Chapter 2

Alice

I stood, watching in disbelief as David opened my purse and took the money in it before placing it back on my dressing table. He turned and paused when saw me standing by the door, having caught him stealing from me. He then proceeded to act like it was no big deal, not saying anything to me as he walked past me, whistling loudly as he went down the stairs.

The audacity and the lack of remorse or guilt that I saw on his face as he passed made me snap. I immediately turned in the direction of the stairs, walking faster than I should have since I just came out of the shower and my body was still wet. I took the stairs two at a time and went into the kitchen where my half-brother, David; my half-sister, Mallory; my stepmother, Vanessa, and my father sat at the dining table, having breakfast like one beautiful family.

"David, why would you take my money from my purse?" My voice shook with barely concealed rage as I watched my twenty-five years old brother tilt his head to the side, acting all innocent.

"Which money? I didn't take any money from you, Alice." He said, taking a fork full of pancake into his mouth, chewing openly. I looked at Mallory who was beside him, she had a small smile on her face as she watched her brother. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave themselves a high five under the table.

"What are you going on about? Are you trying to say that your brother is a thief?" Vanessa said, giving me a sneer that could kill. I didn't want to get into any argument with her, so I turned to look at my dad and saw he had his eyes glued to the newspaper, acting like he hadn't heard what I said. I was not surprised he openly ignored me, and normally I would have dropped it, but I wasn't dropping this issue.

"Dad, David stole my money!" I practically yelled at him and he acted like all I did was whisper instead of shout.

"What money?" He finally closed the paper I was so sure he just used to strike a reading pose, not reading anything at all, before turning to face me. He dragged his gaze from my head to my toe and wrinkled his nose like I was something distasteful.

I took in a breath to chase away the disappointment and the hurt I felt at being deemed insignificant by my father.

"I seem to recall I asked you for money yesterday to get something. Your response was?" I knew what he was doing, paying me back for lying to him last night when he asked me for money to buy something. I didn't give him because I knew he'd waste it on booze and I didn't want to encourage him. He waited for me to answer like he always did when he wanted to make me look stupid in front of the whole family. Vanessa's lips pulled to the side, an ugly smirk on her face that had a striking resemblance to how maleficent smiled at snow white, I think. The point was it was a smile that mocked me, happy to see me unhappy, getting ridiculed by my father. She got off that shit.

"I told you I didn't have anything.." I answered, and they all whooped like I supplied the correct answer to a game show question. "Is that all you'd do? Taunt me because I didn't give you money to drink alcohol and get wasted?" I said angrily.

I wasn't expecting it but we never expect things that would cause us harm-when Vanessa stood up quickly like she had rehearsed till she perfected the movement, and gave me a slap that sent my brain into shock, whipping my head to the side due to the force of the slap. Tears sprang to my eyes instantly, but I held them at bay, not wanting to give her a reason to think she won. I raised my head slowly and looked at the snickering faces of my siblings, before I looked at the smirking face of my father, finally looking at the frowning face of my stepmother. I frowned my own as the realization that it was me against my whole family and I had no ally to rely on in my own family, hurt terribly. I turned and left the room without saying a word.

Soon, I'll pay the debt I had taken on behalf of my ungrateful family, get married to Dave and start a life of my own. Soon.

~

It had been more than three hours since I resumed work at the coffee shop, standing on my feet as the morning crowd rushed for their caffeine fix before they went to work. As instructed, I was to smile at all the customers as they came in, and accept every complaint and abuse still with a smile. I didn't have any problem with it till today. The incident that occurred at home was still grating my nerves, taking my usual sunny disposition and leaving me with nothing but a frown fixed on my face. I would be lucky if my manager didn't come my way to complain that I was frowning as a frown could get you fired.

"You better cheer up and stop frowning before Sam comes and rips you a new one for spreading your joyless virus to his customers." My co-worker, Diana, said, joking to get me to smile, but all it did was make me sigh heavily.

"Do I look like I care?" I asked.

"Do you have a job waiting for you somewhere?" She asked in return, and I shook my head.

"Then get your head out of your butt and smile. I've got a wall behind me that has your name as the smiler of the month for two consecutive months this year and we just entered the third month." She said and I gave a small smile. "That's not the usual watt I am used to, but it's something. Now do your job."

Thanks to Diana, I was able to get through the morning rush with a small smile on my face, it wasn't what I was known for but it was still something. Later when our morning shift was finally over and we dressed in the dressing room, she sat down and stared at me.

"So, tell me what your messed up family did this time." I shook my head, not wanting to get into what happened this morning.

"Honestly if I were you, I would have left new york by now and moved to another state like San Francisco. I would even move to Africa if it would mean I wouldn't get to see them again. I could even have killed them all, who knows." She said as she watched me drag my tight jeans on.

"Africa isn't that bad. I heard there are lots of beautiful places there." I said.

She shook her head, " Is that the point? The point is you should leave those people alone and find peace."

"So, I should leave Dave too?" I asked and she scoffed, her dislike for Dave obvious.

"I don't know what you see in that dude." She said but I wasn't paying attention as had gone on a trip back to the time he proposed. I smiled as I thought of Dave and his sweet proposal.

"Where's the engagement ring?" She asked, sounding bored, but I ignored her and dug my hand into my bag to bring out the ring I kept because I didn't put it past my siblings to steal it and sell it for money.

I showed it to her and she squinted as she tried to focus on the ring.

"Looks cheap." She said, raising her head, looking unimpressed.

"Don't say that," I snapped the box closed, slightly hurt by her comment, "He promised to get me a better one. Besides, even if he doesn't, I don't mind this one. His finances would soon improve when he is done with his residency." I assured her and she gave me a look that told me she didn't believe a word.

"Just watch," I said and she nodded.

"I'll watch alright." She replied and I carried my bag so I could beat the afternoon rush at the deli, and get lunch for Dave before I had to resume work.