Captive of Love

Chapter 3

Ana's POV

I woke up the next day with my head feeling like it was going to explode. I tried sitting up but any movement only increased my headache so I just laid still and tried to remember what had happened last night. And then I remembered, me coming back from the charity function and hearing all that shouting. Me walking towards the study and Rosa pleading to not go in. Me barging in and becoming my father’s punching bag. The last thing I remembered before I blacked out was my mom’s scream and then my dad trying to strangle her. I opened my eyes and just then Rosa came into my room, carrying my breakfast and some pills.

“Ah! So the Little Miss as woken up. You gave us quite the scare last night, Miss,”

“Rosa, is mom ok?” I asked her, worried that I might have been too late last night. And he had finally killed mom. But Rosa just shook her head and sayid, “The mistress is fine, Little Miss. Enrique and Pablo pulled the monster of her before he could really hurt her.”

I smiled at how she changed the word “master” into “monster”. It was her way of rebelling against my father. “Here Little Miss, take these.” she handed me some pills and a glass of juice. “They’ll take care of that headache I know you have.” I took the pills and got out of bed for a shower.

This was usually how my days have been starting lately. Ever since mom told me that she had changed her will and made me owner of fifty-percent of the Devon Estate dividing the rest between my four older brothers, Dad had been extra cruel to both of us. See the thing is everything from the multi-millionaire companies to al the property; everything belongs to my mother who was the only child to my grandparents. Dad married her for her money and when he realized that my mom’s parents had disowned because she had eloped and married him, he just lost it. His carefully laid out a plan that had backfired and now he was as he saw it, stuck with my mom.

That all changed when grandpa on his deathbed changed his mind and forgave his only daughter and welcomed her family to the estate. Mom had already had my oldest brother Harold or Harry as I called him and was pregnant with my second older brother Dickens. Seeing that grandpa's time was near, my dad the schemer he was, planned to have all of the estate in his name.

But grandpa never trusted Dad and so when he died he made sure to leave everything to his wife and daughter and also that Dad couldn’t trick them and steal away the properties. I guess you could say it was because of my grandpa’s ability to read a man that both, saved my mom and ruined her. Dad started drinking and gambling. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had actually won once in awhile.

Mom finally saw him for the worm he was and tried to kick him out but Dad sweet talked his way back in, false promising her that he would stop everything and be the man that she wanted him to be. And Mom, because she truly loved him, believed him each and every time and let him back into her life. This happened twice and that’s how my third and fourth brothers came to be.  Raven and Brandon. 

I on the other hand am the result of a failed escape plan. My  mom did everything she could to change him but he  just wouldn’t so one day she just packed everything and left. Unfortunately for her dad came home and saw her leaving. He dragged her kicking and screaming back into the house and well.. you can guess what happened. But he never changed. In fact his gambling only got worse to the point that mom had to freeze all his accounts. And that’s when the fighting and the hitting started.

I still remember that night he came back home and was drunk. My brothers and I were sleeping but Harry woke up because of all the shouting. He was 12, Dickens was 11, Raven was 9,Brandon was 7 and I was 5. We all heard this huge crash and woke up. Harry got out of his bed and went out to see what was happening.

 I remember hearing more shouts and then Harry came back running inside. He looked at us all and then ran to me, picked me up and told the others to follow him. He took the lot of us and hid with us inside the closet.

 I remember it was dark and I could hear Harry’s heart beating beneath my ears. And then all of a sudden there was a bright light and then I was pulled away from Harry and thrown to the other end of the room.

 Luckily for me I landed on the soft toy collection that mom and grandma had bought for me. I saw my Dad standing over my brother’s with a knife in his hands. I was too small to understand what was happening but I was scared, really scared for my brothers.

 I got up, ran and hugged Harry, hiding my face in his chest. And then he pulled me by my hair and I saw my mom trying to run towards us but he wouldn’t let go. I remember she was crying,  I was crying, my brother’s were crying.

 And mom was saying things like, “Have you gone crazy, that’s our children you are threatening to hurt.”  I don’t remember a whole lot after that. But I later found out that mom had to defreeze all his accounts and promise never to do that again, only then did he let us go.

After that I don’t think any of us slept for the rest of the week.  Mom moved out of their room and into a room beside ours. And even after that I remember waking up sometimes and seeing at least one of my brother’s always up.

And then there was the year that Harry turned 18. According to grandpa’s will he inherited a portion of the estate that year. But he said he didn’t want it and left. The same thing with Dickey and Raven and Brandon. It sort of became a tradition, I guess.

And on the day I turned 18 they all came back. I hadn’t even heard from them in all those years and they were all there on my 18 birthday.  Turns out Harry became a successful stock market business man. He had set up his own company which was doing very good and he was rich. Dickey tried his hand at the only thing he knew and surprisingly he too became a pro racer and took part in NASCAR. Raven was a junior detective at the time and was planning to join the FBI. And Brandon was a professor in herbology; you know the study of plants and stuff. 

I got out of the shower and Rosa teased me for taking so long and then told me of all the appointments  I had today, starting with the usual doctors appointment. We had our own family doc, who was paid mainly to keep his mouth shut.

The only thing Mom and Dad seemed to agree on was the fact that no one besides those inside the estate and the house were to know of all that happens here. Mom because she didn’t want her family name spoiled. Oh yeah I forgot to mention my dad took mom’s family name as it guaranteed power, fame and money. Lots of money.  And because he loved his good guy image with the press too much.