Living A Lie

Chapter 2

I lived in a small town my whole life. Not the same one forever. At first I lived about two hours away from my family in a giant house at least to a little kid it was giant. My dad, Ian had his own business and if I were to ever distract him when he was working I would get in trouble.

My mother Meredith worked for my dad and would too ensure I was never a distraction. Most days I would just stay in my room in my closet reading.

I was already becoming a introverted person from age seven. I was taught to be quiet and keep to myself. I wasn't taught how to love or be loved. I would rather have book in my hand the hold my parents hand. I would rather read of another persons life then live my own. But I still thought this was normal.

As time passed my dad decided it was time to move. We moved eight hours away from my home to another small town, new people, mountains and nothingness. All around us were tress and in the winter snow.

We moved here when I was eight, I had my ninth birthday here. Things started to get worse and better though. For the first time I realized my life wasn't like anyone else's. I finally made one or two really close friends in my school and I started to realize what it was like to be wanted, to be loved. 

I ended up at my friends house almost every night. Anything to stay with people I felt loved by. I started to not want to go home but when I was I was in my room. My father of course didn't like this. So he started to punish me. First it was the lock he put on the other side of the door. Next he changed the light switch and put it outside of my room. He now had the power to keep me in my room, to keep me in the dark.

I wasn't allowed a lamp or even a nightlight. That's when I started to fear the dark. The different noises coming from everywhere. You see we didn't live in a house, no we lived in a business. My Dad invested in a hotel. Every night guest were there. Strangers in my house. People I could never trust.

Eventually I was told I had to stay home. I had to help out. I had to start doing what I was told. I wasn't given regular chores like everyone else. I had to go help make forty eight beds every weekend. I had to pick up trash and clean up the bar after people partied there all night. I had to scrub toilets cleans and shovel for four hours most days in the winter. It was weird I'll admit but I did it because I had to, because I was forced to. Again though my friends taught me what love was.

To me love at the time was a feeling you had when you knew someone who was in your life a lot. So to me at the time I loved my dad but eventually he lost it. One night is all it took.

After all the punishments and all the hard hours of working for him. The endless dark nights. The endless hours of beatings I still loved him and trusted him because he never made me leave. He never told me he didn't love me. He said he did it out of love. But I was only eight I didn't know any better. It was the next year that I finally learned and realized that everything wasn't as true as it seemed.