A Cinderella Story Gone Wrong

Chapter 2

A/N Photo to the side is how I imagine Anne, Elly's mother A/N

~2 and a half years ago~

 

Elly could hear the midwife yelling at Anne to push harder and breath faster for she was giving birth. Ian was at her side holding her hand, waiting for the arrival of their new family member. Elly and her stepbrothers were not allowed into the hospital room, but from outside in the corridor, they could hear every scream, every push, and every breath coming from Elly's mother inside the room.

After what seemed like a year, Elly finally had a little baby half-brother named Oliver. He was the cutest little baby she had ever seen. His round, bright blue eyes and mop of blonde, nearly white, hair made him look like his father, Ian, but the shape of his face and eyes and the angle of his nose were his mother's. After a couple of days in the hospital, Anne and Oliver got released, being deemed healthy by the doctors. They all raced home to a newly decorated nursery just for Olli. It was in the middle of his parent's room and Elly's room.

Every night after that was sleepless for all four of them, Oliver kept wailing through the night and nothing could quieten him. One night, like all the rest, Olli woke Elly up with his tears. The only thing different about this time was that his parents didn't wake to his exceptionally loud cry. Elly decided to take care of him and let her mother sleep peacefully. She silently crept into his room scooped him out of his cot and into her arms.

"Shhh, shhh," she cooed as she cradled him in her arms. It took her a little while but she magically got him to fall sleep. "That's it, there you go," she whispered as she lightly kissed his tiny forehead and lay him to rest.

Not once did he cry after Elly lay him to sleep. Bright and early the next morning Anne and Ian woke feeling fully rested and confused as to why they hadn't woken the night before, thanks to Elly. For her help, Elly's mother and stepfather bought her a pet mouse, which Elly then named him Jaq. Jaq turned out to be one of her two best friends, including baby Olli.

At her school, Elly had no real friends. The 'popular' people, including her stepbrothers Blake and Nathan made her sound like a crazy person. Anyone and everyone who cherished their social life, which was practically everyone in the school, didn't dare go near poor Elly. For that she was thankful. Elly was in grade 10 and the homework the teachers threw out left and right was taking up a large part of her afternoons and weekends. That plus her chores.

During the day when Anne and Ian are working away, Oliver would be at day-care. After school was finished, Elly was to walk to day-care and pick Olli up while the older boys would stay at school and practice playing a sport Elly couldn't care less about. She would then carry Olli home and start the housework. First she'd put a load of washing on, then she'd empty and stack the dishwasher. Tidying the kitchen was next, putting away any breakfast cereals the family left out that morning. By that time Olli would be getting hungry so Elly would make him something to eat, like a mashed banana. The washing machine would make a noise signalling the end of the cycle and Elly would hang out the clothes on the line. After the washing was done she would start dinner and when that was keeping warm in the oven, she would start on her homework while Oliver was playing with his toys, waiting patiently for everyone else to get home.

But one Tuesday afternoon her mother didn't make it home. That dark, dreadful day something horrific happened, her mother disappeared. Although no one really knew all the details there was one witness, her mother's work friend. Apparently he saw the whole thing, he said it had looked like she lost all control of her car and it fell off the bridge, into the freezing cold river below. They had scuba divers scouring the lake but her body was never found. The heartbroken family had no comfort in burying her empty casket, and poor, unfortunate Elly was now, biologically, an orphan.

The time of mourning went by without any answers, or bodies for that matter, and Ian slowly lost it. He started blaming Elly for her mother's death and he completely ignored poor Olli, who needed help the most for he was just a little kid. But being the only adult of the house, and having authority for all four children, Ian got a little drunk on power. He took Elly out of public school to do home-school just so she could look after Oliver and clean the house for him. He also pushed her to get a job so she could pay some of the bills, and his last rule was that she was to never leave the house without permission. Although Elly didn't like social gatherings, she didn't want to be cut off from the outside world.

Elly's first week being home-schooled begun. It wasn't like normal home-schooling where the parent teaches the kid. The work Elly had to do was all in a book of sorts. She would have to read a section of the book and answer the questions after it and keep doing that until the book was finished, then she'd do a test. Elly was happy about this way of learning because she didn't have to spend any of her time with her awful step-father. But saying that she did have to share a house with him twenty-four seven. It turns out, a little while before the accident, Ian lost his job. He was too prideful to say anything to Anne, so he spent a couple of weeks looking for a new job, but he couldn't find one suitable to their needs. That was why he wanted Elly to get a job, so she could pay the bills. He vowed to himself that he would get a job in the next week though.

That week went by at a dreadfully slow pace. Elly had so much on her mind that she didn't have any time to dwell on her mother's horrific accident. It was a win win situation because the house was getting tidier and Elly didn't have to think too much about what happened to her mother. But maybe if she did spend time thinking about her mother's untimely death she might've found something. Weeks turned into months and without Elly knowing it, it was her sixteenth birthday. Ian also forgot, not that he would've done anything anyway. There was someone out there that did remember because the morning after, in the mail was a letter addressed to Elly anonymously wishing her a happy birthday. There was a strange picture of a glass slipper attached to it. Elly thought nothing of it so she threw it aside. She was confused as to whom the letter was from so she had hired a PI to find out, without Ian knowing of course, but no luck. The PI apologised about the unfound sender and took pity on Elly's situation so he gave her all her money back.

A week after the letter came, Elly met a guy. Not just any guy. The guy she was crushing on before she got pulled out of school. Shane Howser.

A/N Very sorry this took so long. I'm going to try and update once a week on a Thursday. Feel free to ask questions and correct mistakes. Love you all <3