Finding Me

Chapter 9

"You think you can get away from what you were made to do? Oh, you're so wrong. Get your lazy butt up and go to the car before I lose my temper completely," he screams at me after he hits me.

My body aches from when he hit me, but I try to get up as quickly as I can. It isn't fast enough for him, so he yanks me up, causing me to yelp in pain.

"Shut up. I can make it hurt a lot worse," he orders.

"What are you doing?!" my mother screams at him as she walks into the room.

He lets go of me and walks over to my mother. He slaps her and growls at her, "If I hear one more word out of you, you'll get something worse. She's going to work with me like I said she would."

My mother ignores his threat and begs, "Please don't do this. She's only twelve. She shouldn't be exposed to all of this."

He pins her against a wall and barks, "I told you not to say another word. I'll deal with you later."

She doesn't cry, and she doesn't cower. She just stares at him blankly. He throws her onto the ground and comes back over to me. He takes me by the arm and drags me out of the room. He pushes my mother out of the way as he drags me out to the car. He forces me inside his car when we get outside.

"Alright. When we get where we're going, you're not allowed to say a word. If you do, you'll get something similar to your mother later," he growls at me.

I don't say anything, and he drives off. We drive in silence, and I soon find myself feeling extremely uncomfortable. He's not someone I want to be left alone with, but I don't have a choice because I don't have someone I can go to that is trustworthy or that will help me.

All of a sudden, the car comes to a halt. He throws something at me and orders me to put it on. I reluctantly put it on and get out of the car. It's the most revealing shirt I have ever seen, and it doesn't help that I get out to meet a very creepy guy's eyes.

That night was the night where I lost my innocence. I learned what my parents were doing, and I was now involved in it too. My father took me on a drug deal with him to make him look needy so he could get more money from the guy. He told the guy that I was his starving daughter.

The guy believed him and gave my father more money than he should have. He even tried buying me from my father. My father only rejected the offer because he wanted to use me on more of his jobs.

I realized that night how worthless my father thought I was. It hurt, yet I wasn't surprised. Is that bad?

~•••••~

"Maya! Maya, are you okay?" someone says in my ear as they shake my shoulder.

I moan and open my eyes. Emma is looking at me with concern written all over her face, so I sit up quickly. "What time is it?" I ask.

"It's dinnertime. I tried calling you down, but you didn't answer. When I came in, you looked like you were having a nightmare, so I tried waking you up. It took awhile, though," she explains.

I just nod and stand up. "Alright! I'm hungry. What's for dinner?"

I can tell she sees through my facade, but she just leads me downstairs to the dining room, not questioning anything. I'm pleasantly surprised by this, but I still wonder how she is able to just let it go, unlike everyone else.