Stressed by the previous day’s nonstop chores, Katrina woke up a bit late than usual. Without a doubt, she wouldn’t go to school that day because she won’t be able to get to her school on time no matter how fast she cleaned up and did her chores.
She bathed Drake and wore his school uniform for him.
“Katrina!!!!!!,” a thick angry voice called from outside the room. No doubt it was her dad’s voice.
Without saying anything, she sprang up on her feet and made her way towards the direction of the voice.
“Good morning Dad,” she muttered quickly as she met him in front of her just some feet away from her room.
“Morning indeed.” he looked at her emotionlessly from head to toe. The father-daughter emotion was absent in their relationship and Katrina has already gotten used to it since the early days of torment. Though, she still feels hurt by it.
“Where’s Drake?” William asked.
“He’s inside the room, I just finished dressing him up,” Katrina responded.
“That’s good. You don’t need to take him to school, I’ll do that,” he said and Katrina got scared. It was unusual for him to do so.
“Just do as I instructed last night, I’ll be back soon.”
Without another glance, William called Drake out of the room and exited the house. Katrina returned to her room thinking of how to spend the day. As she was arranging her clothes which she left on her bed, she came across the business card Jasper left her.
[CALLAGHAN GROUP OF COMPANIES]; it read. Angrily, she wanted to throw it in the small plastic blue bin bedside her bedside table but tossed it in her school bag on a second thought as she recalled Jasper’s last sentence to get before he left.
“Truly, it might come in handy.” she thought aloud.
She strode to the sitting room and sat on the brown leather two–sitter couch placed at the far corner of the room. She scrunched up her face and lay on the furniture waiting for her so-called stepmother’s arrival.
“Where does their stepmother go at night?” she wondered.
Five minutes later just like Katrina expected, her stepmother arrived. She entered the house dressed in a thin yellow gown strapped so close to her body like a skin and a brown leather hat on her head with a pair of dark sunshades.
*Where’s you dad?” Katrina was asked and she couldn’t utter a word. She needed to obey her father and act sickly else Drake would be in trouble if anything should happen to her.
She managed to utter strange sounds scrunching up her face continuously like she was in severe pain. Her stepmother touched her body and her eyes widened. Katrina’s temperature had risen a lot.
“She got ill yesterday,” William said from behind.
“Whatever, it’s none of my business. She’s bound to fall ill anyway.” the woman smirked taking another glance at Katrina.
“We need to talk!” Jackson dragged her up by holding her arm and walked her into his room. He locked the door behind them and for while, everything was silent.
Katrina stood up from the chair and gazed in the direction of her father’s room where they entered. For a while, she tried imagining what they could be doing behind closed doors if not for the regular shameless smooching, making out and sex they do all around the house nonchalantly regardless of her and Drake’s presence.
“No, no, something else could be going on?” the thought flashed through Katrina’s mind as she stood up towards the door.
“They’re somewhat too silent for their intimacy. Strange!” she murmured to herself. She placed her ears on the door but couldn’t hear anything.
She sighed and made to return to her previous position when she suddenly heard angry voices which made her place her ear closer to the door quickly.
“You can’t tell me what to do.” Catherine’s voice was harsh and sounded annoyed. This piqued Katrina’s interest to eavesdrop on them more.
“Please babe, I can’t use the money with me to care for that girl out there. Kindly assist me with however amount you can to take her to the hospital. If not for anything, do it for the sake that I tolerated you kid. So please, tolerate mine too.” Jasper’s voice was a submissive one.
“Where do you expect me to get the money?. Moreover, I’ve told you several times not to speak about that bastard!.”
“My bad, I’m sorry. Please babe. I’ll surely return it to you after the contract turns out successful.”
“Well…. for that girl’s sake, I’ll try to get you something. Quote me well, “try”, I don’t want you to be sad if anything bad happens.” said the woman.
Katrina who heard all of these was greatly annoyed and blew up.
“How dare her father use her as a tool to collect such huge money from his wife?. Does she not have a name? Yet she’s being addressed as that girl by the two people she’s supposed to look up to.
Angrily, she knocked on the door and yelled that she was not sick.
“I’m not sick!” she shouted.
The sound of the unlocking bolt was heard and her stepmother came out first. Her mouth was wide agape.
“You’re not sick?”
“Never was I sick, you don’t have to give him any money. He’s been lying to you. He told me last night to act like I was sick before you arrived which I only obeyed his command this morning.”
“William,” the woman was shocked and hurt at the same time. William clenched his fist and in a fit of rage, he slapped Katrina on her face. Katrina stood up to her defence and wanted to run away, but William was so fast to catch her. In terms of strength, she sure couldn’t compare to her grown-up father. Not when she already has a frail body.
He held her neck as he held it the previous night with what looked like a murderous intent. Katrina’s stepmother looked at father and daughter and walked quickly out of the house, a drop of tears on her cheek.
William tightened his grip on his daughter’s neck and the latter began to gasp for hair. The event of the moment replayed in his head and he dropped her to her feet. He picked up the closest object to him which was a piece of steel rod holding the curtain close to the wall and slammed her head with it.
Katrina fell to her knees, a part of her head dripping with blood. William saw this and dropped the rod with him. He clenched his fist tightly again and slapped the figure in front of him a second time.
One last scornful look, he was out of the house and with a loud thud on the floor, Katrina fainted.