The Fifth Letter

002

Evangelina Miller:
TW: child abuse

It's 8 am and I am awoken again by Cara going through all my things stealing what she wanted, Mom let her, of course.

"Ugh! You literally have nothing good!" She shouts and storms out of the room, thank god. It's been 2 weeks since my first meeting with the Berkshires, and today I'm moving into their house.

I don't have many items, I have a small range of clothes, I have only a couple "nice" items in my closet, those being 2 dresses, both black, and a few long sleeve shirts.

I pack everything I want to keep, mainly consisting of clothing, makeup, perfume, and the paints my grandmother bought me. I'm choosing to leave the rest in here and my parents can decide what the want to do with them.

After my bags are packed there's a knock at my door, when I open it Mia is standing there with a warm smile on her face.

"Hi dear, Are you ready to leave?" She asks still smiling

I nod my head and turn to my parents who are now standing in the kitchen. I give them nothing more than a simple nod and turn to head out the door. Suddenly a hand is placed on my shoulder stopping me from moving.

"Mia, she'll meet you out in the car, I just want to bid her goodbye" my mom states

Mia nods and leaves, closing the door. The hand is ripped off my shoulder and suddenly there's a slap to my face, then another. After a few minutes I lost count of how many times she had struck me.

"You fucking bitch! You didn't pay the men last month?! They came to the house last night demanding the money." She says hitting me again this time to my ribs

"Now get up and cover your face. You don't want your husband to see how much of a failure you are" she spits waking away

I rush into my bag and grab foundation and concealer, and do a rough job of covering the bruise forming. I then sped out of the house and get into Mia and Chris' car. A look of relief floods over Mia's face when she sees me.

When I open the back seat door, I see Levi sitting there. When I get in I push myself as close to the window as I can, away from him.

"Evangelina, we're going to take you to Levi's pent house, his car broke down yesterday so he wasn't able to drive you" Mia smiles at me

I nod and smile back, turning to watch the scene outside the window. After a few moments of silence Mia breaks it and begins,

"We're here!" She says excitedly

I blink and glance out the window to see a large apartment building dressed in stone grey.

I grab my bag and wait for Levi to get out, when he does he looks at me, opens his mouth to say something then turns and walks to the door, and I follow suit. When we arrive at at elevators, he presses the button and I immediately panic. I hate elevators, the last time I was in one..
Never mind.

I close my eyes and take a few deep breathes, and then the doors open. My eyes snap open and slowly walk in. Pushing myself as far away from Levi as I could I take deep breathes again still trying to make myself as small as possible against the wall. Levi glances over at me and furrows his eyebrows, swipes his card then clicks floor 19. We're on floor 1 meaning I'm stuck in this elevator going up to the top floor. I begin chewing on my nails trying to distract myself from the fear crawling up my spine.

I close my eyes again  and clench my jaw as we hit floor 8, not only is this the longest I've ever been in an elevator, it's the slowest too.
The elevator slightly shakes causing me to lightly gasp and crouch down by my shoes. I'm closing my eyes as tight as I can when I hear a shuffle next to me, and suddenly I remember I'm not the only one in the elevator. I shoot up and look to my right I see Levi standing there with his arm outstretched towards me.