Chapter 3

“You've been making too many mistakes these days. Do you mind telling me what happened?”

I looked across the table I was sitting at, my gaze landing on the only friend I seemingly had in the whole world. He furrowed his eyebrows in an interrogative squint, leaning closer towards me. After waiting for me to talk, he reached over the table and placed the sand over my neck.

“Have you started feeling sick again?” He asked, feeling my temperature.

“No, doctor,” I blurted out, grabbing his hand, and moving it from my face. “I did something stupid.”

“You mean to say spending all the easy money you got on medicines, is that what you mean by stupid?”

My shoulders slumped in disappointment, at the sound of those words, my eyes falling on the box of medicine that I spent all the money Mason Blackwood threw at me on.

“You know, I didn't think you would be this irrational Sophie.” He said, shaking his head in a criticizing manner. “You had enough money to rent you a tiny apartment.”

“But I wasn't well enough,” I answered in response, raising my head so that my eyes could meet with that of the old man who had been caring for me. “I had been struggling with my health long before my mother passed away and it has been hard for me to get any form of medication since her funeral.”

“You needed a place to live, nothing else should have mattered at that point. You have no roof over your head, how long till your illness returns and worsens.”

I refused to give those words space to expand in my mind. I was already going through a lot and I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to add more to it.

“I want to ask you to give me a space in this hospital. I will work as a cleaner, and I can have the storeroom to myself.”

The doctor looked like he was going to refuse, but I was relieved when he tore his glasses off his face and heaved a deep breath. The weight on my shoulders vanished now, giving me the feeling that a heavy load had been lifted off me.

Doctor Munro remained quiet, each second of silence resembling a death sentence. All of a sudden, he dipped his hand into his pocket and dropped a wad of cash on the table.

“You have been asking if you could stay with me for a while now, and I don't want to come off looking like the devil, but my resolve remains the same. I cannot let you stay in my hospital, I cannot assist you, but you can rent somewhere to live with the money I have given you. Please, find yourself somewhere to live. The medicines you bought were truly a wise decision, and so here is another money, find a roof to lay under.”

A part of me was glad that he said to find a roof to lie under because there was no way I could get a decent apartment with the money he was offering me. I could only get cockroach-infested rooms, dirty kitchenettes, and so on.

Having no other choice, I rose to my feet, thanked the doctor, and returned home.

The atmosphere of my story building was quiet as usual, but the instant I unlocked the door and stepped into the room, my instinct told me that something was not right.

I closed the door behind me and flipped on the light switch, but there was nothing else other than the old-fashioned couches and broken center table.

I will soon leave all of this behind and never set eyes on them again. I had decided to take my time knowing fully well that I would not be appearing in court with Mason Blackwood despite the legal documents he already sent. I had 3 days left but my mind was totally at rest.

I lifted my shoulders in a small shrug as I walked up the stairs. When I got to the door of my bedroom, I pushed the door open and walked inside, leaning on the door and closing my eyes.

“I can see you are enjoying yourself quite well.”

“What!”

My heart somersaulted as the familiar voice ripped into my ears, my eyes nearly rolling out of their sockets. She was standing in front of me, Lucifer's daughter herself. Her arms were folded across her chest, her black and white hair cascading over her shoulders like a waterfall.

“What are you doing here Cecily?” I asked, struggling to hide the quivering in my lips and the crookedness in my voice.

“You escaped with your drug addict boyfriend after you discovered that your father sold my mother's house and got a share of the money.”

“Hmph,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Your mother is just as useless as you are.”

“What!”

“Yes, you heard me. My father never wanted to have anything to do with her. She practically forced my father into a union with her. Same as you.”

She stopped and scanned me from head to toe, distasteful contempt flashing in her eyes.

“You are just like her, with no beauty and no sexual appeal. You will never get a man, you will spend the rest of your life begging men to marry you, just like your mother did to my father.”

I wanted to respond to her saying that she would spend her life living like a leech the way her father did to my mother, but then I remembered how I had lived my whole life in servitude to her, with my mother having no power over them.

“And over the money you got from the client, my father sold the house too. I have ears and eyes everywhere and I knew very well that his workers gave you some money before they left. Here.”

She stretched her hand towards me and moved away from the window. “Let me have the money.”

“Is your boyfriend broke again?” I asked, stifling my wobbling legs such that they remained firm in the presence of my terrifying monster.

“Don't ask me any more questions Sophie,” she growled, closing the gap between us with one giant stride. “Hand over the money now.”

“I didn't get any money,” I explained, moving backward. “You are mistaken. I have less than…”

SLAP!

Cecily's hand landed across my face before I could finish the statement. The nerve wrecking effect of the attack left my head spiraling and squirming with pain. I gripped my cheek, trying to suppress the effect with the coolness in my palm, but it was all to no avail.

“And over the money now. I don't care whether you live or die. The money belongs to me; hand it over now, or I'm going to kill you and throw your body out of the window.”

“I still don't have money. I am sorry but I cannot give you this time.”

Another slap landed across my cheek, and another, until I lost balance and fell face down on the cold floor.

The contents of my bag clattered to the floor, immediately as I felt the muscles in my heart constricting.

I blacked out as a result of the pain, and when I finally came, a huge tragedy caught me.

The money Doctor Munro gave me, the balance from the money I got from Mason Blackwood, and the medicines I spent a fortune on had all vanished.

I struggled to rise to my feet and dashed towards the door gripping the knob, but it had been locked. Cecily had locked me inside!