PROLOGUE

Emotionally starved, mentally bruised, physically abused, 15 year old Evangeline strives to maintain a positive view of her life. Encouraging herself that things will get better, Evie continues to study and work hard in order to relieve herself and her brother Caleb from poverty.

But no matter how hard she tries, her aunt Veron and her daughter Eva is bent on making her life miserable. Little errands to huge tasks, Evie is always busy with something. They almost succeeded in making her give up. No, in fact they did.

It happened one April. Evie was washing the dishes while reading her book. Eva who was two years older than her but was in the same class with her and was always jealous of her academic prowess fetched a bucket of water and poured it on her, wetting her book and the floor. Evie wanted to speak up when Eva slapped her. She just endured it and placed her book by the window to dry.

Eva was not satisfied and pulled Evie's hair hoping to ignite a fight but Evie just stared at her motionless. She wouldn't give in. Eva, angered by her indifference slammed her head against the dishes.

Then the unexpected happened. Evie's head was bleeding. She had lost consciousness and had fallen to the ground.

When Evie opened her eyes, she was in a hospital. How long, she didn't know. She looked around and heard her aunt talking to her. She couldn't make out anything from what was being said but she knew that it was to cover up what really happened. She ignored her and looked at the corner of the room, where Caleb had fallen asleep. He must have been worried.

Right there and then, she made a decision. She would leave. She would run away.