Coastal Love ✔️

1. Leaving Dad

"Dad! Please you have to believe me! It wasn't me. I didn't do it!" I cried to my dad. He wouldn't even believe me now.

"I expect better from you, they're your stepsisters, they're younger than you. Do you actually think that they would be capable of doing this? That's it you're grounded. I'm going to work."

The two siblings were laughing at me, while their mother ushered them away calmly. They were trying to make my father hate me. I cried again, alone in my room.

Everything at home was a disaster. That was when I decided to move out after I finished high school. I was arranging everything, I would walk out of my childhood home, leaving my dearest father behind.

I needed to get away from this toxic environment. I didn't know where to go, I was planning my getaway every day. I had been saving my money, from my allowance. Selling off my branded stuff online and putting all the money in my secured account. Not even my dad know I had one.

Since Mom died three years ago and Dad was remarried a year after. I was living in a fairy tale. A real-life Cinderella story with a stepmother and two ugly siblings that terrorized the hell out of me.

The evil stepmother raised to her title. She would belittle me in front of my dad. Saying I did all the wrong things at home. Years later I just let her be. I didn't have the spunk anymore to fight her, I was just done.

I love my dad dearly but he had hurt me a lot in the two years, where he kept on siding with his new family. I didn't even know how many tears I cried for him. I used to be his little princess. Now, I'm the bad apple. The bad apple that would leave him and his new family in peace.

I was picking my battle and this one was not worth the fight.

*****

I was walking with my backpack. I had carefully planned my moving out carefully for months. I had done my research, I was doing this the smart way. I needed to survive. I had moved all my clothes, shoes, and important stuff to a storage unit just outside of town, carefully packed.

My room slowly became empty, nobody ever checked on me, so I was good. I was taking my old family photo album that I flipped religiously every night. It reminded me of our happy little family, how we used to be happy just the three of us.

I left my car behind, but I was still keeping the phone. My stepmom would try and find me if I brought the car, but by leaving it behind I was good to go. I already emailed my dad that I was leaving for good. Knowing that my text would be buried with his work.

But he still hadn't gotten back to me, I guessed that was it then. It twisted my heart, that he didn't even acknowledge my email anymore. All my feelings that I had for him, should slowly be gone by now, but they still came back every now and then making me teary.

I wiped my tears roughly, as the seaside air welcomed me. I was walking from the bus stop, looking for the address that I got from the internet. It was a bookshop, I got myself a job at a bookshop. The wage was minimum, but I couldn't care less.

I also got a place to stay. It was within walking distance of the bookshop. I was saving my money. Next year I'm planning on taking an online college degree. This year I would focus on my sustainability. I needed to be smart, not drown in tuition debt.

Mom would cry if she was still alive, she was brought up wealthy, and so did my dad. But her daughter was struggling for money, stranded by her dad with his evil new family.

Finally!

The bookshop was beautiful. It was located on the rows of shops, leading to the coastal shore. I carefully stepped into the shop and was greeted by an old man in his sixties.