Read My Lips

One: Past Tears

Josephine

Daddy, why is mommy crying!

"Jo, just be in your room." I hear my mom yell from the living room, while daddy picks out some papers from his desk along with a pen.

"Sign it!" He said with a repulsed look on his face.

"No Liam, I won't." Mom begged with teary eyes.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong?" She continued. She looked miserable, I had no clue what's going on, I could not draw a conclusion, when you're just nine years old, there isn't much you understand anyway.

"I have nothing to tell you, Olivia." Dad yells, making the grip on her arm tighter, mom winced with pain.

"Where did I go wrong Liam?" She said, almost crying.

"Just sign the fucking papers and get out of my house." Dad yells even louder while almost throwing her out of the door.

"Mommyy." I screamed as loud as I could just to get ignored.

"I will sign the papers but let Jo come with me. I won't ever show you my face again."

"Do I look stupid to you? All these years I gave up on my freedom, my youth just because of this goddamn daughter, I won't let her go easy.
But you Olivia, need to get lost. I want you out of my life." With a push mom was out the door, before she could say another word dad snatched the papers out of her hand and shut the door on her face. I run towards it from my room, crying.

"Liam! You can't hurt Jo, she's your blood." 

"Go inside." I run towards my room. It never ends well when daddy's angry. I cried with my face buried in the sheets until I heard noises coming from the living room.

"Liam, I don't understand anything you do."  A woman's voice comes through.

"There's nothing to understand, Agnes."

"Well, I don't want her here. She's 9 freaking years old, I am not marrying you just so I can babysit your daughter." Marrying him? It hadn't even been 2 hours since he threw my mom out and now he was already talking about marriage? 

beep beep beep beep

I wake up to the sound of my alarm going off, it was set to an hour early than the usual time. What a bad dream, it has been eleven years since that incident and this dream still haunts me every night.

Kingston Enterprises, I read it out loud to remind myself how big of a deal this interview was. Even though I was only applying for the position of a personal assistant, this job sure wasn't easy to grab. It was one of New York's most sought after organizations. Every year graduates from all over America, even the ones from Ivy League schools applied to there in hopes of becoming a part of Kingston Enterprises. This probably was a dream job for many but I applied to it just to try my luck out and to my surprise I actually received a call back from them. I was desperate for a job right now, my rent wasn't going to pay itself. Even though Camilla never asked me for it, I knew it was hard even for her. Being a self employed artist in New York city wasn't easy. She still took me in, I was really grateful.

"Hey you ready to go? Time to slay this interview" Camilla said while entering my room. Which used to be her closet space, when I decided to live here. She moved half the stuff to her room and we just added a bed in her closet for me.

"Almost, do you think this jacket looks too old?" I asked while looking in the mirror. This was sure looking old. I hadn't shopped for new clothes since Christmas 2017 and that too when I lived in Halifax, none of those clothes match the vibe of New York.