Tainted Innocence

C H A P T E R 8

Leilani

Zoé never spoke to me after that. Her family moved towns and that was the last I ever heard or saw of her.

Papá isolated me in the house. The months started to blur together Mateo went back to college and in a blink of an eye winter was here.

I sit cuddled up to the fire place while a blanket is draped over me. My eyes scan over the envelope in my hand with my name scribbled across it. Mateo sends me letters from time to time about how he's living his life away from our parents.

Everytime I read one of his letters I become envious, he's having the time of his life while I'm holed up in the house trapped. I sat his letter aside deciding not to read it right now, I couldn't bear to read about his amazing life.

"Leilani," I hear my father's voice from the steps. I immediately hide the letter and pretend I'm doing something productive. I hear my father makes his way to door of my room before twisting the knob. His dark presence engulfs my positive girly room and his dark brown eyes meets my honey brown eyes. " After giving it much thought, your mother and I have decided to send you away, and hopefully where we send you'll learn some discipline." My heart sunk to my ass. I opened my mouth to protest but nothing came out, I sat there gaping at him like a fish.

"Pack your bags, you leave friday." That woke me out of my trance. "What? Friday there's no way mom agreed to that!" I exclaimed with tears in the brink of my eyes.

"Do you think it really matters if your mom agreed or not? I'm the one running things here, my money allows her to sit and do nothing all day." My father began to ease his way deeper into my room, now he was at the foot of my bed. I couldn't help but to seek deeper in the comfort of my sheets.

"Papá please! I'm 18, legally you cannot forcefully make me go anywhere, that's abduction." I exclaimed,  pleading for my freedom. But Papá waved his hands in attempt to stop my ramblings. "Lani, you bluntly disrespected rules your mother and I laid out for you, this type of disrespect will not be tolerated!" He tried to reason. But no, this wasn't reasonable at all! I had his and mamá rules for years, and the one time I don't it's over?! That wasn't fair at all. I expressed this papá but he didn't care and he brushed me off as he exited my room, leaving me on my bed with tears streaming down my face.

I look out from my window and pray that something will help me escape this, but even if I found a way to escape I wouldn't know what to do. I'm broke with no resources and I wouldn't even know how to get a job if I wanted to.

~~~~~

Days passed in my house and before I knew it, Friday was here. I used to love Fridays, it's the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend, no school and just some time to relax and be free. But this Friday was very different, I did not feel free, in fact I felt the opposite, trapped.

On Thursday I had packed my bags for this mysterious place my parents were sending me to. I pressed and pressed throughout the week for them to tell me where I was going. I begged and begged them to not just ship me off. But all of my pleas were for nothing, in the end they just brushed me off and sent me to my room.

Now, I'm in my room pacing back and forth making sure I have everything packed, since I don't know if I'm coming back or not. Suddenly I hear a knock on my door, it's mamá. "LeiLei be ready in 20 minuets with your bags." She spoke abruptly and walked away with her head down. We had always been close, I couldn't believe she was letting this happen.

I sit on my bed and start to tear up again. In the middle of crying and questioning my life, I remember Matteo's letter that he wrote to me. I quickly check under my pillow to see if it was still there, and it was. I open it and start to read it.

Glancing through it, he's just talking about the parties he's been to and how fun and exciting his life has been. This makes me start to cry even more. My tears are staining the paper as my eyes race over the entirety of the letter taking it all in, until a line stands out to me.

"Lani, just keep your head up. I know mom and dad, especially dad, can be an ass sometimes but it's ok. Trust me, sis, you'll be out soon and we'll party together like you've always wished.

your brother, Matteo."

This made me pause, tears freezing down my cheek. Did Matteo know something that I didn't?  I didn't have too much time to ponder over these questions as a stern knock was bestowed on my door.

It was papá of course, " Come LeiLani, it's time." He grumbled out then left slamming the door behind him. I huff and most unwillingly, grab my bags. I bought three with me of all my most important things.

As I walk down the stairs mamá is waiting for me with a bittersweet smile on her face and papá is right beside her, avoiding eye contact with his jaw clenched. I finally meet them downstairs papá takes my bags and mamá kiss me on the forehead.

~~~~~

The car was silent. All I could hear was the mellow hum of the engine and the occasional speed bumps we would drive over. Papá is focused on the road, jaw tight and fingers gripping the wheel until his knuckles were turning white. I don't know why he was so tensed, it's not like he's the one being shipped off, I thought with an eye roll. And Mamá.

She's just staring down into her lap. Looking at her folded hands, with her dark flushed face. She almost looked constipated. I rolled my eyes again and looked out of the window. Trees were blurring past me making me dizzy, wherever we were going it seemed to be far from civilization. This made my heart start to pound in my chest. They wouldn't just dump me in the woods, right?

Mamá cleared her throat, snapping me out of my trance. she makes eye contact with me in the mirror before quickly look away, shifting in her seat. She clears her throat again and opens her mouth before closing. She repeats this twice before finally finding her words, "You- You know LeiLani, it's a beautiful place— really beautiful," she says softly before continuing " You might learn something, who knows, right? You don't have to look at it as a bad thing, this could give you some freedom you wanted, you know." She looks at me through the mirror again. She looked at me with sadness and something else I couldn't quite decipher.

Maybe she thought that would be encouraging but it wasn't. I just looked out the window again and gave her a hum as response. I wanted to scream at her and tell that, that wasn't enough , she needed to take a real stand against papá. But I didn't, I just continued to count the trees we passed by.

Suddenly we start to slow down, my heart sunk. I looked around trying to observe my surroundings but I couldn't see much just the trail that we drove on.

Eventually we arrived. Where we arrived to, I wasn't so sure. We were in the middle of nowhere. Isolated and in front of me was a house, a barn of some sort on the side. This strange place has a very eerily feeling to it. This could not be the beautiful place Mamá was talking about.

"Get out." Papa grumbled out leaving no room for

I've never been a head strong girl, but what did so have to lose at this point. Gathering all the courage I had, I defied my father. "I'm not going in there."

The car was so silent. All you could hear was Mamá's quivering breath. Soon enough papá opened his door and slammed it shut. Then he opened the trunk and threw out my bags. Finally, my door swung open and in a blink of an eye I wasn't slung out of the car, my back hitting the ground making it ache instantly.

Mamá just sitting and watching with a fearful look on her face, a bystander. Papá said nothing as he dragged me and my luggage to the front door of the house. My arm and back ached from being dragged over the hard gravel.

The door swung open and my brown eyes meet hard green eyes. "You're late."