Chapter six: The sudden change

Kathie on hearing the furious voice behind her, swung around immediately with apprehensiveness only to see her so-called mother standing there with anger displaying in her eyes.

" Ashley, what is it!?" the woman repeated herself.

Kathie just wanted to explain exactly what happened but stopped herself from doing so and decided to play along with the game.

" Mom, was everything she said true?" Kathie asked with crocodile tears slowly streaming down her eyes." Am I that useless? Don't I have any value?"

The woman whom Kathie has come to know that her name is Laura glanced at her daughter with disbelief before looking at Kathie with a resignedly sigh.

" Ashley, dear" the woman called softly and walked towards Kathie slowly but deep down it was more of a roar.

Kathie could still see those raging eyes burning through her skin. If this woman had attended a school of pretends, she would have graduated with a master's degree.

" Ashley my dear," Laura said as she came face to face with Kathie, " You know I love you" 

" Oh, still playing nice" Kathie muttered silently with a rolled eye.

" Is not that you don't have any value" Laura continued, " it's just that…your siblings are just too young to do things…."

" What!? " Kathie shouted with surprise. 

A girl of eighteen years can't perform household chores? How ridiculous. Okay, that was it. She is done with all the pretense.

" What are you saying, Mom? A girl of eighteen years can't do what a girl of twelve years can do. Then what are we teaching her as an elder sister and mother" Kathie said nonchalantly while looking at Laura with those innocent eyes that were clearer than a crystal ball.

 The words, as little and calm as it is, slumped deep down into every one of them at that moment. The girl, on hearing what Kathie said about her, looked at her mother with shock in her eyes before casting her murderous gaze at Kathie.

Her heart burned with an inexhaustible flame of anger, and her body shivered with extreme rage as she subconsciously clenched her fist.

Before they knew what was going on, her hands lashed upon Kathie's face but before it could reach the cheek, it was held firm by the powerful arm of Kathie.

" Enough!" Laura roared and everywhere froze at the anger that came with the voice. 

Kathie slowly turned her head to look at Laura but saw a different person standing in place of Laura. Her eyes were in total flames.

" Listen here, you abomination of a child. I have tolerated you long enough and tried to be nice to you until this weekend but you have pushed me to the wall and it's time to put you in place"

"You died and revived mysteriously doesn't mean things would change mysteriously, understand?" Laura snarled.

Kathie couldn't do anything but remain silent. She couldn't lie that she wasn't scared, she was horrified by the devil's gaze upon her.

Laura appears more of a devil when she's angry than a human and that was what Kathie wanted her to show. 

Now that Laura has shown her true self, she now has to take precautions on how to deal with her, rather than her fake self.

" Now get out of my face before I do what I have done before!" Laura yelled at Kathie. However as Kathie was about to pass through the exit door, she was called back immediately.

" Hey hey hold on!" Laura called and Kathie paused not looking back but she could hear footsteps approaching her from behind before the steps halted near her.

" Where do you think you are going? " Laura questioned, resting her both hands on her waist and gazing at Kathie with suspicious eyes.

" I…I... I just feel like going out for a while, I feel like I haven't been out for a long time" Kathie stuttered out quickly with fear while still gazing down.

She was afraid to face those eyes of flame again. She was already having trauma from her last encounter with those rapists and Laura's eyes were exactly like that of Karen's when she was looking at her in that dark room.

Her eyes were full of anger, envy, jealousy, and greediness.

" And what right do you think you have that will make you go outside for a while?" Laura asked again with raised brows.

" I…I.just feel like.."

 " Will you shut that crap!" Laura shut Kathie up as she was about to explain herself, "Now pull that cloth off and hand it over. I blame your father for buying you such an expensive gown" 

Kathie didn't move. She was too embarrassed to remove her clothes there. She had faced such a situation before and that was still a nightmare to her.

There, she began to hear the voices of those rapists commanding her to remove her cloth and began to shiver with fear.

She was still in the middle of her trauma when she felt a sharp pain across her cheek.

" What are you waiting for? I said get those clothes off now!" Laura yelled and Kathie immediately began to remove her clothes.

When she was done removing her clothes, she handed them over to Laura including her purse, and ran inside her room with tears.

Seeing Kathie completely naked, running inside her room, the girl burst into laughter and even spat on Kathie's back as she was running.

" Take that you bastard, you think you are smart. I was wondering whether mom had changed" The girl sighed with relief, " Thank God she didn't"

Kathie ran into her room and hid under her blanket, crying bitterly, not for herself but for Ashley. Nevertheless, nothing was going to stop her from completing her plan which was to get revenge for herself. 

She planned to deal with Henrich first and when she's done with Henrich, she might use the influence to avenge Ashley's death.

So this was the life Ashley had been living all these years. Even with these few seconds, Kathie's soul just wanted to jump out of the body. She had faced a lot of scandals but she hadn't had an experience of domestic abuse before.

Now, how is she going to meet up with the audition at Henrich Modeling Agency? The audition is only done once a year.