Being a 200-level university student in California wasn't easy. In fact, life itself wasn't easy. Some days, I felt like it would've been far simpler if I'd been homeschooled, tucked away in the comfort of Ravensport, Valenro, with books and quiet streets instead of deadlines, lectures, and relentless social pressure. Ugh!
"Aren't you doing this to become a lawyer so you can avenge your parents' death?" Stella asked, her calm voice contrasting sharply with my restless energy. My best friend since kindergarten she always knew the right things to say, even when I didn't want to hear them.
It's true. My parents were hardworking people. My dad was a businessman with an eye for deals and an unwavering drive to provide. Mom… well, she adored us, and Dad's strict rules couldn't stop her from spoiling us. We were happy. Grateful. Life was simple, comfortable, full of laughter. Until the nightmare began.
My dad had been involved with a group of powerful business tycoons in Valenro. A deal went wrong, lawsuits were filed, and the tycoons lost. But revenge, apparently, is always lurking behind the veneer of success. I was ten years old when it happened.
It was my birthday. Disneyland lights, music, the kind of joy that made you forget the world for a day. But on the way home, two black SUVs followed our car. Ravensport isn't the biggest city, but to get home from the amusement park, you had to pass a long bridge and two steep hills the second one running near the Darkwater River.
The second SUV appeared suddenly, taking a shortcut that forced our car off the road. The impact was brutal. Tires lost balance, and the car rolled violently down the incline toward the river. I couldn't gauge the height, only the panic. Only the sound of metal crushing, glass shattering, and screaming.
Then my eyes caught something I couldn't unsee: a man, black suit, black sunglasses, with a tattoo that wrapped around his arm like dark sun rays. The sight flashed in my mind like a warning I couldn't comprehend.
The rest was chaos. Faint cries for help. Darkness. Silence.
When I woke up, it was in a hospital, heart monitor beeping like a metronome of survival. Doctors moved through the corridors with the precision of ants on a mission.
"Oh good, you're awake!" one of them said, checking my vitals. I wanted to speak, but the breathing tube silenced me.
"You had an accident… a fatal one. You're the only one who survived. Your parents…"
The words barely registered. I saw sympathy etched across the doctor's face, but it did nothing to comfort me.
"I'm glad you're alive, although you've sustained significant injuries. We've stitched everything, but recovery will take time," the doctor added.
Two and a half months later, I finally recovered enough to leave the hospital. But my life had already shifted irreversibly. Dad's will hadn't been located yet, and without it, I had no claim to his property. Instead, I had to live with Uncle Marcus, my father's brother. Rich? yes but not my father. Not the life I'd lost.
As I stepped out of the car, I looked at Uncle Marcus's mansion. Two stories, carefully landscaped gardens, walls thick enough to echo the wealth of someone who hadn't inherited the heights of my father's fortune. And yet… I stayed there. I had no choice.
I kept a list in my head of everything I needed to accomplish: finish law school, uncover every secret, and find the person responsible for my parents' deaths. Every night, I went over it. Every lecture, every assignment, every interaction part of the plan.
Life in California wasn't Ravensport. The streets didn't carry the same whispers of old money deals, the subtle power plays in narrow alleys, or the way deals were won and lost before anyone even knew what happened. Yet the city had its own rules, and I had to learn them fast.
Stella stayed by my side through it all, but even she didn't know the full depth of my plan. Some things were too dangerous, too personal. The memory of that SUV, the tattooed man, the river, it haunted me. I studied law not just for knowledge, but for leverage, for preparation, for the eventual reckoning.
Classes were grueling. Professors spoke with confidence that made my teeth grit. Students competed like predators. I clenched my notebooks, focusing not on the gossip, the social clubs, or the parties, but on the ultimate goal: justice.
But justice in California wasn't simple. Every rule I learned, every loophole, every precedent was a weapon I could wield but it required patience, observation, and restraint. And patience? I wasn't good at it. Not when the memory of that night in Ravensport burned like a brand in my mind.
Every night, I remembered my parents. I remembered Disneyland, the lights, the laughter… and then the SUV, the river, the dark tattooed man. My chest tightened at the thought. And yet, I reminded myself I had survived. I was the one who could turn the tide, the one who could claim what was lost.
California was a new world, a place far from Ravensport, but it didn't erase the past. It made me sharper. Stronger. More focused. Every lecture hall, every library aisle, every courtroom simulation was a step closer. And somewhere deep inside, I knew that one day, the people who had destroyed my family would pay.
Stella, ever patient, would remind me to breathe. To live. But living for me meant moving forward without forgetting, surviving without surrendering. And in this city of opportunity and deception, I had to be more than a student. I had to be a strategist, a seeker, a fighter.
Ravensport was my origin. Valenro, the northern city with its misted streets, its river that had witnessed tragedy, would always be part of me. But California this sprawling, chaos was my battlefield. Here, I would grow, adapt, and prepare for the day I finally confronted the darkness that had stolen everything from me.