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.
“Then where is she? Tell me, is she here?” Lila asked, as she scoffed a little, making fun of Monalisa and glancing around her too. "Your mum is dead, Monalisa, she is dead… that is the reason why she has not shown up these past fifteen years or perhaps you are worthless to her, that was why she left you to me anyways, she knew how much I hated her but she still left you in my care, to be my slave…" Lila told her spitefully this time, peering hard at Monalisa who peered at her, tears flowing from her eyes down her cheeks.Lila and Annabel were the only family she had known and no matter how much she tried to please them, they still treated her badly and now she could see that they even wanted her dead and this hurt her even more."Leave my house this minute Monalisa," Lila said authoritatively and spitefully, gesturing for her to leave the house. "You have to stay outside tonight, I guess that would make you learn that you are nothing but a slave," Lila told her again, recalling how
“Monalisa…” a male voice called out to her, startling and making her turn around immediately too to see who had called her name.“Bret…” Monalisa muttered, sounding a little out of breath because of how frightened she was a moment ago and surprised to see him standing in front of her like this. He had also called her name which was awkward to her because he normally would not have called her name and wondered why he did. "Sorry Monalisa, I frightened you," Bret said apologetically, seeing the fright in her face."What?" Monalisa muttered again and this time glanced around her, wondering what was going on at this moment and why Bret was talking to her and so politely too. No one was polite to her before and that includes Bret, in fact he has never spoken to her before, not that he has any reason to, he was way above her class. Bret is the son of one of Aunt Lila’s wealthy friends, who often visits the house with his clique of friends and sometimes drops by alone to see Annabel who wa
Monalisa’s lips parted slightly too as she peered into Bret’s face, her heart starting to race inside her, wondering what this was about. Bret had been a regular visitor in her Aunt’s house but he had never spoken to her before, it was like she never existed and now he is standing in front of her in this awkward moment saying this to her."Oh my goodness, Monalisa, I do not know how to get this out, please could you come with me, I am freezing out here and I bet you are too," Bret said, reaching out and taking her hand, making Monalisa’s pupil widen as he took her hand. She tried to pull her hand away from his but he held on to it."Come with me Monalisa, I am going to explain this to you but I cannot do it out here or we are going to freeze out here before I make you understand this." Bret told her and without wasting time he started leading her to his car. He opened the car and helped her to step into it while he walked around to sit on the driver's seat."I am taking you to my hous
Bret drove Monalisa back to her house a few minutes before the day became bright like he had promised he would, “take care of yourself Monalisa,” he said, wearing a sad face as she was about to step out of his car.“Thanks, Bret, see you…” she said in response and then stepped out of his car, feeling a little sad to be back to Lila and Annabel, as she watched Bret drive away again, she pressed her lips together hoping that it will not take long before Bret comes to take her away from here like he had promised her he would. She quickly went to sit down close to the front door of her aunt’s house, pretending to have stayed out there all night. It was still cold outside but she would stay warm with the thought of Bret, she told herself, feeling like the Cinderella who had gone out to meet her prince and had just returned home.About two hours later the front door went open. Monalisa quickly stood up from where she was seated to see her aunt Lila standing in front of her. “You are still h
"Get the door Monalisa," Lila shouted from the dining room, calling out for Monalisa who was heading back to the basement where she stayed. Monalisa paused abruptly, feeling angry as soon as she heard Lila call for her, she was thinking this is a time she would go back and have a little rest after serving them food and have her own food quickly too before she goes back out to clear the dining table since they usually do not allow her to stay around them while they ate. She was starving too, especially after what went down between her and Brett."Monalisa… I said, get the door," Lila's voice came again, sounding very angry this time as if she had done something very bad to her."Oh, for God sakes…" Monalisa muttered, and then turned around heading back to the living room wondering who had come at this hour. It is still morning, she said inwardly as she walked back to the dining room and out into the living room ignoring aunt Lila who's angry gaze was on her. It would only be a matter
Annabel giggled like a little girl, sitting back beside Bret as she waited for her other friends to show up at her house. "Why are you so excited?" Bret asked, wondering if she felt nothing at all after seeing that he made out with Monalisa, he thought that she had feelings for him but seeing her like this, made him wonder if he had been misled by her attitude and attention for him."You will never know Bret," Annabel said, smiling broadly like she has won some kind of award. "I cannot wait to see the look on Monalisa's face where she would realize that all this was just a plan that I had initiated," Annabel said, flipping her hair that had fallen over her face backwards, her gaze on Bret. She failed to see how disgusted he looked at her for a moment."Come on, why are you not telling me how it happened in detail, you know, I would like to hear about it," she said again, still giggling as she spoke."Well there is nothing to tell, Annabel, I have won the bet, that's all I think there
Monalisa carried on with her life, putting what had happened between her and Bret aside and taking every abuse that came to her, especially from Annabel who would not stop taunting her about being a cheap wh*re.Bret on the other hand had put Monalisa out of his thoughts and had gone back to being the way he was before with Monalisa, and acted a little worse than he was before especially when he was with his friends as he didn't want them to see him as a weakling and his friends praised him more for that.Monalisa decided within her that she would try and avoid Bret so she sorted out for more cleaning jobs that would keep her away from home even though her aunt Lila still got the wages from her work. It felt better that way for her than to constantly run into Bret who seemed to pay more visit to their house than before. She would wake up very early and prepare things for Lila and Annabel and leave for work before they even woke up and would return at night to clean up after Lila and
Bret suddenly woke up from his bed, awakened by a terrifying dream that he could barely remember, his heart racing as if he had run a marathon but could not also recall if he was being chased in the dream he had just woken up from.He slowly sat up on his bed, placing his large palm against his chest to try and support himself especially since his heart ached so much."What is wrong with me?" He asked inwardly, wondering what was going on with him and why this sudden fear and ache mixed together. He has never experienced something like this before. He could not explain exactly how he felt.He slowly pulled himself closer to a table on the side of his bed which had a lamp on it and his cell phone. He managed with difficulty to turn on the lamp switch to make the dimly lit room brighter before going for his phone.He quickly dialed his mum's number and put the phone on speaker phone so that he could hear his mum since he was unable to hold his phone to his ears because of how uncomforta