AMELIA

I spent the first fifteen years of my life, as a naïve, only child with a strict father and a mother who loved me fervently.

She was an only child, an orphan, so once she died all I had left was my father…and then Bertha and Monica came into the picture or rather, they’ve been in the picture longer than I’d lived.

Bertha was born a year before I was. When my mother was still married to him.

After my mother died, Hector Grayson's strictness morphed into hatred…he never gave a reason, he just switched overnight after her death.

Since then, I’ve lived with my family like one without a family. I’ve vied for his love and attention, for his trust, his pride and all I’ve ever gotten was beatings.

And the constant reminder that I am below Bertha.

Why did I stay?

Why did I live that way?

My eyes snapped open and I was instantly aware of my surroundings. The smell of disinfectant and bleached floors flooded my senses, rousing me from what seemed to be the deepest sleep I’d ever