She hated her life. In her short twelve years of life, she had grown accustomed to hearing the angered scream of her father and the anguished screams of her mother. When she was younger she couldn't understand why she had to go to her room when her father would break a glass or his tone of voice became less gentle. It wasn't until she was seven, a spark of curiosity hit her and she wanted to know what happened when she was in her room. She snuck out and hid on the stairs only to shriek in fright when she saw her father strike her mother and cal her horrific things. Since then she was highly aware of every tick her father had and he stopped hiding her animosity forwards their family.
One particular night he had come back from the bar completely hammered, stumbling through the door with half his shirt untucked, his tie undone, and hair askew. Her mother had run up to him to help him only to be backhanded. She collapsed onto the wall, gripping it to help her stay up. He then started screaming loudly at her while advancing on her. Each shout was accompanied by a slap or kick. It got to the point where her mother was rolling on the floor. Hearing the commotion she ran out of her room to see her father above her mother. On instinct, she jumped in between only to be on the receiving end of her father's rage. That was the first time he hit her, but not the last.
By the time she was sixteen, she had a book full of creative excuses for the black marks that appeared on her face and the burn marks on her arms. After the one hit that one night her father enjoyed involving her in his anger management activités, but that never deterred him from what he did to her mother. At that time she also turned to drugs in order to take her pain away. She had no friends because her father wouldn't let her have any and if she were to squeal on him he claimed she wouldn't live to see another day, so drugs became the friends she lacked, but after a while, their sweet serenity numbed and she was back to feeling everything. She needed something stronger.
The idea came to her in her chemistry class one day. Her teacher was explaining elements and combining them. When he started going on about how medication was made she decided she was going to try it herself. She figured she had nothing to lose. After school she snuck into the classroom and stole an abundance of random elements, taking them home. That night she spent conducting experiments, mixing different ingredients together like a mad scientist, however, she never got the desired results. She spent weeks sneaking and stealing supplies trying to make her own drug concoction until she did it. She made herself a hallucinogenic that numbed all the senses for hours, enough for her injuries to start healing before she was alert.
She started taking her drug as if it was aspirin, two at a time several times a day. Word spread amongst the girls in the school about the drug and suddenly the girls' bathroom became her business ground. The drug wasn't just her little escape, it was everyones. It was the beginning of her enterprise, but like always the drugs wore off and reality took over and as time went on her reality got harsher.
When she was seventeen her father broke her; not physically, he had done that before, but emotionally, mentally. One night she came home late from selling her drugs behind the supermarket. It seemed like any other terrible night, but that changed when she heard the pure fear and agony of the scream her mother produced. She rushed into the house, but it was too late. Her mother laid motionless on the floor while her father stood above her with a bloody knife. The only good thing in her life was gone. The woman who attempted to make her childhood as innocent and happy as possible, who read her bedtime stories and danced with her to the songs on the radio was dead. She stared at him with hate in her eyes. She wanted to watch him burn, no she wanted to watch the world burn.
"How could you?!" She marched up to him pushing him back. "How could you?!" Her screams mixed with her tears.
She shoved him back hard enough for him to stumble back and trip. He fell hitting his head on the counter before dropping to the floor. She wasn't thinking rationally at that point. She ran up the stairs and dragged a suitcase out of her bag. She flung clothing into it before bringing it downstairs. In a frenzy, she started dowsing the house with her father's alcohol and turning on the stoves. She took the lighter her dad left by his ashtray and her suitcase to the door. She glanced around the place she never considered home, mostly to make sure her father was still there and she didn't leave any of her drugs behind and tossed the lighter to the ground. The house went up in flames as she exited. It was going to be a long walk to the bus station, but it was worth it to get away from that life and start a new one. This new one was going to be her fresh start to live how she wanted and it was going to start with her building an empire.
She worked with him for years. He was her lesser, he worked for her, but she couldn't help it. She met him when she was in Paris recruiting people for the European branch when she ran into him. He was from England visiting his last relative. He had charmed her with his sleek, fluent french and kind words that she offered him a job. He had been loyal ever since. That's why when her empire crumbled because of those stupid spies she only trusted him to rebuild it while she was stuck in prison. It was also the reason she trusted him to be apart of her plan. No other worker had been able to wiggle their way into her heart as he had nor climb their way up the chain, but he was special.
She didn't realize how special until she lived with him. When she moved into Rosewood he had moved into the house with her claiming he was the fittest to protect her, even though she could protect herself. The posed as newlywed, but he played the part in public and at home. He would be up in the morning to make her a cup of tea and cooked large meals for just the two of them. Slowly, but surely he was wooing her with every day. His dedication to her was shown even more when he stopped at nothing to help her at the office in New Orleans. He acted a lot like a bodyguard/butler/personal assistant.
Though the years he still possessed the charm that gained him his new job and lifestyle with her. It was two years into the mission when something happened. She had freaked out on him when they hit a dead-end in her revenge plan. She screamed and started throwing pots and pans until he caught her wrists, holding her still until she calmed down. It was silent beside their panting and he held her so close their noses were nearly touching. She tilted her head up to look at him. At that moment something in her head clicked about everything he has done, everything he stood by her through. She slowly inched her face forward and connected their lips in heated passion.
While he thought she was just frustrated and needed a release, he was proven wrong day after day as she continued to treat him with a gentleness she never did before. They started acting like the couple they were pretending to be. For a few weeks during the honeymoon phase of the relationship, the two even disregarded their jobs, but it didn't last long. She was proud of herself and what she managed to accomplish. She believed that she paved her own path and created her own opportunities including relationship-wise. It was the happiest point in her life.
The two had secretly gotten married a year into their relationship. He claimed it was because in their line of work anything could happen the next day, but truthfully he couldn't wait another day of her not being in his life forever. Their marriage only improved their relationship. They were like a dynamic duo, at home, at work, and for her plan. They got each other in ways married couples of ten years couldn't. Anything they could do to please their partner they did which was why she got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. It happened a year after the Mercer's had their first child. She assumed her husband got baby fever from watching them prepare for their child and all she wanted to do was make him happy, so she did.
They were a perfect happy little family. She let her husband take the reigns a little of her enterprise while she cared for their baby. The small business she created in high school suddenly included the love of her life she never thought she would find. On those days when her baby was sleeping and she had nothing better to do she would sit and think about her childhood. How it had hurt her so much but made her stronger at the same time. When the police interrogated her they asked her about killing her father and setting the house on fire. She told them that she wouldn't do it any differently. Sitting there with her child she stood by that statement. Everything she ever wanted as a kid she had and was going to give to her child. It was perfect...until it wasn't.
He was sick. So sick that he couldn't stand. She took over the business again full time while also taking care of their child. It was like she was a single mother and she didn't like it. On top of her two jobs, she also took care of her husband. She would visit him several times a day and treat him with the gentleness he and her son only ever saw. He had gotten so bad that he was taken to the hospital for intensive care. Their son grew up watching his mother work so hard and visiting his father in the hospital. It was better than what she had experienced, but that didn't make it any less saddening.
He eventually was able to stand and walk. The hospital discharged him after doing a great job of reviving him. Their son was six when he came home healthy as ever. Suddenly their son was receiving piggyback rides every day and gourmet meals his mother was incapable of making. She got time to herself again. He wasn't able to work, but having him as a stay home dad made everyone happy. He was able to be apart of his family again and he couldn't ask for anything more.
When everything started looking up again like every other time in her life it crashed. He made it to that day; the day the Mercers got arrested. He managed to be a father for ten years, but time caught up with him. The day after the Mercers were arrested; the day after he celebrated with his family seeing his wife get everything she ever wanted he collapsed. His son was the one that found him on the floor. When she saw him she cried out, tears falling immediately. Her son was no better. He was a blubbering mess gripping onto his mother as she tried to shake her husband awake, but to no avail. And for the second time in her life, she broke.