Always

3

  Beyoncé  stood on the landing trying her hardest to clean the floor. She scrubbed away as fast as she could and wiped her tears at the same time, she lifted her hands from the bucket and threw the sponge onto the hardwood washing it some more on her hands and knees. She stood up and grabbed the bucket before looking down at her nightie and gasping at the blood stains. She breathed heavily and looked at her blood on the floor before putting her hair behind her ears and dropping to the floor again. 

"What are you doing, Miss?" One of the maids asked as they walked toward her confused, if she was caught by one of her parents then all of the servants had it in for them because it was not her position to be cleaning. 

"N-nothing" She held he legs together tight and looked up at the woman with sad eyes, Beyoncé was scared and confused. She didn't know why she was bleeding and was too scared to tell anyone so she tried to clean the mess she had made by herself in hopes that at some point the bleeding would stop and she could pretend it didn't happen. 

"Oh Miss Knowles, where is the blood coming from?" The maid ran over to the little girl and bent down in front of her with a concerned look. She pointed down to her Vagina and the maid smiled  a little bit. "Oh you're okay . Let's get you cleaned up and tell your mother" The maid held her hand out for Beyoncé with a smile on her face so the little girl too the hand and began walking with her. It was around three in the morning when the young girl had cleaned up and was taken to her mother who stood on the landing hovering over the blood stain on the floor with anger in her eyes. 

"Marta?" She called, the maid with Beyoncé stood straight and looked into the eyes of the angry mother. "Why hasn't this been cleaned?" She asked, 

"I thought I should attend to the young lady first" Marta replied in a quivering voice, 

"My floor is stained not my daughter. Fix this!" She yelled at her, Marta nodded her head and ran down the stairs toward the utility room to grab some things to clean the floor. "Beyoncé, go to the attic" Celestine ordered, 

"But I didn't do anything wrong!" She huffed and looked down away from her mothers glaring eyes. The eleven year old then went on to explain, "Marta says it happens to all girls, I didn't know. I tried to clean it, I did!" Celestine grabbed Beyoncé by the ear and began dragging her toward the stairs which lead to the attic with the little girl crying. "I'm sorry!" she screamed, "Mommy! Mommy please! I'm sorry" She called. 

"You are not to leave the attic for the rest of the week! None of that silly singing or drawing, no painting and no dancing! Read those books and that's all. I'll have Holly attend to you but if you dare leave the attic Carmen will beat you until your back is broken" Celestine threw the young girl into the room and shut the door behind her when she left. 

Grace POV:

I dragged my suitcase into the living room and fell onto it out of breath, it was boiling hot outside and not any better in the house. I was already wearing a crop top and shorts but clearly not enough skin was on show to cool me down. I looked up at my mom who walked into the living room with her suit case with a glum face, 

"You ready?" She asked me. Today was the day she had been dreading, we were going back to Houston. The flight took just over an hour and so there really wasn't enough time for her to prepare for the moment. I really didn't understand why she was so scared, maybe if I did then I wouldn't have organised all of this. I would have just stopped asking because I've noticed it doesn't bring her anything but pain. I don't mean to hurt her, I just want to know where we came from and it all seems like the perfect life so I need to know why she left. If it's because of me...