Bound by vengeance

"You're not going to school today until you're done cleaning!" My mother roared at me.

I turned, startled, "I'm done with my chores, ma."

Her only response was a resounding slap that has my neck snapping to the side. I cup my flaming cheeks.

"You useless girl," she snarled, advancing at me, "How dare you talk back to me? It seems you're beginning to get too audacious."

I staggered away from the wrath blazing in her eyes.

"What's going on up there, darling?" Uncle Timothy's voice barked from below.

I glanced over my shoulder to see my silver haired uncle standing in the middle the living room and glaring up at me.

"She refused to do the cleaning," mother smirked at me.

"Th-that's not true," I rushed to say, "I've cleaned the house already."

"What about the garage at the back? Did you clean it?" She raised one brow at me.

I gaped at her. Since when did cleaning the garage become one of my duties too? As if it wasn't enough that I had to clean this endless mausoleum from top to bottom every single day, still cook, do the dishes and any other errand they required.

As far as I knew, the garage wasn't in use and hadn't been in use in years.

"But nobody ever goes there," I said carefully.

Weeds had overgrown the small garage and the wooden walls were so rotten, I doubted it was safe for anybody to be inside there. The whole place needed to be bulldozered.

Green eyes narrowed at me, "It's high time people started going there again."

"Why are you bothering explaining yourself to her?" My uncle snapped, "If she wants to continue living under our roof and being taken care of, she had better get that garage sparkling."

Taken care of? I was the one who was taking care of myself and them. I was more than earning my place here. I did the work of more than a dozen house staff.

I glanced down at my red and peeling hands, "I have a test today. I'm not lying, it's the truth, you can call Mrs Rivers to confirm."

My mother snorted, "I don't care if you have your final exam today, you're going to do what I said you should do or you won't leave this house."

I ground my teeth together. This was exactly what had happened to me last year. I had missed so many days and even missed some of my finals.

The result was that I didn't join my classmates to graduate. I was determined to leave highschool so i could be able to disappear with my degree at least. I couldn't go through everything I had gone through in my mother and uncle's hands only to leave empty handed.

"It seems to me like little Rayna now think she's so grown," the man below growled, "Well, in that case, I don't think we need to continue feeding you."

For the last six months, I had been surviving on only scraps from their table, so it wasn't like there would be any difference.

I kept my gaze downcast to hide the hatred blazing in my eyes. I didn't want to receive another of my mother's slaps.

"Get to work you maggot," she snapped.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied meekly and made to rush to the attic where my room was located.

"Where do you think you're going?" Her cold voice stopped me in my tracks, "Is that the way to the garage?"

"Actually, ma'am, I'm headed to my room to change out of my uniform," I explained.

Her lips pulled back in a sneer, "Do you think I have time to wait around for you to make fashion choices? Get to work, now!"

My uniform was already hanging on by threads and I was sure I would look like someone who had just crawled out of her grave by the time I got to school.

"Please, ma'am," I gasped, "It won't take me more than a minute to change out of my uniform."

Another slap landed on the other side of my face, this one with enough fury behind it to send me crashing into the rail of the staircase and almost toppling down.

"Arrrgh," I cried out as my hip knocked painfully into the wooden edge.

"So your uniform is of more importance than my precious time?" Mother hissed, "If you aren't at the garage in the next second, I'll pull you out of that school completely. It seems it's becoming too much of a distraction."

With a horrified yelp, I took to my heels, flying down the curving staircase, past my leering uncle and out the back door leading to the abandoned garage.

Tears filled my eyes as I pushed open the heavy wooden doors and stared into the dark space.

I coughed as dust filled my nose and it only made my eyes water more. I looked around to make sure I couldn't be seen from the house before stripping my uniform white shirt off.

A hand over my mouth and nose, I grabbed the cleaning supplies right outside the door and stepped into the garage.

As I began to clean, I couldn't help but wonder why my own mother hated me so much. Sometimes I tried to convince myself that she wasn't really my mother, I imagined that my real mother was out there, searching for me and when she found me, she'll embrace me and love me.

Or maybe my father would come for me.

I didn't know who he was or if he was even alive. My mother had refused to tell me anything about him. Even going as far as to become violent when I tried to press the issue.

I sighed and continued to scrub the floors, tired of my own impossible fantasies.

Nobody was coming to save me.

My name is Rayna Giancarlo and I'm an abused daughter.

But not for much longer. I was going to get my degree and leave this life far behind me.

"what's that pathetic orphan doing here?" I heard someone sneer.

"Ewww, what is she wearing?"

"They shouldn't keep on letting her in here."

"Can't she make an effort to wash her uniform?"

"Wash? Ugh, she needs to throw those rags away and buy new ones. She looks like something they dug up from the trash. Yuck."

Keeping my head down, I ignored all their snide words as I walked past the rows of desks and settled in my lone desk at the very back of the class.

" You're late!" Mr. Ivory barked at me, "If this continues to repeat itself, you'll have to face detention."

My heart began to pound in my chest. Detention was the worst thing they could do to me because the one time I hadn't come home on time, my mother had locked me in my room with no food or water for three days.

"I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again."

"I've heard that before," he rolled his eyes and turned back to the board, "Now, on the topic of differentiation_"

I tried my best to listen but not only was I very familiar with the terms because I had done this class before, but my stomach was growling with hunger and it kept me distracted.

"Hey, creep," someone whispered. I turned to see a golden haired girl smirking at me, "Did you crawl out of the dumpster this morning?"

I shot her an unamused look. I had heard different variations of that insult all my life and I had grown a thick hide to it.

None of the kids at school understood me. None of them had bothered to get close enough to know why I showed up in dirty and tattered uniforms. I didn't owe any of them an explanation either.

They could go to hell.

"Did your lady's maid not advice you to not pair pink with lemon? You look like a fruit basket," I sassed back.

"Ignore her Maggie," the girl on her other side glared at me, "She wouldn't know fashion if it hit her in the face."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Then I guess we have a lot in common."

" You bitch! " Maggie hissed.

"Is there a problem?" Mr. Ivory's cold voice cut in and the three of us jerked our heads up to the front of the class, "Do I need to excuse you girls so you can carry on with your conversation?"

Maggie immediately poked her bottom lip out in a pout, "Mr. Ivory, Ryler called me bitch."

First off, my name was Rayna not Ryler, second, she was the one who called me a bitch.

"I've had enough of your attitude, miss Giancarlo," the teacher snapped, "Get out of my class, you're now on detention."

I immediately leaped to my feet, hands curled into fists at my sides, "That's not true! She's lying. I didn't call her a bitch."

"I heard it," the brown haired boy in front of me said, "She said a bunch of other really mean things too while Mags was just trying to mind her business."

I opened my mouth to refute the accusation, but the older man held up his hand, his expression forbidding.

"Not another word from you young lady, unless I'll serve you with a suspension."

I sucked in a breath, and then turned to glare at the blonde jerk before grabbing my ratty school bag and marching out of the class. As I made to step past someone's desk, she put out her leg.

I was moving too fast to be able to halt and I ended up tripping and falling to the ground.

With a scream, I banged my head against the leg of someone's desk and the contents of my bag came spilling.

Someone tittered.

"Serves her right," a girl's voice whispered.

"That's where she belongs, at our feet."

"I hope this will teach her to stay where she belongs, in the gutters with the rest of her kind."

Tears filled my eyes and I climbed to my knees and began to frantically gather my books into my bag, only to discover that the fall had caused the remaining hand of my bag to break.

My lower lip trembled in dismay as I hugged the backpack to my chest and fled the class.

Just as I reached the door, Mr. ivory's voice stopped me, "Giancarlo, wait."

I turned slowly, heart soaring with the thought that he had decided to let me stay in class, but unfortunately, that wasn't what happened.

As if my humiliation wasn't enough, he bent and picked something from the floor before approaching me and tossing it at me.

With mountain horror, I realized it was the spare underwear I had tossed into my bag earlier today.

I jumped up and snatched it from the air but in the process my bag slipped from my hand.

"Oh my freaking God, is that her underwear. Can she be anymore disgusting?" Someone hissed.

"I have to speak to my father about getting that gutter rat expelled, I can't continue to share oxygen with her."

I heard someone giggle, "You mean you can even breath when she's close? You must be so lucky then. Her stench literally chokes me. I've wasted three cans of febreeze and all to no avail."

I wanted to snap at them that they didn't know what they were talking about, but I knew it was of no use. I would only get myself into more trouble by trying to protest now.

"One more thing," Mr. Ivory said sternly, "You're going to have to bring your parents to the school tomorrow."

"Haven't you heard, she's an orphan," Maggie piped up, causing the class to burst into laughter.

"You have to come with your guardians tomorrow or you won't be let into any of the classes," he continued, ignoring the laughter, "something has to be done about your lack of punctuality and your bad appearance."

I pressed my mouth into a thin line and nodded.

"Now get out, you're disrupting my class."

I raced out of the classroom and down the school halls, my heart feeling heavy in my chest.

My name is Rayna Giancarlo and I'm the ridiculed student.

But not for much longer.

"Why are you dressed like a slut!" My fiance's cold voice lashed against my skin like a whip as I climbed into the back of his Cadillac at the end of the school day.

"Good afternoon, sir," I kept my eyes lowered and my tone mild.

Jared Winehall, my forty six year old fiance was a man that was prone to extreme anger. He lashed out at the drop of a hat and I had been on the receiving end of the back of his hand countlessly.

I had also tasted the bite of his whip against my back severally. I had had to learn fast to be as demure as possible if I didn't want a repeat experience.

"I asked you a question!" He barked, eyes fixed on the hint of exposed thighs.

I had been wearing the same uniform for about five years now and it had gotten shorter as I had aged. It was barely two inches above my knee now though.

"I'm sorry, sir," I replied meekly, "I have outgrown the uniform."

"I don't believe you, you lying whore," his hand lashed out and clamped around my neck. I let out an inaudible yelp as his hand began to crush my windpipe, "I know you insist on going to this godforsaken school because you want to be able to spread your legs for all these little, rich boys."

I grasped for air, clawing at his thick hands to fight him off even as oxygen left my brain, "P-please," I croaked as tears trailed down my eyes.

"One day, I'm going to catch you red handed, and that day you'll be sorry," with a roar, he flung me to into the other side of the car.

I crashed into the glass and then fell to the car floor at his feet, gasping for air and coughing, my throat feeling ravaged.

"Remember that it's only because of my grace that I'm letting you get this worthless high school degree," his eyes flashed at me, "You turned eighteen last year and officially became mine, no marriage license necessary. I just want you to keep it at the back of your mind that my grace isn't endless."

His dark brown eyes swept down my body and I immediately drew my legs together and dragged my skirt down as far as it could go. It did nothing to stop me from shuddering in revulsion as his hungry eyes drank me in and his tongue swiped over his fat lips.

"Soon, you'll be on mine, Rayna," he smirked.

I inched closer to the door, trying to disappear into it. How was this my fate? How did I end up engaged to this disgusting excuse of a human being of all people? Jared was a criminal in disguise as a businessman. Most of his money was made from giving loans with unlawful interest rates.

My uncle had taken a loan from him and Jared hadn't wanted cash payment. He had wanted sixteen year old me.

Since then, he has been biding his time until I turned eighteen and after I did so last year, he had been about to start wedding preparations when fortunately for me, he had been involved in a public court case that caused him to want to stay away from public eye.

Which meant that the wedding had had to be postponed.

But I knew my time was running out.

I just had to get my degree and then I was out. I would be free as a bird.

"Are you listening to me?" His raspy voice tore me out of my reverie and I blinked at him.

"I'm sorry, sir," I rushed to say, "I was distracted with thoughts of what type of wedding dress I would like to have."

Jared chuckled, relaxing into the leather chair, "sit," he patted the space beside him and I gingerly crawled to my feet and into the chair, "You don't have to stress your pretty head thinking about things like that. My assistant will handle all of it. All you have to think about is how you will please your beloved husband."

My stomach rolled with nausea and I swallowed, then pasted on a smile, "Of course. You're right of course. You're always right."

He beamed at me, one golden tooth flashing at me, "You've made me sweat, darling. Wipe my face."

Hiding my disgust behind a stiff smile, I approached him in a well practiced move and then took the handkerchief from his inner suit pocket before beginning to dab at his face.

His fat hand immediately crawled around my waist and landed on my bottom. I shifted away, batting my lashes at him coyly.

"Not until the wedding, sir."

Jared's eyebrows drew down and his nostrils flared, "Of course. But if I find out that you've been making me wait while you've been distributing your pussy to every boy who would look your way, you'll have hell to pay."

Even though I knew that the consequences would be grave, I really wished I didn't have to give my virginity to this lecherous creep. I wished many things.

For a knight in shining armour to ride up on his great white steed and save me from a fiance I didn't want. I wished Jared wasn't so powerful that he was above the law. Even going to the police with my sob story wouldn't be of any help to me.

He had most of the cops in the city and top ranking law enforcement chiefs in his pocket.

I was more or less stuck.

Running away once I got my degree would be difficult, with Jared hunting me with all his power, but I would make sure I never got caught.

"You're so beautiful," he grunted, "I can't wait till you're all mine and I can do whatever I please with you."

Terror had my blood running cold and my smile slipped away for a moment before I fixed it back.

My name is Rayna Giancarlo and I'm a forced fiancee.

"I can't wait too," I lied.