Forbidden Deception (Deception)

9

13 years ago

I don’t know where we are right now.

Mommy did say that we will be going on a long vacation. Maybe we are going to a cabin in the mountains? Like the ones I see in stories.

The place we are going is far out of the city. Grandma and Grandpa aren’t alive anymore so we didn’t bring them with us and I barely stopped feeling sad that Mum and Dad came to get me. And now, just a few days later, I am going on vacation with them.

Do they actually want me around them?

Why didn’t they come for me before?

I look down at my lap, wringing my hands together. I’m nervous. I don’t know what to talk to them about.

They are both sitting in the front seat, not even talking to each other.

I wish I had a sibling. Maybe a sister, then we could play and go to school together.

I suck in a sharp breath at the building we pull up to. It has a car park to the left and an open ground in front of it where kids are playing. A woman with white hair tied into a bun is waiting for us.

“Come on, Venezia. Let’s go,” Mum calls, and I hurriedly get out.

Grandpa told me Mum and Dad were nice parents. Nice people. Nice.

Grandma complimented them both in my presence. But if they are so nice, then why didn’t they come before?

Where were they?

“Mum?” I hesitantly look up at her.

Tight lines around the face, piercing empty cold eyes and a small twist to her mouth are all I see and it brings me no comfort. There is a small frown on her face, and her brows are pinched. A clean look. Her outfit is one of the dresses that I often see rich people wear.

“Are you going to leave me here, too?” I ask in a quiet voice.

Her eyes instantly sharpen.

“Keep up.” She starts walking with dad.

My throat closes.

I can’t even open my mouth to ask anything else.

“Welcome, Mr and Mrs Cainn. Thank you for choosing Evergreen Foster Home. Your generous donation is certainly going towards a good cause,” the white-haired woman says, pushing her red glasses up her nose.

“Thank you, Mrs Riley. We take it that you will take great care of our Venezia.”

I look up at Dad to find him wearing the same bored expression he had on when he came to collect me. He keeps looking at his watch.

The few days I spent in their home, it was empty. No one came to visit. There was no one except one maid who helped me with my meals. The silence was deafening. I couldn’t breathe at times due to how lonely and echoey it was.

Mrs Riley’s eyes sweep over to me by Mum’s side, my small backpack in hand.

“You are Venezia. Am I right?” She grins at me, and it feels odd.

I wish Grandma and Grandpa were still alive. I don’t want to live with this lady.

“I will be helping you throughout your journey with us. You’re going to live here and make lots of friends.” She stretches out her hand, but I fall back a step.

She lifts a brow as if daring me to move a single wrong muscle.

I look up at Mum and Dad. They look like me. If they leave me again, I won’t look at myself in the mirror again. I don’t want to see the parents who left me. Again.

“Come on. I’ll show you to your room,” she grits out through her stiff smile.

My throat tightens, and my feet are frozen.

Is this it?

I’m too scared to live alone.

One new place after another because Mum and Dad don’t want me?

Tears blur my vision, and I gasp when Mum’s hands land on my back and push me forward. I almost fall into Mrs Riley’s arms.

My head snaps back to find them already retreating, and a cry starts to claw its way up my throat.

Mrs Riley takes hold of my hand and pulls me towards the white four-storey building, past the students, past the eyes of everyone on me, past the trees and playground to my left.

I look over my shoulder once more to find Mum already in the car and Dad climbing in too. They don’t look at me when they reverse and drive away, and my legs give out.

“Venezia!” Mrs Riley gasps.

They left me.

Again.

“Venezia Cainn?”

I look up from my book to find a burly guard standing in his all-black uniform.

“You are called in by Mrs Riley.” He doesn’t move from his spot, and I quickly scramble from my bed to follow him.

The hallways don’t close in on me anymore, not after three years of being here, though the isolation hurts more than anything. It’s gut-wrenching to think that my parents don’t want me. I would rather it rain fire than to ever have to meet them again. I would prefer to drown, slice my own throat, get buried alive and suffocate, than ever have to look at their faces again. My hatred for them grows fiercer and stronger with each year that passes.

“Take a seat.” Mrs Riley smiles at me like she didn’t turn a blind eye to the bullying everyone has put me through.

“It seems your parents want you transferred to a boarding school now that you are old enough.”

I sit up straighter. What could be the reason for them changing my location? To a boarding school, nonetheless?

“Where is this school?”

“Bristol,” she says, looking at the papers on her desk.

Swallowing a lump, I nod.

It’s not like I can truly do anything about it. I am only twelve years old, after all. What authority do I have?

“When will it be?”

“In two days.”

“Will my parents be coming to—”

“No. A driver will take you.”

“What about the education I was getting?”

“You will get private classes to make sure you are up to date with everyone there.”

“And—”

“You can leave now,” she snaps.

With a nod, I get up and walk back to my room. I don’t know why an ordinary foster home has such high security all around, including inside the building.

The guards watch my every move. Everywhere I go, every room I am in, they are there.

It’s like they are keeping a closer eye on me than anyone else.

It’s uncomfortable. Anything could happen and being under the eyes of guards, they are men that are far stronger than me and could pose a danger. Especially in a place where kids have been left behind by their parents.

With how well-dressed my parents were the two times I remember seeing them, it didn’t seem as if they were lacking money, so that can’t have been the reason they abandoned me. I have wondered for hours on end why my mother and father left me alone in this big world they were supposed to protect me from.

What did I do to be left like this?

I spent countless days and nights crying my eyes out, I tried to break things, I tried to destroy everything; and when all emotion drained out of me, I just couldn’t care anymore.

A week later, I move into the boarding school in Bristol. It’s the same routine of guards all around me, private transport, and isolated areas. Years pass, and the girls around me start to act hostile towards me for some reason, despite not having ever talked to me.

My mind starts to spiral out of control with anxiety and depression, and soon I find myself staying inside my room.

Three years later, I get called into the office.

“You are moving to a new boarding school,” the headmaster, Mr John, says in a cool tone.

This is the second time I’ve changed schools. What is going on? I thought Mother and Father didn’t want me anymore.

This time, I make sure to note the number plate of the car sent for me, the route, and how far away from my previous school I am.

The new school is in Edinburgh. The guards stand closer to me, and instead of one, now two shadow me.

That is when my life unravels and my world shatters. And everything spins out of my control.