrong with her.

"Sharon. I don't like seeing you like this. Please, tell me what's wrong. It's clearly not doing you any good to bottle it up inside. Let it out," Victoria pleaded with her, desperate to be of assistance.

Sharon wiped the tear from her face, slowly sat up and looked at Victoria. She couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into tears, throwing herself into Victoria's arms to seek the comfort of a hug.

She cried so much and Victoria just continued hugging her, being a support system for her, a friend to lean on, something Sharon hadn't had in a long time.

Sharon finally managed to calm down after a while. Victoria gave her a tissue and she wiped her tears with it.

"I'm so sorry, Victoria. I didn't mean to lose control of myself like that," Sharon apologized.

"You don't have to say that, Sharon. There's nothing to be sorry for. You're going through something sad and hard to deal with and that's not your fault. I just want you to know that I'm here for you. You can talk to me, whenever you want to. I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Victoria..." Sharon took in a deep breath and blew out and began explaining everything to her.

"My life has been one filled with loss, pain, sadness, betrayal, fear, and danger. And all of these things still haunt me," Sharon paused and stared at a calendar by her bedstand.

She picked up the little calendar and looked at it. She smiled sadly as she saw what day it was; **July 17!**

"Tomorrow's actually my birthday, Victoria. My 21st birthday," she said with an expression that carried both joy and sadness.

"That's wonderful, Sharon," Victoria said but Sharon's facial expression didn't seem to share the same opinion as hers.

"No, Victoria, It's not. My birthday is cursed. It's been cursed since I lost my parents on my eighth birthday!"

"What do you mean by your birthday's cursed?" Victoria asked confused.

"My parents died on my eighth birthday. Well, they were killed. Since that day, my birthday was no longer a day for celebration but mourning. I didn't have a party anymore until I turned eighteen. The, uh...man that adopted me after my parent's death was insistent that I have a formal party to celebrate my becoming an adult.

"On that day, he kissed me and he told me that he wanted to make me his woman and marry me. A man that I had looked up to like a father for ten years wanted me for a wife."

"Sharon, that sounds terrible," Victoria said in pity.

"It wasn't, at least, not at first. He made me happy. He made me forget about my pain. He filled my life with joy that I never thought I could feel after my parents died. I was going to marry him but then, I discovered that he killed my parents."

"What? But why?" Victoria wondered.

"Money! He wanted my father's land cause there was gold beneath it. My father wouldn't sell it to him, so Addicus killed him," Sharon said and paused.

"Is that his name? Addicus? It sounds like the name that a monster would bear," Victoria said in anger.

"He was a monster. I found out the truth before I married him. I confronted him about it and he beat me up, tried to rape and tried to kill me."

"Oh, Sharon!"

"I managed to escape him, thanks to two really good friends of mine. He killed them and chased after me from city to city, until I realized that he would never stop trying to catch me so I left the country and came here,"

Sharon finished and she tried to wipe a tear from her face but was surprised to find that she wasn't crying.

*It was almost like she had run out of tears.

"I'm so sorry, Sharon. I can't begin to imagine how sad and lonely you must have felt. But you're not alone anymore. You have me now and that monster will never find you here," Victoria told her with a voice filled with genuine love.

They shared a hug and Sharon started to feel like she could truly be free of Addicus. She wanted him to pay for what he did to her family, but she would be willing to abandon her quest for justice if it meant living a peaceful life without pain or fear.

"I hope you're right, Victoria. I really do.

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

**BACK AT THE COTTAGE...

"So, I told Victoria the truth and she told Hector about it. They were very kind and supportive. They treated me like family and for the two years I spent with them, I started to feel like family, the way I felt with Lily, Martha and Roseline," Sharon said.

"But you weren't safe, were you? Because if you were, then you would not be here right now and you would never have tried to kill yourself."

Peter was smart. He could tell that her time with Victoria and Hector was going to be another sad story. She probably had beautiful and happy moments with them for those two years but it ended badly, he could tell.

"You're right. I was kidding myself. I knew Addicus wanted to find me and that he was relentless. But, I stupidly chose to believe that I had eluded him and I put my friends in danger, once again."

"What happened?" Peter wanted to know.

"He didn't know that I was in Costa Rica. There was no way he could have known. It all got ruined in one day. All the security I had built and the safety I had achieved.., all because of a painting, a stupid painting," Sharon said with a groan, almost like she was angry with herself.

"What do you mean by a painting?" Peter asked, unsure of where the story was heading.

"He found me through my paintings. One of them got to him in America somehow and he came to Costa Rica to find me."

"I'm confused, Sharon. I thought you said you didn't let anyone know that you were the painter?"

"That's the thing, Peter. I didn't!"