Chapter 6: Childhood

My name is Aubrey James, I grew up in a place where I never wanted to be. A place that I can never call a home, where I only exist as everyone's chess piece and a bargaining chip. A place where I was never seen as a human but a tool, a tool they can use for their profit and I'm nothing but a living doll.

My parents aren't rich nor are they poor, they just had enough money they need, to live normally and well but they never get along, they'd fight every day and I'd always get dragged in their fight receiving all the blows. After eleven years of marriage, they finally had enough and so they decided to go on their separate ways, but no one wanted to take care of me.

Since I was six years old as far as I can remember, my mother told me she never wanted me. She said I was a mistake, a thorn in her eyes, that I was a stain in her life, a hindrance to her dreams, and the one who ruined her life, she said all those things to me while grabbing my hair and hitting me. I don't understand her back then so I had no idea of what's the right thing to say, I don't remember what I said but it's just a nonsensical answer.

I can't remember a time where I was loved and needed, all I can remember was the hateful stares of my mother and father. I was never allowed outside our house and play like children my age does, they've never bought me a doll to play and they didn't send me to school. They'd even hit me whenever they're feeling frustrated or in a bad mood, they wouldn't even console me after and would just let me pass out in the corner. I don't know what have I done wrong that they'd hate me so much, they won't even care if I was hurting or sick, without my strong constitution I would have died a long time ago.

They blamed me for all their sufferings when I know nothing and have done nothing towards them. It's not like I asked them or forced them to give birth to me, so why am I the one getting blamed? I never asked them to commit those acts that resulted in me being formed and born, I've never asked them anything difficult or have been a spoiled brat.

I have been an obedient child all along, at the early age of eight my mindset was already that of a fifteen-year-old. I never got to whine and ask for the things that I want because I was never allowed, I tried doing that countless times like how other kids my age does to their parents, but after getting black and blue here and there on my body every time I try, I finally stopped and just lived in the corners of our house quietly. But the abuse never stopped there, even if I don't do anything and just remain silent my mother would still hit me, and my father won't even spare me a glance.

At the young age of ten, I even wondered if death would have been better than living a life like that. I wondered if I was born with a different parent would my life have been better or maybe at least I could live my life normally, without getting hit all the time and sleeping at night with an empty stomach.

I was around eleven years old at that time when my parents sold me to a wealthy family who only has one child that is a year younger than me. After my parents left I still felt heartache and longing for them, after all, they were the ones I lived with the past ten years, yet they left me in that place full of unfamiliar faces with a smiling faces. The looks on their faces were of that relief and happiness, that the thorn in their eyes which they've endured for ten years is finally gone. And in that place was where I grew up.

In that place, I wasn't treated any better, they won't hit me like my parents or starve me whenever they feel like it. But instead, I was treated like a fragile glass, I wasn't even allowed to go outside or play like how children would normally do. They locked me up inside their house, I can only go out whenever I go to school. They would freak out and directly send me to a hospital whenever I get a small scratch.

At first, I thought it was because they love me very much they couldn't bear to see me hurt, but later I found out it's because they'll send me to marry a wealthy man when I grow up and a woman with many scars has a low value so they had to make sure I wouldn't lose my value.

They couldn't bear to send their daughter for political marriage so they had me adopted. I was so jealous of their daughter because she can do whatever she wants, while I was a caged princess who can only do the things I was told to do. And each day of my life in that house was nothing but loneliness and torture.

The first five years I waited every day for my parents to come back and get me, but they never once showed up. And the following years I've finally lost hope and learned to live my life like they never once was a part of it.

I am now twenty-five years old, a model, and am supposed to get married soon, yet I was betrayed. I met my fiancee during my college days, we weren't classmates but we have one same subject that allowed us to meet. At first, we weren't close, but under some inevitable circumstances, we came to know each other and slowly fell in love.

Of course, my foster parents aren't happy about us being together, because my Tyler isn't wealthy and is poor. After all, they took good care of me and invested so much in me, for me to be their obedient doll for their family's benefit.

They tried to force me into getting married to someone I don't even know, so I ran away and hid from them. But when I decided to become a model they found me again and schemed to send me to another man's bed so I'll be forced to get married, they would have been successful had my manager hasn't gone to a hotel and bumped into them and happen to hear their conversation, and so they failed again because my manager interrupted their attempt.