A Long Way Down

4. My 'Dad'

This chapter is about Ann's 'dad', her 'dad' was the main reason she was at this dark place in her life. When she was a baby, her mum got sick, very sick, and when she got diagnosed, her 'dad' left, he moved out and left Ann and her ill mum to fight for them selves.

About a year later, Ann-melody's mum passed away, by this time, she was two years old, although she was very young, she still remembers that day very clearly. Anyway, her 'dad' turned up at the funeral out of the blue after a year, and took custody of Ann.

He was never very nice to her, he always blamed her for not looking after her mum, but she was only a baby. After Ann had been living with her dad for a year, she started asking questions about her mum, and this made her 'dad' very annoyed and he started to hurt her.

At first it started off with the occasional slap, but then it became more frequent. And as time progressed, he started punching her so bad on her arms that she always had to wear sleeves to cover the bruises, even in summer.

By the time Ann was six, her mother had been dead 4 years and her auntie ( her mums sister ) had told her the story of her 'dad' leaving. Then Ann started blaming him for the death of her mother, and she started voicing her opinions. But her 'dad' got VERY angry and wanted to silence that voice of hers, so he started burning her with his cigarette tops, and that soon shut her up....