Be My Forever

Chapter 2

The sight that greeted her in the living room made her scoff in disbelief. Before her, cuddled up comfortably with a bunch of snacks on the coffee table, were her father, Raphael, and her stepmother, Anna, watching a movie on the television and laughing. Old people romance, Ew!! So is this why they couldn't even drop by?! They didn't even spare her a glance.

"Ok Mom and Dad. I've got more ice......", Lilybeth said as she strolled into the living room with a large tub of ice cream but stopped as her eyes met those of Amara. Lilybeth then smirked darkly. "Oh! Amara. You're back already? I heard you had first class honours. Well, good for you, I guess. Now to do something useful with that Business Administration course and make some money. Come join us".

Amara was beyond pissed. "I'm good", she said coldly as Lilybeth say in an armchair and walked away. She climbed the stairs and slammed the door to her room shut. Her parents didn't even look at her when she walked in. She slid down with her back against the door until she was sitting on the floor with her knees propped up supporting her hands in which she placed her head.

Amara closed her eyes in frustration but she didn't cry. Her mind drifted off to what her father had been telling her ever since she was old enough to understand English.

Her crime, the reason he treated her like shit, according to him, was that she was responsible for her mother's death, that she murdered the love of his life, Samantha. In her eyes though, her only crime was being born to a sick and weak mother and the only thing that killed her was the pain and effort of labour that her weak and hypertensive heart couldn't cope with.

Raphael had tried to give her to an orphanage but Granny Rita, his mother, forbade him. She therefore took care of Amara till she died when Amara was five, another murder charge against the innocent child.

No other relative would take her and Raphael didn't want to disrespect his dead mother's memory by giving the girl up for adoption so he had to take care of her, if you can call his hateful and negligent treatment to her taking care of her.

He would beat her and yell at her for insignificant little mistakes which everyone made once in a while, including he himself. He absolutely loathed her and the feeling was mutual.

One day, when she was eight, he didn't come home. Only for him to show up three days later with his new wife and her snobby-looking daughter. The woman looked like she was in her mid twenties, about seven years younger than her father, and was short with thick straight blonde hair which went a little past her shoulders. She was beautiful and her daughter was too, both having blue eyes. She looked five and her hair was a slightly darker shade of blonde than her mother's. Amara didn't know what to expect from this but hoped she would finally have someone to call family.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. To say Amara's life took a turn for the worst is just putting it lightly. When Anna and Lilybeth realized how Raphael treated Amara, they stopped their caring new family act. Raphael treated Lilybeth like she was a princess and he wasn't worthy to be called her father but would take a 180° turn when handling his own daughter.

Due to all this, Amara was more miserable than she thought was humanly possible. She even developed depression in high school but hid it well from Raphael because she knew he wouldn't give two flying shits. Allison was the one who helped her through it all and even helped her get through therapy and medications.

"Soon. It'll all be over. I'll work my butt off and immediately I have enough money, I'll leave this fucking hellhole", she said to herself and and was instantly comforted by that thought. She smiled as she made her way to the bathroom to shower. She wore an oversized grey t-shirt, not bothering to wear a bra since she planned to stay in bed till she fell asleep.

She checked the time on her phone which made her aware that it was only 6:02pm. It was her graduation after all so she quickly got a bottle of red wine and a wine glass from the kitchen, got comfortable in her bed with her laptop to stream movies and her phone to text Allison.

But unfortunately, her self-centered bitch of a sister had to rain on her sunshine. Just as Amara put the glass to her lips to take her first sip of the second glass she poured out, the door of her room flew open to reveal a smirking Lilybeth. Just great, Amara thought to herself as she rolled her eyes.

"And what do you want that you couldn't even knock?!". Lilybeth giggled at her statement. "Big Sis, chillax. Come on, not even a Hi to your one and only? Mom and Dad wanna talk to you. Hurry, it's urgent", she said with a mischievous smirk and laughed while shaking her head as she exited the room without bothering to close the door.

Amara was skeptical. They wanted to see her? For the first time since she had met them. She furrowed her eyebrows as she placed the glass on her bedside table and slowly made her way to the living room. "What is it?", Amara asked with a poker face. Anna was watching her with a wicked smile but Raphael's eyes were still glued to the television until he eventually and slowly turned to face her.

Amara looked at him with the usual pain because she resembled him so much. How ironic to be a carbon copy of the person that hates you the most in this world. He stared at her for a while with a bored expression and then he said a sentence which left Amara wide-eyed and frozen with shock.

"We've made all the arrangements already. You're getting married".