Chapter 3

Monalisa lifted her hand immediately against her cheek that had just been slapped, tears suddenly streaming down her face. “I am sorry aunt… I did not mean to do that…” she muttered, feeling her face hurt from the slap her aunt just gave her and her body trembling a little from fear.

“You are sorry…” Annabel snapped, still glaring furiously at her and feeling nothing at all by the slap she just received from her mum. She was thankful for one thing though and that is the fact that her mum always protected her interest and showed her so much love and care especially in the presence of Monalisa and even though she taunt her whenever they were alone about how she need to maintain her physical body, she loved that her mum always did not hesitate to hurt Monalisa whether she did something wrong or not. “How dare you do a thing deliberately to me and pretend to be sorry about it,” she added, still glaring at Monalisa, wishing her mum would slap her again but saw that she was not ready to hit Monalisa again. She turned to her mum instead and took the book from her mum’s hand without even asking and started leaving the basement immediately followed by her mum Lila who cared less about what she did with the book.

“Annabel…” Monalisa called after her, knowing what she was about to do and started walking behind them too, wishing that there was a way she could get her book back. “Annabel please… I am begging you, give the book back to me, I didn't mean to throw it at you…” Monalisa pleaded as they reached the kitchen, seeing how Annabel stretched out her hand with her book in it in the fireplace.

“You are not a princess Monalisa, I am the princess here and you are nothing but a servant in this house, you should not be reading books at all and just stick to cleaning and doing chores which is what you were born for,” Annabel said, feeling light hearted now as she saw the look on Monalisa’s face and with a smirk at the corner of her lips, she threw the book into the fire, peering at Monalisa, who just threw her hands over her lips to stop herself from screaming as she watched her book burn.

Lila, who stood at the corner of the kitchen door watching them started strolling into the kitchen, “well said, Annabel and well done,” she said, loving what she had said to Monalisa and the manner in which she had thrown her book into the fire. “I think I should enroll you in an acting class my dear,” she added as a complement to her daughter Annabel, ignoring Monalisa who just stood still peering at her burning book in the fire, with tears on her face.

“And you,” she said authoritatively, turning her gaze properly on Monalisa, who continued to peer into the fire. “You are going to be punished for keeping a book hidden from me even after I had asked you to bring all your books out the other day,” Lila continued, sounding angry again as she recalled that she had once asked her to bring all the books she had before to her because she didn’t want her to read but concentrate on working instead. 

Lila had made sure to collect her payments from her employers directly after seeing that Monalisa kept some of her money for herself and bought books and clothes with it instead of giving them all to her as she had asked her to. She had lied to her employers that she was going to help Monalisa save the money for her until she was sure of what she wanted to use it for and they believed her. 

“You are going to sleep outside tonight for lying to me, Monalisa and if I find out that you have another book hidden from me, I am going to do something worse to you,” Lila told her and continued afterwards after Monalisa turned her gaze to her immediately after her statement without even letting her speak. 

“You should be thankful that I had to keep you in my house even after your b*tch of a mother left you here, and instead of you being grateful for having a roof over your head, you still disappoint me," she added, peering angrily at her.

"Aunt Lila… please, it's cold outside," Monalisa stammered, she did not know that her punishment would be to sleep outside, it was not the first time she had slept outside and she had almost frozen to death the last time she slept outside, she had also been so afraid because the stories of Vampires, witches and werewolves kept replaying in her thoughts too, feeling that she was going to be harmed by them each time she slept outside. 

“Aunt Lila… please you can’t make me sleep outside again… I almost froze to death the last time I did…” Monalisa stammered again pleadingly this time, feeling very afraid to go through such an experience again.

“Does it look like we care what happened to you?” Annabel snapped, loving how pathetic she looked now, seeing her this way made her feel light at heart, she glanced at her mum wearing a wicked grin on her face which was very obvious to Monalisa who had turned her gaze on her after her statement. “We wouldn't care if you died, Monalisa,” Annabel added.

“You are my sister…” Monalisa muttered tearfully, peering at Annabel because she did not expect her to say that she did not care if she died. She knew that she disliked her but did not know that it was enough for her to not care if she were dead.

“She is not your sister, Monalisa, I forbid you to say that,” Lila snapped at her for saying she was sisters with her daughter, she had hated her mum Rosy so much because she looked more beautiful and attractive than she did, she also hated Rosy so much because Monalisa’s dad who was her crush chose Rosy over her and even got her pregnant making her settle for her husband Willey. Out of hatred for Rosy she had to set her up and make sure that Monalisa’s dad never ended up with her, this had broken Rosy and led her to abandon Monalisa to Lila and run away without even knowing that she was the one who had set her up and Lila never cared to let Rosey know the truth. Lila hates it very much now too to see Monalisa look more beautiful and attractive than her daughter Annabel and the last thing she wanted was to allow history repeat itself.

“And for the record, Annabel is right, Monalisa, we do not care what happened to you… you can as well die and reunite with your worthless mother, Rosy,” Lila added angrily, recalling the pain of her past and the loss of Annabel’s Dad Willey, the man she settled with after she lost Monalisa’s dad, Bryan to her younger sister Rosy.

“My mum is not dead aunt… you told me she left… so she is not dead,” Monalisa muttered tearfully again, but enough for them to hear her, shaking her head slightly too in disagreement to what her aunt Lila just said about her mum being dead. She had hoped that either her mum or a man would show up someday and take her away from her Aunt Lila and love her truly for the human that she is.