Chapter 3: Chapter Three.
The moment the door was locked securely behind her, Isabella busted into tears. The tears that she had done everything in her power to stop from falling. She had reminded herself all through the car ride that Sam wasn't a man she should cry for. But the hurt had been too much to ignore.
She cried and cried until the tears refused to flow anymore, leaving only the pain in her heart with no way to let it out anymore. After she wiped the tears off her face, she strolled to her bedroom. She passed through her living room, ignoring the old curtains and the seats that made up the space.
By the time she would get into the bedroom, her eyes had stopped trying I trace the poor condition of her house. All she just wanted was to sleep away the hurt she felt before it was time for her shift at the bar where she worked.
She got to her bed and sat down. Her eye fell on the picture of her and a woman who was the older version of her that sat on the table stand. Isabella picked it up and fingered the old picture as memory took hold of her.
She had just gotten back from school with her elder sister that day. As they stepped into the two-rooms apartment the family managed by that time, the first thing they heard was loud voices threatening each other.
As children who were no more than five and seven at the time, she and her elder sister had hesitated to go anywhere near the shouting voices.
"I'm going to kill you today. If I don't do that, then my name is not Anthony."
When they both heard those words, they knew that it was their drunken father who was at it again.
Isabella and her sister had grown up to know that their father was a drunk who never stopped drinking until he didn't have any more money on him.
Most of the time, the owner of the bar where he chose to disgrace himself that day would have to resort to throwing him out if he doesn't leave by himself.
Whenever Anthony was left alone by the bar owners it the bouncers, he would go from one table to another table, begging for alcohol. If any of the tables he visited refused to oblige him, he would steal a bottle of half-drunk alcohol from them and gulp it down his throat before they could stop him.
Sometimes, if he wasn't satisfied with the liquor he had drunk and he was left with no more money in his picket or any more table to steal from, he would return home and stole his wife's money to return to the bar.
Other times when their mother caught him stealing her money, it would result in a very big argument that usually led to their mother getting beaten until she got injured.
"You think that I'll just let you do whatever you want in this house? When you don't shoulder any of your responsibility? Then, all you could think to do was step the meager money I work hard for and save for the sake of my children?" That was their mother's voice barking back at their father.
Judging by the sounds they heard from the other room, Isabella was sure that day was one of those days when their mother had somehow earned the awful reward of getting beaten.
"Isa, go outside and call our neighbor."
Her elder sister, Evie, commanded her. Isabella didn't bother to refute the command. Young as she was, she knew that delay was dangerous, so she ran out of the house as fast as her two tiny legs could go.
By the time Isabella would get to their neighbor's house, knocked a couple of times before discovering that the gentlewoman wasn't home at that moment, a loud shriek had erupted from the house.
It was so loud that little Isabella had been so frightened out of her wit and she had returned home immediately to see what was going on. She was just at the door when she met her father pushing Evie out of the way in a very rough manner. The young girl fell to the floor.
Isabella paused in fright but the drunken man only staggered past her like she didn't even exist at all. After he had disappeared from her sight, Isabella rushed and help her sister up. Together, they went to check on their mother.
When they got there, they met their mother holding her forehead and looking like she was in much pain.
Isabella had started crying while Evie had gone out for about ten minutes, returning with an ice pack in her hand. She helped their mother to lower the swelling by applying the ice to the injury.
Despite being in pain, her mother had held her and her sister close to herself to reassure them of the love she had for them and to let them know that they had nothing to fear from the monster that they call their father.
Isabella's phone alarm rang loudly somewhere in the background, returning her from the world she had gone back to the present.
She dropped the picture in her hand and cleaned her tears away with the back of her hand. She opened her bag and brought out her phone. When she saw that it was only the alarm that she had set up to remind her of the time for work, she switched it off and dropped the phone on the bed beside her.
She palmed her face in the hope to stop reflecting on the pain of the past. She was still in this position when a message entered into her phone and she checked it out.
The message read: 'I am so sorry, Isabella. Please, give me a chance to clarify myself to you.'
Isabella hissed and dropped the phone back on the bed when she saw that it was a message from Sam.
"Good riddance." She told herself and got up to prepare for work.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone