Hurt

A LONG VISIT TO THE PAST

Eliana Adkins was Eliana Allenby when she was a young girl. She was a bastard of Joseph Allenby - Elda and Benjamin's uncle. Joseph Allenby had an affair with one of the young maid for a long time. It was rumoured that Joseph was truly in love with her but the society wouldn't allow a low class girl to be making love with a high class gentleman. There was also Joseph's wife -- the one his mother picked for him -- that got in a way of his true love.

The young maid ended up giving birth to a baby girl and left the baby in Joseph's bedroom before she disappeared, later the baby girl was named Eliana and took over her father's last name, Allenby.

It was quite a scandal back then when the baby was found. Barbara, Joseph's wife was enraged and demanded that Joseph took the baby and put it in the orphanage somewhere far away. But Joseph fell in love with the baby girl and wanted to keep it, he even made Barbara chose either she accepted the child or divorce.

Barbara was a smart woman, she knew she had to chose to accept this bastard baby because if she opted for a divorce, she knew she wouldn't get anything valuable out of it. So, she stayed not as a mother to Eliana but as her enemy that loathed the child to her very bone. Barbara gave Joseph 2 children; a son and a daughter 3 years after Eliana was born, hoping that her children would make Joseph loved Eliana less but that wasn't the case.

In the end she figured out that in Joseph's last will, Eliana was the sole heir to all of Joseph's abundance wealth. It raged her.

When Joseph passed away of malaria, Eliana was only 8 years old. Barbara thought she could cheat the girl out of her inheritance. She arranged that Eliana was to be put in an orphanage far away, out of sight, out of mind.

However, the kind Stephen Allenby - Joseph's brother, the father of Elda and Benjamin - figured out Barbara's wicked plan and instead he took Eliana to his home in The Willow and rised her together with her close cousin, Elda and Benjamin.

Living in The Willow was like living in a paradise for Eliana. She loved The Willow; she loved how warm the house was, how loving were all the adults and she especially loved playing with Elda and Benjamin. Eliana never gave second thought of Barbara. She was an evil person in Eliana's opinion and she didn't want the wicked witch to be in her life.

When Eliana turned 18 she made a letter of power of attorney and gave every last penny of her inheritance to Barbara and her children. She said Barbara deserved it more than she did because of the woman's devotion for her father to care for a bastard. She didn't even need the inheritance because she was living in luxury and wealth just the same in The Willow.

View months after giving all her inheritance, she met a very charming fisherman named Simon Adkins. He was a sturdy man, tanned skin, thin hair and very tall. He was also a man of ego, hated rich people, well, hated most people really, but at the time Eliana fell in love with his point of view and his charm that only after 3 months of courting they were married.

Eliana had always been a girl with a firm opinion and not easily shook. She braved through the disapproval of her beloved family at The Willow. She couldn't convinced them about Simon's quality just as they couldn't convinced her about Simon's faults and harsh behavior that were apparent since the very first time. Eliana was blinded by love and prejudice towards her family that she thought didn't approve of Simon solely on his low class and occupation.

Despite everything, the marriage happened. Right after their wedding party, Simon took Eliana to his house and that was the last time Eliana ever had a contact with her wealthy family. Simon wouldn't allow it. She didn't even come to Elda or Benjamin's wedding. Eliana only managed to send a very short letter, telling her family about her new born baby girl named, Bette and a snap shot of the baby.

That night was the first time Elda met Eliana in a very long time, and clearly it killed her so very much to have seen her once beautiful cousin now sick, withered and in poverty, far away from luxury and wealth like she used to.

That night also was the last night Bette ever had to slave around her neighborhood for pennies.

Doctor had told them that it was all too late for Eliana to do any kind of medication or surgery. So, Elda was determined to make the last days of her cousin as comfortable as possible.

For the first time in Bette's life she ever had people working for her. For the first time in her life she ever witnessed her once lonely, shabby house now filled with maids, cooks and a butler. So very out of place those clean and well dressed servants to be working with a master that dress worse than they were.

Elda and Benjamin came every day to be with Eliana. Bette went to school and came right back home; no need to work anymore, Benjamin wouldn't allow her to leave her mother too long. They were very well provided for from that moment on.

One Sunday morning, Eliana asked Bette to prepared her morning tea in the veranda. She said she missed the sea. So, everybody followed her and had their morning tea in the veranda. They were Eliana, Bette, Elda and Benjamin -- sitting together, enjoying the sunrise and the morning breeze when Eliana breathed her last breath. She passed away that morning.

After Eliana's funeral, Elda told Bette that Eliana wanted Bette to stay with her, to be surrounded with family. Elda couldn't be happier to have Bette joined her family.

However, Bette felt a bit reluctant. The idea of living with a wealthy family didn't sit right in her mind. Bette said she was still in mourning and wanted time to be alone in her house. She sent the maids, the cooks and the butler back to Elda. Bette said she'd had to be alone first before doing whatever she had to do in the future. Elda and Benjamin gave her the space she needed.

Bette was devastated, not to mentioned the emptiness that she constantly felt ever since her mother passed away. She was terribly lonely, missing her constant companion, her only source of love and comfort, her beloved mother.

Out of her sadness, she packed all of her foods and drinks that she could find in the house and she brought it to her father's fishing boat. She didn't sail the boat, she just lived in it, lazing around in it. She lived in her father's boat for over a week when finally Benjamin came to her, sat with her in the bow and told her that her time alone was up and now it was her time to be with her family. They were waiting for her impatiently, longing to got to know her.

Eventually, she packed up all of her clothes and photo frames of her mother and moved to the Sunny Side.

It was her senior year of high school when she transferred from her old public school to a fancy private school where the wealthy went to. Even in that school she was never stopped suffering. She had a hard time adjusting to the new, upgraded environment, and it wasn't helping that she was still the fat and weird kid, now she was also a fat and weird kid from the shack.

It was a never ending cycle sufferings for Bette in that school. After finished high school, everybody moved on except Bette. Both Josephine and Carrie, the two daughters of Elda moved to London to attended college, but not Bette. She had lost her way and her will to done anything for her life.

It was a high time that Benjamin reached out to her, guided her through all the option like he did with George. It was Benjamin who showed her that life must go on that she had to be useful in her life and that was the day Bette decided to take apothecary major in Kingston University. Ecstatic to hear the news, Elda bought her niece a car as a present for her going away to college.

Off Bette to college.

College life was so much better and kinder to bashful Bette. She had many friends and a best friend who was her roommate in a dorm. She didn't expect that she would ever loved apothecary but she did and she was good in it too. She came first in her class and everyone were very pleased with it.

Bette studied hard every day but perhaps it was too hard that she suddenly collapsed when she was on her way to class in her second year.