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GLENDA'S POV

"And the prodigal daughter returns!" My aunt Helena chimed but not with excitement as she opened the doors for me.

"Let me guess, he dumped you!" She added with a triumphant smile as she noticed the lines of dried tears on my face.

"Hello Aunt." I greeted in a small voice, my head kept low in shame. I thought I had escaped this life. It turns out I had only taken a short break from it.

"Hello to you!" She shot back, not sounding welcoming.

She shifted to the side to give me passage. Her nose wrinkled in disgust like I was a piece of trash.

I didn't blame her. I did feel like a piece of trash, worthless and stupid. Very stupid. I let Brian deceive me. His betrayal had stripped me of any ounce of dignity I had left.

I struggled alone with my suitcase into the house and Aunt Helena just stood by watching me. It has always been like this. I have always been alone, taking care of myself alone.

"Where's my father?" I inquired of her. Desperately avoiding her eyes. I was feeling bad enough. I didn't want to be consumed by the hate her eyes held towards me.

"In his study." She answered as she shut the door and walked away taking quick steps. She didn't want to be near me.

I left my suitcase in a corner by the door and took unsteady steps towards the study. Borrowing Aunt Helena's words, the prodigal daughter had returned. I was the prodigal daughter but would I be accepted back?

I tried to gauge how my father would react. Would he kick me out of the house for running away before? For a fact, I knew he wouldn't be elated to see me and if he decided to kick me out of the house, then I would end up floating in the River of Black Hills, dead. Because I had nowhere else to go.

As I neared the large study doors, they swung open before me. I came face to face with my father and another man.

Fear instantly clothed me as I stared at the menacing face of my father. His lips pulled back in a snarl. I wasn't welcomed here. I didn't need to be told to sense it.

"How dare you return here? You good for nothing, ungrateful child!" Dad roared at me almost immediately.

"She's got guts I tell you." Aunt Helena chipped in, infuriating Dad even more. I hadn't noticed when she reached there. She was eager to see the reception waiting for me.

"How dare you?" He repeated, his voice a tornado of anger, hate, disappointment, and disdain.

I cowered at his thunderous voice. I stood statue-like, unable to respond or even beg. My mind began chiding me for returning home. I could have just gone ahead and jumped off the bridge and embraced death.

Death wouldn't stare at me with such hatred in my father's eyes. Death wouldn't judge me. Death would have welcomed me with open arms. I felt so pained I wanted to rip out my heart.

"I do not want to see you! I do not want to have anything to do with you! You disgust me! You ceased to be a child of mine a long time ago. Leave here! Now!"

Dad's words were like arrows shot at me, piercing and wounding they were. The pain was deep and searing. My tears fell involuntarily as I no longer had control over them.

Dad made his move toward me to drag me out of his house when his guest who had been quiet the whole time stopped him.

"Wait, Fredrick." The man spoke with an authoritative calm.

Dad spun to his guest, surprised at his interference. He stared at him in anticipation.

"Maurice?" Dad called out to him, a subtle surprise in his voice.

"Wait. Let's talk." The man whose name I had just learned was Maurice spoke to Dad.

Dad freed me from his painful hold around my arm and then disappeared into the study with Maurice.

I wondered what they were discussing. I would be eternally grateful to Maurice if he was trying to stop Dad from kicking me out. Then it struck me that the name Maurice was utterly familiar.

Where had I heard of it before? I wondered.

"You're good for nothing you know? Shameless! The nerve you had to return here after all you did, only emphasizes how despicably shameless you are." Aunt Helena's voice cut through my train of thoughts.

I turned to her with my tear-stained face, my eyes silently pleaded with her to spare me. I might have been communicating with a heartless soul because she didn't relent.

"All you had to do was get married. Marry and help your father who had been there for you all your life after the death of your miserable mother! But what did you do? Run off with that useless boy." She kept spitting coal at me with her words. She intended to burn me.

I was already burnt enough. I needed no more. There's only so much a person can take.

It pained me all the more she spoke about my mother like that. Mom was the only one who loved me and I was helpless as she tainted Mother's memory with insulting words.

"There's no room for you here." Aunt Helena told me. Stating she supported my father's decision to kick me out of the house.

I didn't need more telling, I've seen enough to know. Still reeling from the hurt of betrayal and abandonment, Dad and Maurice emerged again from the study.

Dad's eyes remained on me, staring me down.

"I've found a better use for you. Thankfully, Maurice is still willing to accept you. You should be grateful." My dad told me.

Willing to accept me? I wondered what dad was talking about and then it struck me where I had heard the name from before.

Maurice was the man I had escaped a year ago. He was the same man that made me run away with Brian. He was the man I was supposed to marry.

But what was Dad talking about? Why was he willing to accept me? Why would Dad make such a statement? I had barely finished forming all the questions in my head when Dad answered wearing a sickening smile.

"You'll marry Maurice tomorrow."