Behind a Veil of Secrets

Starting Over

“Anna you seriously are out of your damn mind.” Leslie said shaking her head at her best friend. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know… all I do know is I need to get out of here.” Anna said as she sat back on Leslie’s couch. “My father’s hold on me is starting to make me feel like I’m suffocating and I can’t take it no more.”

“You only graduated from college a few weeks ago, what are you going to do if your parents cut you off?” Leslie asked as she sat down next Anna.

“Les I doubled up on all of my courses and graduated early so I could get out of New York sooner. Plus I’ve been putting money away for the last five years and my father has already told me he was cutting me off when I walked out of his office today.”

Anna had come from a family that had money and power, growing up she felt like a princess and had all she could ever want but as she got older it felt more like prison than a fairy tale. Her dad was always at work or on business trips and her mother did nothing but shop and party with her friends. Leaving Anna and her older sister Trisha to care for the two younger siblings but now Trisha was getting married and that job has fallen on Anna. Between caring for her sibling, having a very rough schedule at school and doing social events for her father Anna felt like a robot on autopilot, if it wasn’t one thing it was another. Most of her friends enjoyed having the spotlight on them but Anna couldn’t stand it.

Anna tried convincing her mother to hire someone to help with her younger sisters but her mother had refused to get another nanny after finding out her father was sleeping with the last one. Anna had asked her mother why she stays and not leave him but Anna was told to mind her own business. Being twenty one she wanted to go out in the world on her own and her father made it difficult for her to do so without his help. Anna had her degree in communication and journalism but because of her social status in New York none of the News stations would take her serious and her father Mark refused to help.

“You should just wait until Trisha gets married before you do anything, go back home and just tell your dad your sorry and let it go for now.” Leslie said patting Anna’s knee. “You can’t just go out into New York City on your own.”

“Trisha isn’t getting married until a year from July, that is a year and five months from now. I am not going to stick around here waiting to start my own life, the longer I wait the harder it will be for me to leave.” Anna said pushing Leslie’s hand off her knee and stood up. “Leslie I’m taking the gifted silver spoon out of my mouth… you should try it sometime.” She snapped as she walked to the door and picked up the small bag of clothes she had packed. “Danny told us to get out there and see the world we need to do that.”

“You will regret this when you don’t have your father’s money to bail you out.” Leslie yelled at her before she could walk out.

“There is only two things I’m regretting right now… not leaving four years ago and coming here thinking you are my friend, not parent’s.” Anna snapped at her as she slammed the door shut behind herself and left. Anna never got around to telling Leslie why she had walked out on her father but at this point she didn’t care to let her know. By the time Anna reached the outside of the building and pulled her phone out to call Trisha she realized her father had it shut off already to prove his point. “That bastard.” She snapped as she slammed the phone to the ground and watched as it shattered into pieces.

“Miss Westbrook do you need a cab?” the door man asked looking at her with a shocked look on his face.

“No thank you I can walk.” She said forcing a smile on her face and walked away from the shattered phone.

Anna had no idea what she was going to do, she had no phone and her dad took her Mercedes away from her and she was pretty sure all her credit cards were already canceled. All she had left was the thirty thousand she had stashed away but even she knew that wasn’t going to last very long. After wondering around New York for a while she finally caught a cab to the train station and stood there trying figure out where she was going to go. Twenty minutes later she stood in front of the map of New York closed her eyes and pointed to a spot on the map then opened her eyes to see where her next destination was going to be.