I was in the apartment doing the dishes when my aunt entered from her bedroom. I glanced at her for a second and saw that she was looking at me before I turned my attention back to the dishes.

"Tomorrow is Christmas so the house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom, I have guests coming over."She instructed after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes aunt."I replied without even looking at her.

I could feel her gaze on my back for a few more seconds before I heard her walk away and the television turn on a few minutes later. She could try and help for once but she'd just sit there all day watching local drama series while I slaved away. Talk about my pathetic life.

I was finally done with high school and I'd gotten perfect scores but they would get me nowhere. The one person I wanted to share everything with had left me for someone his own type. They say you suffer your first heartbreak from you parents and that was true for me but the pain of never knowing them was not as bad as the one that I got from losing William. It had been so hard going through my exams with a broken heart but I had been so good at hiding my pain over the years so I managed but only barely. I scored high enough to be top ten in the country and was sought out by a few TV stations for interviews but my aunt rejected all of them. She didn't want me to spill out her secrets of what she did to me on TV. I didn't want to go either anyway, it was just unnecessary attention that I did not need.

Christmas was finally upon us and it was officially two months since I broke up with William. I had never been in the mood for the holidays but I thought it was going to be different since I was dating William. Oh how wrong I had been. I felt cheated both literally and figuratively. I just wished William had broken up with me before he decided to cheat on me. It's like he thought my presence in his life was insignificant enough for him to just ignore and walk all over me like he wanted. I let my aunt do that but I definitely drew the line with William. If he couldn't step up to be what I wanted in a man then I deserved to move on. I'd rather be single with my heart intact than be in a relationship with someone who took me for granted.

After I was done with the dishes I moved into my aunt's bedroom to start there. She wasn't exactly tidy so her room needed the most effort. I got started and my thoughts wondering back to William. Had he moved on? He was probably dating that dark haired girl he had cheated on me with. No matter how much he had hurt me I still found myself yearning for him and I hoped that wherever he was, he was happy. I still loved him and wished him nothing but happiness. I didn't have it in me to hold grudges, my life was already hard enough living with my aunt to hold everything against her.

"Lelo!"

Speak of the devil.

"Yes aunt."I yelled back from the bedroom.

"Get in here fast."She sounded angry so I got off my knees, dropped the rug in my hand and walked fast to the living room.

I stopped at the door of the living room when I realized what she was so angry about. In my aunt's hand was the Iphone William had bought me. It didn't work anymore after I had slammed it against the wall but I still kept it with me. I would have been able to play off the phone as something I'd found in the dumpster but on the couch was all memorabilia I'd collected from my dating days with William. All the chocolate wrappers from the gift box he'd sent me, the airpods and a few photos from our week together were in there.

"What is the meaning of this?"She asked through gritted teeth as she held up a picture of me and William cuddled up by the side of the pool on a lounger.

I was wearing a black bikini and he was in dark green swimming trunks. His arms were wrapped around me and we were both grinning at the camera looking very happy.

I hadn't been able to get rid of the pictures or anything William had bought me so I'd hid them in a box behind the sofa where I slept. My aunt never did any work so I was sure she'd never find them. Oh how wrong I had been.

"That's William, you remember him. He was here in August."I replied my voice trembling a little bit.

"Don't play dumb with me kid. I remember him but he was supposed to be a sponsor from that competition you took part in."She rambled trying to connect the dots while I stood there calculating the distance to the front door and how long it would take me to get away from her.

I knew a beating was on the way and I was not looking forward to it. She hadn't hit me all year and I was on a good streak, I didn't want to ruin it.

"You whored yourself out to a white man for twenty thousand shillings and a weekend away."She exclaimed and even though what she said was false my heart stung a little bit.

Was that really what I had done? Had William used me for his own pleasure. Like he had to scratch that itch of dating a foreigner then dumb me. My aunt's words were like acid burning through my heart ruining all the good memories that I had with William.

I was too lost in thought to notice my aunt approach me but I definitely felt the painful slap that landed on my cheek. I stumbled back and my sight git blurry for a few seconds.

"I did not raise a whore. Your mother was one and it gave me you and cost her her life. At least you had a little decency to get money out of it but I will not condone this behavior."She yelled as I stood there breathing through the pain.

Half of my face felt numb, there was a ringing in my ear and my head had started pounding. How hard had she hit me?

I saw her raise her hand to hit me again and out of reflex I moved away and she hit the wall next to my head. Her face scrunched up with pain and I knew that I was done for. I literally saw steam coming out of her ears before she launched herself at me with kicks and slaps. For the first time in my life I didn't just stand there and let her hit me because I hit her back and defended myself. I didn't know what came over me but one thing I was sure of was that the days of my aunt using me as her own personal maid, free help and punching bag were over.

Somehow we ended up on to, the floor clawing, pulling, biting and kicking. I managed to land a kick to her stomach and she rolled away from me. Knowing that my life with her was over I quickly got up before she could recover, grabbed my things and left.

"You better never come back you ingrate or I'll kill you."My aunt threatened from a featal position in the floor.

"I'm not planning on it you selfish ungrateful bitch. I hope you die alone with no one by your side."I yelled back.

For good measure, I grabbed the photo of my mom by the door and walked out of the apartment with no intention of looking back.

I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do with my life but I had Simon for the moment and he'd help me figure things out.

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

I've gotten into a few physical fights in my life. Nothing major but the most intense ones were with my sister. We're thick as thieves now but when we were younger it was a battlezone. My dad still wonders how we became best friends. Answer is we just grew up, we still fight just not physical and we make up fast.

This was supposed to be the last chapter but I kinda got excited and was unable to compress my story so you guys are getting a few extra chapters.