CHAPTER 2 – A HOME I HATE

⚠️This chapter contains themes of abuse, alcohol consumption, and physical violence. Reader discretion is advised. If you find such topics distressing, please proceed with caution.

I walked home with my head down, my fingers still tingling from where they had gripped my book too tightly...

I could still hear her voice...

She had talked to me...

She knew my name...

For a moment, I let myself imagine a different life. One where I could walk into a home that didn’t feel like a prison.

One where my mother was waiting for me, smiling, asking how my day was.

But I had no such home...

No such mother...

She was gone...

And I was left with him...

The moment I stepped inside, the stink of alcohol hit me.

"Adrian!"

His voice was thick with drunkenness. I heard the shuffle of footsteps and the low giggle of some woman in the background.

He always had women over. Cheap, nameless women who didn’t care that they were in a house where my mother once lived.

I hated them...

But I hated him more...

My father stumbled toward me, his bloodshot eyes narrowing.

"You’re late," he slurred.

I didn’t answer...

"Give me money," he muttered, waving a shaky hand.

I clenched my fists. Not again.

"I don’t have any."

His face twisted with anger. "Liar."

"I use it for my college fees," I muttered.

"There’s nothing left."

A dark chuckle left his mouth.

"You’re just like your mother. Useless."

My vision blurred. My mother.

She had been sick for years. Cancer had eaten her from the inside, but she had still smiled at me.

Still stroked my hair when I cried.

She could have lived longer. The doctors had said so. But he refused to pay for her treatment.

"Too expensive," he had said.

"She’s dying anyway."

He had let her wither away in that tiny bedroom, her body shrinking, her voice growing weaker.

And when she was gone, he didn’t even pretend to care. He just drank more. Spent more on women.

On alcohol...

If he had spent even half of that on her…

she could have stayed with me for a few more years. She could have...

*CRACK*

Pain exploded in my skull... My vision spun as I hit the floor, the glass bottle shattering beside me.

"You little bastard," he muttered, stepping over me like I was nothing.

"You think you’re better than me? You’re not. You’re nothing."

I laid there, staring at the ceiling. I didn’t move. Didn’t cry.

This was normal.

This was my life.

And the only time I could breathe was when I was away from here.

When I was thinking about her.

THE NEXT DAY

The bruises on my shoulder ached with every step, but I kept walking. I had something else to focus on now.

Aurora...

Who was she?

Where did she live?

She was different from everyone else at college. She wasn’t cruel.

She wasn’t like them...

But that meant…

she didn’t belong in my world.

I needed to know more...

ABOUT HER...

Between classes, I listened...

People whispered about her all the time. Her name slipped into conversations like she was some kind of royalty.

"Her family donated a whole building to the college."

"I heard her dad owns half the city."

"She doesn’t even need to study. She could just take over her family's business."

Rich... Powerful... Untouchable...

She lived in a world I could never reach... But she had talked to me... She had looked at me like I mattered...

And I wouldn’t let that go...

I just had to find a way into her life...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Vote, comment and follow for more updates ✨