Chapter 3

11 Years later.

These past eleven years of my life had been ' miserable ' just as she said , my life did live up to the expectation!! But my years of misery are going to come to an end very soon or I should say after a year . As when my high school will finish I will be applying to my favourite college in california for fashion designing and I will come out of this hell hole forever. Even though my high school is going to start today but this hope is the only thing that has made me move forward . Just one more year of torture left of my life , I think I can manage it.

" Akira , come on we all are waiting for the breakfast " Aunt Romana shouted. I looked up to the wall clock " oh my today I don't want to be late its already seven I won't be able to make it on time " I said to myself and quickly got out my room or the ' store room ' as all the useless things of the house is kept in there , along with me and my bed .

As I was going out I bumped into Ella due to my bad stars" Don't you know , today the new class will be starting and I don't want to be late , but due to your ignorance I will be " she said with a smirk on her face. " Good morning everyone , I am sorry for being late " I said as I entered the dining room , even though no one answered me as I knew it. But they still eyed me with anger , which actually did not bother me as I had become immune to it. I straight away went to the kitchen without any further wastage of time and I put the tea pot on the burner until tea gets made I skimmed two eggs for Ella .

Oh I remembered I have to make pancakes as well ...today I am surely going to be late for school I thought . Till the time I had finished with breakfast , I had time left to my amazment as I had never been on time on the first day of school ever . But I think today is going to be different. I put on my backpack and rushed to the bus stand , but I had come before time so I had to wait .

Till the time I was waiting , I saw my uncle and aunt seeing off Ella to her car with aunt Romana kissing both of the cheeks with watery eyes , as if she is going to some war and will never came back . I think maybe aunt is crying as maybe she might ruin her record of each class two years at this thought in my mind I smiled , but as she has said " This year I am going to surely pass " but I know what she really means , as this time we are going to be in the same class . Even though I did most of her homework , but then also it has become some kind of a pattern for her . At last I reached school at the right time , I was so happy , as this has never happened with me . But as I was entering I saw someone . Please not today , everything was going so well . Why is she here anyway?

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Ann 's POV

The last time I visited her a few months ago .From that day on I have been finding ways to visit her , as she does not like me coming unannounced as well as without a purpose . But this time I am not going to hear her on this. I still remember the last time I visited her .

****Flashback ****

The door opened and to my surprise I saw Ella greeting me not Akira , as she always used to do that. " Hi Ella dear , where is

Akira ? " I asked straightaway . " She will be right with you " she replied and left . I entered the drawing room where in Mr and Mrs Robel were eagerly waiting for me , they greeted me and directed me to the couch . I sat on it .

" So is everything ok with Akira? " I asked nervously " Actually nothing from the unusual actually, but as you know her grades are going down . So if she could get some extra help " said Romana.

" Oh I see " I replied and with that I took out a envelop filled with money and passed it to them . Mr Robel starts to count it , when he finishes counting he says something to Mrs Robel' s in her ear and they both excuse themselves and goes to the adjacent room to talk . " How much is it ?" asked Mrs Robel , even though they had gone to the other room but I could clearly hear them . " Its just double the money we asked for , thats great right?" replied Mr Robel excitingly . " But I was thinking we could take more from her , if we ask her to give more for the tuition lessons .What do you think ? ".

" I think its perfect . And I was thinking that the time has come to cut Akira's monthly allowance and you know how can we do this by giving her option in between ...school and no school " Mr Robel said with a chuckle . " You are right we can do that , but what will happen after she finishes her high school? , you know that she wants to go to some fashion college in California . What will we do then? " Mrs Robel said in a sad voice . " Don't worry dear , I have got everything planned out , we wont let her go to California or anywhere and Ann won't even object to it , as we have already told her she is weak in studies " he said with a confidence in his voice . " You are such a evil person , only because of that we have got everything we need . Your idea was fantastic of bringing her home , eventually it was a very difficult task to convience them , but everything has paid off at the end " she said happily.

When they entered the room they looked so sad , that it felt they were talking about someone's death , but I knew what they were doing . I was so furious I just wanted to kill them with my bare hands but I had to be calm , so that they don't suspect me , of knowing everything. Just then I heard a knock on the door and there comes my little Akira .

With swelled up eyes , sad face even though she tried her best to show me otherwise . " Hi Ann , how are you ? " she asked without looking me into my eyes. " I am good ,how are you ? How's school going ? " I asked calmly with giving her directions to sit beside me. " Everything is fine Ann " she replied , in a monosyllable and I knew I had to talk to her alone . " Can I please , talk to her alone " I asked . " We are all family , what's there to hide " replied Mrs Robel suspiciously but then Mr Robel said " It's alright we will step out and leave you two alone " he got up to leave with taking his wife by her elbow .

" Its not necessary , we can go to Akira's room to talk " I said but just then Akira stopped me with her hand and said " Its fine here " When I looked up I saw Mr and Mrs Robel's taking deep breaths and moving out of the room. " Akira darling , are you ok ? I am very worried about you , look at your eyes it looks like you have been crying " I asked her. " I am fine , its just that " she said and then stopped in the middle of the sentence and looked into my eyes in order to find courage , but she could not anymore hold herself and she broke down , just like a glass with lots of small broke pieces. I took her in my arms and asked " Why are you crying Akira ? " she just sniffed and said " Because I miss you so much "she again continued with her crying . I did not asked her anything anymore as by her outburst she gave a lot of answers .At that time I promised myself that I will do something for her .

****end of flashback ****