Bitter Hearts: A Dark Cinderella Retelling

Sixteen

The Beginning
   
    Mia was staring at the akuaba doll she was never allowed to play with, it was intriguing to her eight year old mind.

It was a unique figure with a round head and slender nose, pierced ears with earrings and it's mouth was a slit. The neck was slender, ringed and decorated with beads. It had large protruding breast unlike her small growing ones. The torso was tall and slender and again decorated with beads, the navel was at the lower end. The lower part of the body from the waist to the feet was abstract, in the form of a pedestal to give stability to the figure.

She had overheard Duvessa tell her friend that had come to visit to get one so that she could have a baby and stare at it everyday so that her child would be beautiful. Mia stared at the doll wondering if it could make her pretty so that Duvessa would maybe like her. Duvessa had called her ugly many, many times, maybe that's why she didn't like her but even as the thought came her eight year old mind knew this wasn't the reason.

Mia was still staring at the doll when she felt a sharp pull on her threaded hair, she turned abruptly only to see a laughing Zenobia and Zenaida.

"Staring at that doll isn't going to make you prettier," Zenobia gleefully remarked.

"Yes mama said you're ugly  and she's right!" Zenaida snickered pulling harder on Mia's threaded hair.

Cedric who had been standing at the doorway thinking he could watch his children play together was astonished to hear the twins speak in such a disrespectful manner to their elder sister.

"Zenobia! Zenaida! On your knees right now," he barked anger clear in his voice.

He sat on one of the decorated stools in the room and motioned for Mia to sit on the one next to him.

"How old are the both of you?" He asked.

"Seven," Zenobia said answering for herself and Zenaida.

"And how old is your sister?" He continued.

"Eight," Zenobia answered once again.

"Have you no mouth Zenaida?" Cedric barked irritated at her silence.

"Eight, Mia is eight," she said her voice trembling.

"Good! So you know that she is your senior?" He asked.

"Yes," they both answered.

"And you're aware of what our people do to children that do not respect their elders okwia(Right)?" He implored.

"Yes," they answered, by this time Zenaida was already in tears. She did not like the cane very much.

"But-but mama said that she's a bastard child and that she deserves every bad thing, why are we getting a beating for something she deserves?" Zenobia asked matter-of-factly.

If Cedric thought he was astonished at the twins manner of talking before he was stunned to hear what Zenobia was confidently saying to his face. It felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs and he couldn't breath. Was this what his wife fed his children?

He gave Duvessa and her daughters the beating of their lives that day. He was sick but yet he mustered the energy to teach them a lesson. Mia was his first child, his first proof of being a real man, the first out of his loins and most importantly a child born to him by the love of his life. No one, absolutely no one was going to mess with her, especially not his wife and other children. He kept an eye on Mia from that day on, making sure she was treated properly like she rightfully deserve.

Mia who had seen Duvessa and her sisters get a massive beating decided to never ever report any maltreatment she received to her father if this was how he going to react.

They hated her but she loved them. They were her family.

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