Say you love me

Fourteen

POV TIVELLY

Chapter Name: in living hell

I stare down at my grade on my math test. I have never been good at math. I have always struggled to keep my grades up. Presley and Mary would always scream at me if it fell below a seventy.

Not because they care about me and my future. They only did this because it made the family value go down if I got a bad grade. Or at least that's what Mary always preached.

My hands sweat as I hold a failed test in my hand. A fifty-two on my math test, the lowest score I have ever received. The only reason I failed so miserably is because of all the beatings I have taken recently.

I know that they won't see it that way. They never do.

Light sobs shake my body as I hear Mary start to play the piano. The melody is soft and sad, forcing tears to leave my eyes.

"Tivelly," Presley screams at me from his office as Pheobe shuffles out with her grade, which is almost always perfect.

I crumble and then flatten the paper in my hands as I walk into his office. He glares at me from his desk, leaning back in his chair.

"I..." I can't bring myself to speak anymore as his cold glare wracks my whole body in terror.

"Why are you such a failure? When we adopted you, we didn't expect you'd be such an undeserving bitch. Have you ever said thank you to us?" He grabs the paper out of my hand, reading the grade twice before he looks at me.

"You just love to ruin the family's name, don't you?" He glares at me, crumbling the paper, "If you need help, then fucking ask for it like the idiot you are. Don't just do the test."

"I... I need help in more ways than one." I reply, staring him in the eyes, so he understands what I'm speaking about.

As anger fills his eyes, I listen to piano music fill the room in a soft melody as he grabs my arm, yanking me towards him. My body goes over the table, dragging everything off with myself.

"Let go of me!" I scream as his hand harshly hits my cheek. He grabs my shirt collar, bringing me towards his face.

We are so close our noses could touch, "You better watch yourself." He firmly plants his hands on my chest, shoving me back.

My body helplessly falls back, nothing to catch me and break my fall.

My head crashes into the metal cabinets, causing a loud bang to go through the room—the back of my head throbs.

"You fucking bitch! You want my children to suffer." He raises his hand, glaring at me with his rage-filled eyes.

"I'm supposed to be your child too! You adopted me!" I yell at him. With that, his hand slaps me, my face, the force throwing me to the side.

"You're supposed to love me!" I continue yelling. His slaps turning into hard punches.

"You're supposed to hug me. Not hit me! You're a fucking psychopath!" I scream at him, taking each blow he throws at me. Finally, he grabs my arm, digging his fingers into my red skin, yanking me out of the room.

"You sure love to talk." As soon as we get to the stairs, he shoves me, grabbing a handful of my hair. My lip quivers as I begin to whimper, desperately hitting him away from me. He ignores my punches as he begins to drag me up the stairs, giving forceful yanks to my hair every step he takes.

He throws me into my room, quickly slamming it in my face as I attempt to stop him from shutting it. My heart drops as I hear him lock me in. I scramble to my feet, throwing myself at the door. My hands violently jiggle the knob, trying to get the door to open. 

"You can't keep me in here forever!" Tears fall from my eyes as I ram my arm into the door. "Maybe next time, you'll learn to keep your damn mouth shut." Presley snickers through the door as I press my back against the door, defeatedly sliding down the door.

I remember every time he would lock me in this room when I was younger. Sometimes it would be a night, sometimes a week. My room had quickly become my best friend back then. In my room, I'm safe. Outside of these four walls, I had nothing, no one.

Now I continue with my dejecting heart, aching to get out of this place. The difference between now and then is that I have friends now. Friends that make me feel less desolate. 

I bring myself to my feet, scuttering towards my bolted window. I lift the blinds, placing the palm of my hands on the dirty glass. 

"I need to get out. I need to get out now." I whisper; my eyes are wide with crazy. I pull my hands back before shoving them onto the window. 

I watch as a red car pulls into our driveway. Bexley gets out of the driver's seat, her hair in a messy bun. I can tell she's already dreading coming inside from the way her chest falls as if she let out a big sigh.

"Bexley! Bexley!" I rapidly bang on the windows, screaming to get her attention somehow. Hope fills every inch of my body as her eyes find me—her expression changes to fear before her mouth drops, immediately running inside.

"Finally. You are here." I hear Mary's loud voice as she stops playing the piano. I don't hear a word from Bex as she pounds her way upstairs. Within seconds my door is unlocked, revealing a crying Bexley.

"It's been a while." I give her a small smile. My breath hitches as she lunges towards me, wrapping her arms around me tightly. Everything hurts at this moment, but I attempt to ignore it.

"You're so frail. Have you been eating?" She pulls away from me, scanning my face and body with concern.

"I've been trying to get skinnier since I was so fat before," I reply, looking away from the tearful person in front of me. "You were never fat." Her voice is low as she says this.

My body tenses as a tall figure appear behind Bexley. "Father has her in there for a reason." Able sneers at her, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"G-go away, Able." Fear flows through my veins; I'm so used to the feeling that it's normal. "That's no way to talk to me." His face scrunches as he speaks to me.

Bexley turns around to look at him before pulling him into a hug. I feel my heartache as he hugs her back. He deceives her too easily. 

It would be impossible for her to know that her siblings are a factor in my abuse. After all, when she lived here, they were her perfect angels. Moreover, Able wouldn't dare to lay a hand on any animal, so how would he harm a person?

I look away from Able as he smirks at me over his sister's thin shoulder. She lets go of him, giving him a small smile before pushing him away. She turns to me, assessing the frown that crept onto my face.

"What's wrong?" She asks. "You... should unpack." I shrug, not having anything else to say. "Is there something wrong?" She tries to keep a smile on her face, but I can tell it's about to fall.

"You'll find out," I respond. Her smile falls as I expect it to. 

"You guys need to get dressed right now! We have a dinner party to attend." Mary yells throughout the house. My stomach churns as I look at Bexley with wide eyes. 

We used to always go to dinner parties. The rich fucks of the city would invite their coworkers to their house to flaunt it. It put mountains of stress on me, trying to obey everyone's rules. I would only be allowed to speak when spoken to. I would only be allowed to say short sentences too. They want me to stay away from everyone, always be alone. At least I'm good at that.