Valerie's POV
I was being bullied by my aunt's family again. But were my assumptions right? Could Tristan…could he have been playing with me all this while?
My eyes were blazing red as I looked in his direction. I could feel the burning sensation in my eyes as tears formed.
'Why?' I asked him indirectly but through my eyes. 'Why did you do this to me?' I began to cry silently. I knew there wasn't an expression on my face but the tears in my eyes were streaming down to my chin.
"After all I've done for you, you this bastard child!" My aunt dragged me by my hair and pushed me to the ground. I sobbed in pain and anger.
It felt as if I was sick in my heart. It was broken so much, it felt as though I was about to breathe my last breath and I wished I could just die at the moment.
"Little Valerie thinks she found love," I heard my cousin mock me as she hit my helpless body that was on the floor with her legs.
"How could you even touch her, Tristan?" She talked to him. They knew each other! Discovering this, I began to put the pieces together and realized that I had been played by him the whole time.
Tristan never understood me. Tristan never sympathized with me. Tristan was never there for me. He never even loved me.
"I did what you wanted, Raquel. Isn't that enough? I made her believe me," his voice was getting louder, making me learn that he was coming closer to me.
I couldn't rise from the floor I was sitting on because my aunt would torture me even more if I got away from that spot.
"...she fell in love with me just because she was desperate. She felt wanted and loved but didn't suspect how good it was to be true. It was all fake, Valerie," he came to squat before me and held my chin.
"Oh, you pathetic little thing. Do you want me to kiss you and make you feel at home? Do you want me to show you heaven again?" He was mocking me with that look of sympathy and then burst into laughter.
I felt numb. I didn't have the energy to feel more pain in my heart. Perhaps the enormous pain that lingered in my heart earlier had damaged my heart from feeling anything.
I looked at him and swallowed my tears because he was…he was once my dream.
"Ohh, Valerie…Valerie is pregnant. What's she going to do?" Raquel laughed at me.
All I did was remain there, enduring the mockery of the people around me. They continued to make fun of me until my aunt rushed outside from the place I believed led to the storage room where I lived.
She brought out a small bag that belonged to me and went straight to the main door, opened it, and tossed the bag outside.
The next moment, her hand was holding me by my arm. "Taking care of you has been a hassle. I can't take care of the baby inside you. Get out of my house, you unfortunate being!" She pushed me so hard that I injured my knees and my palm.
"That's where you belong, stupid girl! You belong to the…" Raquel was about to continue her statement when Tristan completed it for her. "...the streets."
They shut the door on my face. "She's finally out of our lives!" I heard them celebrate.
There was no point in staying outside to beg for forgiveness as I'd done it once or twice when they threw me out of the house.
This time they succeeded and I'm finally homeless with a child inside me. Heaven wasn't even on my side because it suddenly started raining heavily after I decided to accept my unfortunate fate.
I had to run to a place for shelter and began to cry my eyes out. I was hurt and exhausted. I had had enough and I couldn't take it anymore.
I hugged my small body, shivering with chattering teeth. I was freezing but still I was able to fall asleep at one point.
Well, I became a homeless pregnant girl that night and fortunately for me, I was able to find a job and place to stay without letting them know about my condition.
I was still broken at that point in my life but I needed to survive first. If I keep dwelling on the pain, I won't be able to move on or live for me and my baby.
I know people would be wondering why I didn't settle for an abortion. I have no guardian, I didn't have money and I was scared that I might bleed to death, as heard from girl's who got involved. Somehow, I wanted to carry this child.
I had no choice but to carry the child, believing that I had been through more than all that was happening to me.
Three months later, my boss found out that I was pregnant and sent me out of his shop. I lost my source of income and my shelter.
I was back on the street, trying to survive.
Sometimes, I wish I had enough money to leave the city and start a new life in another city but it was impossible because I wasn't financially stable enough.
I lived on the street, begging for help, and gained a little money from people after helping them with little things, like cleaning their shoes, carrying their bags, and other things.
At the end of the day, I'd go back to the incomplete building to dwell in for the night.
It felt like a normal life to me but I felt living with my aunt and enduring her torture was better.
I was betrayed, abandoned, wronged, hurt, destroyed, trashed, broken, and left alone by the people that surrounded me all my life.
I just wanted to continue living because I felt like it was the only thing I could achieve. I wanted them to suffer but it wasn't something I desired.
I hoped to receive mercy one day and change the future of the baby inside me.
The best revenge I could render was being the better person they believed I could never be.
Ahhh, and…it's dawn again… time to work.