Amery & Caddel

Chapter 3: Reunion

Longer chapter:)

p.s. I know it's been a slow start, but I feel it's essential to understand Maya and her background before we get to the juicy stuff hehe.

I had fun writing this chapter:)

***

After Meredith left my apartment, I avoided calling Axel back for as long as possible.

I knew my answer, but I was too scared to tell him.

Sitting at my kitchen table, staring at my phone in front of me, I contemplate whether going home is even worth it. I'll probably hate this work dinner tomorrow night, and it'll just remind me of how lonely I felt as a child.

Do my parents even know that Axel asked me to come home this weekend, or will it be a total surprise?

I can imagine the look on Arianna's face when she sees me walk through the door. Out of everyone in my family, you would think my Mom would be the angriest of me walking out when I was 17, but she wasn't. My Mom was undoubtedly angry, but Arianna hated me on a different level. She said I was pathetic and that something was wrong with me for not wanting all the money. She thought I was stupid and just enjoyed the attention from leaving.

She called me an embarrassment.

And a lot of nasty things.

I think the day I left solidified the theory I've had about Arianna never liking me.

The drama that went down between me and my family was more than me wanting to move out and go to university. My family has never been kind to me or anyone, they're rich and, unfortunately, not the generous kind... if generous rich people even exist.

My whole life, I hated the way my family treated me because I was just a little different. As a kid, when all of my classmates would run around on the playground at recess, I would read a book under a tree or collect leaves. When kids invited me over for playdates on the weekends, I would decline and choose to sit at the piano and learn new music. Whenever my parents yelled or fired house staff, I would cringe and cry for days because it felt like they were getting rid of some of the only friends I had. Whenever my Mom aggressively straightened my hair, I would purposely wet the ends to make them curly because I didn't like the way it looked or the fact that she was damaging my curls. Whenever my Dad forced me to wear contacts instead of my glasses, I would cry for hours in the bathroom because I couldn't figure out how to put them in. Being 9 years old and trying to touch my eyeballs was not fun, I could never get them in, resulting in being forced to go on with my day without my glasses.

I had horrible vision and still do, I need my glasses to see.

And when the kids at school bullied me for wearing glasses, reading during lunch, writing music or stories ... I would punch them straight in the nose.

Yeah, it's a little unexpected, I know. I was small and shy, but I stood up for myself.

Somehow, I was perceived as the 'strange' child among my siblings.

I was the outcast, the black sheep, the stubborn, 'unraiseable one,' according to my mom. I wasn't obedient like my sister when it came to acting like a 'lady,' and I didn't put enough effort into learning how my dad's business worked like my brother.

My family wanted me to be something I was not, but I never caved, and I think that was what annoyed them the most.

I've never understood why I was so different from the rest of my family, but I let go of those questions years ago, and I've accepted my family for who they are. Manipulative, powerful, cunning, arrogant, and brilliant, they tried to raise me to be like that, but I couldn't fulfill their wants.