That Summer

Chapter 2

**This Chapter is longer :)**

Ashley was packing her luggage for the annual trip to Herrera town, where her family always went during the summer, since she was 2 years old, they usually stay at the family villa and it would always be fun, up until her mother mysteriously died when she was 9 years old, her father had told Barbara and Ashley that she was involved in an accident, but as Ashley grew older she asked more questions and learnt otherwise, because of her curiosity she was punished consequently by her father.

She went to her drawer to pull out old clothes that she would pack and hand over to the towns orphanage, as she was piling up the clothes she landed on an old white dress, that brought back painful memories;

"Ashley was in her room, standing in front of the mirror admiring her dress, it was a beautiful white strapless floor length dress that had shimmering rhinestones at the breast line and she adored it as it was one of her mothers, she saw it appropriate to wear it since it was the anniversary of her mother's death. Four years ago her mother had mysteriously passed away in an accident proclaimed her father, she had always seen no truth in the story but was always scared to ask any more about it, however tonight she planned on asking her father after the dinner they were going for, she didn't know why now, maybe that she had turned twelve and had a new surge of confidence.

Lost in thought she didn't hear the knock at her door, brought back to reality she answered the door, and in stepped her father, he was not yet dressed up as he was still in a white vest tucked into brown trousers covered with suspenders. "do you like my dress, father?, it's one of mothers." she asked gleaming, her eyes full of happiness and love for mother, the question hung in the air as her father didn't reply, he merely stepped forward and stood behind his daughter in the mirror, he stared for a while before he pushed her hair to the side still unblinkingly looking at her through the mirror. Ashley saw this as her chance to ask about her mother's death "Father, I've been meaning to ask, how did mother really die?, it's hard to believe that she died in an accident, father I think I'm old enough to finally know, please do tell me!" she asked unknowingly whining at the end.

Her father stopped dead, setting a cold hard gaze on her, immediately Ashley swallowed hard and attempted to move away but her father had tightly gripped her shoulder. "father please let me go, you're hurting me!" she exclaimed as she tried to get out of her father's grasp, in a swift motion her father turned Ashley around so she could face her bed and threw her onto it, all this took Ashely by surprise, "what's going o-"her words were cut short as her father slapped her across the face so hard she tasted the metal sting of blood in her mouth."

Ashley shook her head to ungrasp herself from her aggressive memories, she quickly turned back to packing the clothes finishing in less than an hour, this gave her time to tidy around her apartment as she was renting it out for the summer, she desperately needed the extra cash as the rent rate for her apartment was rising due to the current country's depression.

She finished with cleaning and arranging her apartment and took some time to admire her work, she smiled with satisfaction, at that same moment the telephone rung, "hello?" she answered hoping it was her sister telling her she had come to pick her up, "Ash, its Barbs, I'm downstairs in the lobby, you're bellman has refused to let me up, just come down and we go before my patience wears thin!" said Barbra clearly annoyed by the fact that the apartment suite was very serious about refusing her to ever enter the building after her last visit when she kicked and punched the poor bellman, under influence of course, Barbra wasn't that hasty.

Relieved that Barbra had finally come, Ashley hurried to get her bags and quickly lock up the apartment before she headed for the elevator, she knew she shouldn't hurry like this, because they were not late but she knew if Barbra was downstairs alone with Rodgers any longer, history was certainly going to repeat itself.

Ashely found Barbra engaged in a heavy argument with Rodgers and Rodgers was undoubtedly becoming annoyed, to save them all any regrets, Ashley grabbed her sisters arm and pulled her towards the door as she mouthed 'sorry' to Rodgers who nodded in response. They reached outside and Ashley took first notice of Barbra's car, a new model of the ford mustang with a rich matte black color and red stripes at the side, the seats were brown, plush leather that looked very comfortable, and the number plate held her initials 'B.S', Ashley looked away after what seemed like an hour of ogling at the car, " Nice car, barbs, dad get that for you?" she asked trying hard not to let her envy seep through her voice, Barbra who was busy putting her sisters luggage into the trunk stopped and nodded, " You know, it's not too late to cancel your paperwork for disownment." She added.

Barbra hadn't understood why Ashley was filing for disownment that's because Ashley had told nobody about how her father treated her and she wasn't ready to discuss such a sensitive topic with anyone, not even her dearest only sister, who she trusted with anything, it was just too painful for Ashley to talk about, with that Ashley quickly disregarded Barbra's comment with a glare that shut Barbra up before she would ask questions about her legal choice.

The journey to the Herrera town was calmly silent, the only sound coming from the radio where Marvin Gaye's 'Sexual healing' was playing and Barbra shortly asking Ashley about her job, which Ashely didn't enjoy talking about, Ashley worked for a known fashion magazine in New York as an editor but the depression had made her job dormant, thus no pay, it wasn't something she would have wanted to talk about with her rich soon-to-be formal family that included Barbra, and as her sister brought it up she would always brush it off with a simple 'good', after a few tries Barbra gave up and the two girls fell into a comfortable silence leading to Ashley falling asleep.

She woke up when she felt the car stop, expecting them to be at the villa, this wasn't entirely correct, they were in fact at Herrera but in a mechanic shop, this raised question marks for Ashley.

"Barbs, why are we here?" she asked, her voice full of worry, "The car has a flat tire and I left the spare tire back in New York." Barbra answered as she got out of the car to look for help.

Ashley sighed heavily, as she was tired and desperately needed a shower after an eight-hour drive from New York, she slumped in her seat and closed her eyes hoping to pass the time as they fixed her car.

Her patience wearing thin she decided to go out and see what was holding Barbs up, as she opened the door she hit something hard, peeking out to see what she hit, she realized that she hadn't hit something but actually hit someone and he appeared to be hurt.