Framed

Chapter 3 Framed

               MIDNIGHT PACK

            AT THE FINLAY’S HOME

Jovy wanted to curse at her luck so badly because it was almost as if things never fell in her place. Deep down, Jovy knew she had nothing to do with the present condition the car was in but who would believe her? The Phantom Rolls Royce was totally battered and the beautiful white spotless car looked condemned and even the entire rear was beyond repair.

Tommy clenched and unclenched his fists. Ava and Amelia noticed the movement and shifted back a bit. It is a known thing that whenever Tommy was angry nothing can stop him from almost snuffing life out of a person. The last time he had lost his temper, it was because of a situation like this and it had almost sent Jovy into coma.

It had happened about a year ago, when Amelia had thrown a party in the house while their parents were away on a vacation. The party was overly crowded and it got so wild that they had ruined some expensive artifacts in the house. Jovy who had been away at her best friend’s, Alice house for a sleep over had returned back to a house looking like a dump site.

Amelia had begged her to stand in for her instead with a claim that Tommy had never had any issues with her then and she didn't want to be on his bad side. Jovy felt moved seeing the greatest egoistic witch, Amelia plead for her help and in her naive state she had boldly told her father the party was held by her.

Out of rage, Tommy had sent Jovy flying across the room with one swift blow making her hit her head against the wall. She lost consciousness almost immediately. Her wolf had shifted quickly to keep her alive and the whole household thought she was going to die. To teach her a lesson, he had kept her up in the Arctic and refused to let her dine with the rest of the family.

Seeing his face morph into an emotionless mask, Jovy knew she wasn't going to escape the wrath of her father. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she looked at her step mother and sister, her eyes begging ceaselessly for them to say the truth even if it is just this one time. When she saw no remorse or effort to do the needful, she looked at her father with the hope that he would sense her innocence but Tommy looked blinded with rage.

Without wasting time, he took fast strides towards her and slapped her hard across the face. “How dare you!” He couldn't believe his car was ruined. The Royce Rolls was his favorite car in the garage and he always feel himself in it whenever he drove it around. He couldn't believe the car had become condemned.

Jovy sniffed, feeling dizzy at the effect of the slap and since she hasn’t really healed completely from the previous tortures. She staggered back to face her father with a stance to still try to defend herself.

"Dad...I—“

"Shut up! I don’t want to hear those filthy words from your stupid mouth!” Tommy interjected. In a jiffy, he grabbed her along with the neatly packed ponytail on her head and pulled her towards the basement area.

“Wait dad! I swear! I didn’t ruin the car! I didn’t leave the house! Please dad! I beg you!” Jovy fought ceaselessly knowing what he might possibly do to her. The more she pulled the harder he dragged her along behind him. Jovy kept repeating that she knew nothing about it but her father wasn't listening.

Amelia and her mother shared an inner smile as they walked behind the father and daughter duo.

“Please dad!” Jovy cried out.

"I will make you pay for this!" He told her, still pulling at her hair violently.

Being a respected Gamma in the pack, Tommy knew it would be unheard of to have his daughter being tortured this way. So to stop such talks from spreading across the pack, he made the basement as his punishment arena. There he had in store a whole lot of tools that could do bodily harm to a wolf. The basement looked like an abattoir with different tormenting tools to make a grown man shiver.

“Dad!” Jovy screamed when her father pushed her to the floor violently.

Tommy headed to a part of the wall where he kept his whips. He pulled out an extra thick and long whip. And before she could try to leave the basement, he swiped it at Jovy's back and it made her let out a painful scream.

"Please daddy!” She wailed.

He grabbed her from the door and dragged her to the center of the area. “Dad...I promise...it wasn't me." She pleaded.

"Stop lying, you conniving bitch! I warned you to not get on my nerves. You should be grateful that I still put a roof over your dumb head!” Tommy kept on whipping her continuously.

Jovy tried to protect herself, but there was only little she could do without the whip reaching every part of her body. Amelia watched the whole scene as it unfolded and she smirked to herself at the corner of the room. She liked to watch her step sister being tortured by her own father. It gave her this sort of happiness that she couldn’t explain.

"Was Jared hurt?" Ava asked her daughter in a tight whisper. She didn't know the exact picture of what went wrong but since she had gotten the text from her daughter, she knew she had indulged in an accident.

Amelia snorted. “Nah, we are both fine. This should make my day." She giggled, pointing at Jovy who was writhing on floor with pain.

"I promise to make you pay for every inch of that car that you ruined. Your blood and sweat would dry up until you get me my car back!" He snarled, bringing down the whip on her again.

By this time, Jovy had lost the cause to keep fighting against the whips or even pleading. Instead she only shut her eyes tightly as each stroke landed on her back. Her wolf whimpered at the effect of the whips but she muffled her cries with her palm to keep her voice from waning.

Tommy didn't stop with the whip, until he was getting tired himself and his rage had lessened. The sight of his daughter just always made his heart churn. He had loved Elena so much but seeing the same reason why he had lost his dear wife looking so much like her just made him always wish Jovy was never born.

"This won't be the end." He told her, leaving the basement after dumping the whip on her. The rest of the family followed behind him after throwing sneers at Jovy.

Jovy sobbed bitterly with her head bowed to the ground. This were dire times she wished her mother hadn't bailed out on her and died. It was one thing to be beaten roughly all because you probably are a continuous offender but her case was entirely different. The car had a camera that could prove the truth about whomever had driven the car. Instead, her father had decided to believe mere speculations and taking it upon himself to snuff life out of her.

Jovy pulled herself up slowly and crawled to a corner across the room. Jovy wished she had someone to cry to. It would be disappointing to talk about her ordeals to anyone in the pack. It was almost as if everyone in the pack was out to get her for one reason or the other.

At eighteen, being in senior year at high school she still can't find her mate. No one would want a latent wolf for a mate anyways. Her whole life was a mess and it made her feel unloved and unlucky. It made Jovy wonder if she had been cursed at birth by the Moon Goddess or maybe she did something really bad in her past life to deserve all this maltreatment.

Feeling like she had wallowed in self pity enough, Jovy carried her battered body gently out of the basement. She moved towards the house with the hope that none of them was nearby. Her father might change his mind and unleash more pain on her. To her relief, they had all gone to their separate rooms. Jovy headed to the bathroom as soon as she got into the house. Slowly, she tore out her blood stained white shirt and she checked the deep scars her body had ended up getting from the whips. Taking out a relief cream from her drawer, she gently applied it on the part of her body that her hands could reach. Just as she was about to return the tube back in it place, her eyes caught sight of the series of pain relief pills and creams she had in the drawer. Tears formed in her eyes as she searched through the drawer. She had a whole lot.

Jovy pushed the drawer back in. She changed into a white long sleeved turtle neck top to hide her scars and she tucked it into the skirt. Jovy untied the ponytail, making her hair flow freely on her back and she ran a comb through it. She tried to avoid any extreme pulling as her scalp ached badly.

Dabbing at her face with some concealer and powder, she tried to keep a normal face and she forced a smile on it. She grabbed her back pack and headed out of the house with a burning pain from the marks on her back. 

Jovy tried really hard to not make her pains evident in her walking steps. She had to be strong again this time...as always.