The world around me started dimming into darkness as my father's palm closed around my throat .
In a moment, I was panicking that he was really going to kill me today .
My lungs burnt and I was losing the world around me . I was dying today .
The darkness swallowed my presence. One moment I faded into nothingness and then the next I woke up feeling a chill down my face.
Cold water splashed again and again on my face. I still managed to gulp down some air .
Soon a pair of hands were grabbing my face ," You are alive !," my father said .
I spitted on his face ..
He had done worse things to my family for the last twenty years. The thought twisted my insides into a lot .
How long my mother had survive him ? How could she gave survived this ?
" You monster ," I spoke out .
I realised that I was sitting inside the small bathroom at the side of my old nursery room.
My father slowly got up . He was pulling his sleeves up ," You know ....I do not entirely blame your mother for how you have turned up. The fault lies in me too. I used to think that as long as you are decent looking , your value in the market will stay well . I never imagined that your misbehaviour will decrease your level like this . I am sorry sweetheart, your father has failed you like this . I should have taken better care of you ."
He threw a towel on my face .
" If you remove it from your face , I will drown you to death , remember that ."
I had seen father do it multiple times with mom- throwing a towel to cover her face before starting to beat her . I used to think that the towel was a twisted version of mercy he was showing to her . So that she would get some cover to hide her face while she was bitten like an animal . Her crying face would not be exposed to the staffs of the house , saving her dignity to a minimum.
I even thought that maybe the monster in him still had some love left for her . That was why he could not really look at her face in pain and decided to cover it like that .
But now that I was the one under it , I realised - the towel was a different world .
Where the sense of time and reality everything vanished . It was only filled with pain and fear .
I could not guess where he was going to hit me .
I could not guess when it would come .
Only when the cane would touch my skin erupting lava on my flesh , I would scream . I did not know which part of me should I cover .
It felt endless. I felt suffocated . I could not take it anymore longer . I threw the towel away for fresh air.
I panted on the floor , trying to crawl away from him . Maybe it was because I was still bleeding from the cut at the side of my forehead , I felt dizzy .
I looked down to see angry blue and purple marks all around my arms and legs . They throbbed with my each heartbeat . The sight was nauseating.
" You are crazy...," I was surprised that I could still speak coherently ," The Sunshine corporation -"
" The Sunshine Corporation is getting a new daughter-in-law who is an actress , Mira Palmer probably very soon cause you could not hold your place ," he said ," But first , did I not tell you to uncover the towel ? Even at this age , I still have to teach you to obey your parents huh ?"
Before I could answer , he grabbed the back of my neck and shoved my head into the bathtub .
The cold water woke me up . I tried to fight against him for some air. I clawed on his hands, on the tub - my skin and lungs burnt . My arms started to get weak . And for a second , I was not longer there .
" Wake up , daughter."
I gasped for air . My head felt empty and light . I was too weak to move an inch as my father carefully brushed my hair away from my face .
" I am not mad at you,Julia ," his sickly sweet voice made my skin crawl , his touch made me feel like centipedes were crawling on all over me," Here is what we are going to do . You are going to stay with us here while we prepare for a divorce on the base of his cheating scandal . You are going to come clean about your scandal being with your brother. We will get what we deserve from Andersons .And you will be back in the marriage market . You are already twenty three , a woman older than that will not get a good price , do you understand?"
I noded slowly.
" Now , since you interfered with your punishment,we have to start again . Do not disobey me this time , Julia ," he threw the towel on my face .
I crawled into a ball as the world of pain and fear engulfed my existence until I could not remember anything, not even my name .
Just a lingering scent of mint lingered inside my mind like a tiny candle burning in the depth of the darkness of my mind .