Sold To The Alpha
Chapter 8

Charity shut her eyes for a moment, letting her grief subside before continuing, 'After my mothers funeral my father was struggling, he tried his best but it was as if half of him was missing like he was incomplete. After a few years he decided that I needed a mother, I told him I didn't, that he was enough, but he wouldn't listen and he married a woman he knew from the village. She was widowed and had a son and daughter of her own.

Once married, they moved into our house, she made my father move me from my room into the box room as she said, her daughter being older needed more space and we couldn't expect a young lady to share a room with her brother, so he relented and the room my mother had decorated for me, the room she read me stories and kissed me goodnight in was taken! Charity looked up at Chloe sadly, 'sounds stupid doesn't it, being upset by a room, but it was just the beginning, and it was the memories they took. When my step-sister moved in, she ripped the wallpaper from the walls as I stood there, saying it was babyish and she wanted it redone. It felt like she was ripping my memories from that room, the touch of my mother was gone and I didn't know what to do about it... Like I said, stupid, childish.. Charity wiped her eyes again laughing bitterly to herself. Chloe shook her head, 'no it's not stupid' she exclaimed, 'that was your last memory of your mother before she got sick, she made that room for you, all your good memories of her were in there and they took them from you!' she looked horrified but continued to hold Charity's hand in a vice-like grip as if trying to infuse her with the strength to continue her story.

Charity hiccuped slightly, 'that was just the beginning, my father worked away a lot due to his business, so he would leave me with my stepmother. First of all, it was almost as if the issues were in my head, my step-siblings would get slightly bigger dinners, I would not be allowed pudding because I had been rude or not done a chore my stepmother would insist she told me to do, but I had no memory of. Charity shook her head absently, 'just little things, you know? but then it was I had to help clean whilst my step-siblings played outside, then I had to clean the house by myself as I needed to learn respect for what I had. I would scrub the kitchen floor on my knees with a small brush when my stepmother would come in, she would check it and if she thought I hadn't cleaned it thoroughly she would throw things all over the floor and make me start again. My siblings would wait till I was finished and then traipse in from the garden leaving muddy footprints all the way through the house! Chloe silently cried as she listened to the story, unable to comprehend how someone could be so mistreated yet be so nice. Charity looked up from her hands, her eyes far away, 'This is what life was like while my father was away, she was nice as can be while he was home but would turn as soon as he left on another business trip. This went on for a year, until one day, my father was leaving for 6 weeks, I begged him to let me go with him, promised I would be so quiet and good that he wouldn't even know I was there, but he just smiled and said "No Petal, you stay here with your brother and sister, they would be so lonely without you" and walked away. I ran inside to my room sobbing, I was there for hours when I suddenly heard voices out the front, walking to the window I stared down and saw my stepmother ripping up my mother's flowers. I screamed! "no no no!" I cried and rushed outside to try and stop her "those are my mother's flowers" I cried "don't touch my mother's flowers". Suddenly I felt a crack across my cheek, so hard it sent me stumbling from the impact, my stepmother had slapped me across the face. "your poor excuse for a mother is not here anymore, these overgrown weeds are ruining MY garden and I will get rid of them if I so choose" and she continued to rip them from the ground throwing them into trash bags, all the time smiling at me as tears poured down my face, taking so much pleasure from my pain.

This is how my life continued, father would go away and my stepmother would abuse and bully me, each time replaceing something else to break me down. The only thing that kept me going was my father would return and I would get a few weeks respite before he left again.

When I turned 12 my father announced that he was going to retire, he wanted to spend more time with his family he said, I was thrilled, if he was home then he would protect me from my stepmother she would have to leave me alone, she never abused me while he was there.

True to his word, he stayed home, eating dinner with us each night that I no longer had to cook, reading his paper in the parlour, checking my homework, making my step-siblings do chores because, in his world, everyone mucks in to keep the house running. I could see that my stepmother hated this new norm, but I felt safe, as long as my father was there she wouldn't say anything to me, my world had returned to some sort of normalcy and someone who loved me was with me!'

Charity looked up sharply as Chloe let out a small cheer and squeezed her again, 'yay for your dad!' she shouted, bouncing on the bed, but seeing Charity's sad eyes, the smile faded from her lips as she said quietly, 'that's not the end of the story, is it? there is more' and curled up next to Charity and lay her head on Charity's shoulder, hands clasped in her lap.

Charity smiled sadly, 'no, that wasn't the end of the story, I turned 13, my father insisted we have a big party and invite all the children from the village. We had cake and games, party bags, music, oh it was amazing' she beamed, revelling in the memory, 'my stepmother kept looking at my father, I didn't notice anything was wrong but suddenly I heard her yelling, screaming at my father that he always favoured me over her children, why hadn't her daughter got a big party, why only me? she screamed and yelled until all the parents had grabbed their children, hurriedly thanked us for the invite, and left. She had ruined the only birthday party I had had since my father had remarried as he had always been on a business trip, always leaving my stepmother money to throw me a party, but she never did as she "wasn't going to waste good money on something a frivolous as my birthday".

A week later I woke up to screams, running into my father's bedroom I found him lying on the floor. He wasn't moving and his face was grey and pasty. The housekeeper my father had hired to help out was stood in the corner of the room still whimpering, trying to get as far away from his body as she could. The doctor was called who pronounced him dead at the scene, the coroner ruled an accidental overdose of his heart medication, he said from the results, that my father had been taking too much for months and his heart had finally given out. His death was ruled an accident' Chloe growled, 'what a load of bull!' she exclaimed, 'it was that nasty stepmother, you know it was, she was giving him too much somehow' she crossed her arms across her chest, scowling. Charity patted her arm soothingly, 'it never sat right with me either, my father was very careful with his medication, he always took it at the same time every day, but no-one wanted to listen to the grieving 13-year-old who was looking for a reason her daddy was dead. He was cremated three days later, my stepmother was adamant that those were his wishes, I think it was so that no-one could ever look at his cause of death again. After his funeral, she then produced a piece of paper supposedly written by my father, leaving the house and all his assets to her, as they were married and I had no other relatives that also included me..."