Camila's POV
Five years ago
My alarm rang on the bedside table and I flung myself up from bed reaching groggily for the phone. With sleepy eyes, I turned it off and snuggled deeper into bed. I didn't want to wake up.
"Mila baby," my mother called out to me from behind my door and I tried not to groan, because I knew that was the end of sleep for me.
My mother only used that name when she wanted me out of bed and doing something.
"We'll be late" she called out and I sighed. I would be late, mom didn't need to be, she didn't need to work considering she was getting married in a few months to Peter Norman, my father, and her first love.
But after years of being a working mother, doing her best to put food on the table for our small family, she said she just couldn't give it up.
"I'm up" I muttered as she opened my door, she smiled.
"It's the last day of the semester, " she urged and I sighed, pushing off the covers. I climbed off the bed tripping on my feet and falling to the floor, she laughed and left me to pick myself up. I think that should have been my sign that something was seriously wrong but I got up, got dressed, and went about my day.
I waved my mother goodbye at the bus stop as she walked the rest of the way to work. The Turners enterprises was opening its first hotel, rumors said it was going to be the biggest and grandest hotel in the city and Mom was proud to work there– Mr Peter not so much but he was willing to let it slide, his daughters and my stepsister didn't waste time in letting me know how beneath them I was, I wanted to like her but it was hard to like someone who went out of their way to be mean to you.
In my school year so far, I had cafeteria food dumped on me, soup poured on my clothes, and milk on my seats in class. Nancy was behind it all thus, it was obvious to me that she wasn't going to become my friend anytime soon, maybe I should stop trying.
It was the Christmas break so classes were done quickly and Nancy wasn't in school likely because she wanted to prepare for the opening, and I was grateful.
I finished classes early and went back home to get dressed and take my mother's clothes to her. I wore the pretty dress that Mr Peter had picked out for me, it was a soft pink– I hated pink.
I almost missed the bus, I arrived late running most of the way to the event, and immediately tried calling my mother, panting into the phone as I did, she wouldn't be in the crowd if she wanted to look pretty.
I climbed the stairs as my breath evened out. The Turner's Hotel looked just as I imagined it would, luxurious enough that I'd never have had a chance of staying here. It looked shiny and new. I was fascinated. One day I'd own a business of my own; it would be so big that no one could deny that I'd become somebody.
I bumped into a hard male body that smelled of sandalwood and orange, I pulled back apologetically and tripped on my feet, my hand windmilled to try and salvage my balance, the dress bag slipped from my finger and I was wincing all ready to drop to the floor roll down the stairs and break a couple of bones, I stopped midair a large arm around my waist, I opened my eyes blinking rapidly my gaze catching on the man in front of me, he was way taller than I was, his arms gripping my waist strongly.
His eyes were blue, I didn't really like blue eyes but they were so deep it was like I could drown in them.
"You're gorgeous" I whispered and he laughed.
"Thank you, but you really should watch where you're going" he replied, setting me onto my feet, I smiled softly.
"I'm sorry, thanks" I whispered, finding my balance, my breath hitched due to his proximity, and I swallowed as my heart started beating a little bit faster.
"That's fine" he bent, picked up the gown and handed it to me.
"You dropped this" he offered and I grabbed it hissing.
"Mom," I muttered, pulling away.
"Sorry, I have to go" I called out racing around him while I waved I needed to find my mother.
I raced up the stairs and into a corridor that I was familiar with, she often worked here. I tried calling her again but she wasn't picking then I heard a scream at the end of the hall, it was loud, piercing, and more than a little gut-wrenching because behind it I heard a dozen other screams.
I ran towards them to find a woman in a cleaner uniform on the scene. She stared in shock at the open space in front of her, an elevator shaft but with no elevator, just a space I looked down gasping, blood so much blood, mingled with a body and metal on the floor. I stood there frozen, then I sprinted away down the stairs, my heart beating rapidly. She wasn't in there, she couldn't be, I ran down the stairs, people downstairs were screaming their voices echoing against the walls, I rushed to the elevator and found her, she lay there breathing rapidly, blood soaking her clothes and everything else.
"Mom" I cried, throwing the clothes in my hand away, pushing forward, and a man pushed me back.
"Go back" he huffed, I struggled against him fighting to break free from his hold.
"Let me go, my mom" I cried, the sounds of ambulances filled the air, and the paramedics lifted her out and into the car, I climbed into the ambulance taking her hand.
"Mom, what happened?" I cried and she smiled.
The doctors said she was hanging on by a thread, she needed surgeries and we had no insurance, begging wasn't helping and for days, Peter Norman had been gone. Determined I stood up from the chair, took a cab to the Turner's Hotel, and marched up the stairs,
"I want to see the manager, you're killing my mother" I shouted in the lobby, people turned to stare and some men, and guards stalked towards me, and a man in a nice suit walked to me.
"You need to leave" he ordered and I scoffed.
"My mother was in an accident in your hotel and no news about it, she's dying and you can't be bothered." I cried.
"The least you could do is pay for her hospital bills" I sobbed and the man huffed.
"Look, we have nothing to do with your mother leave" he ordered, I stared in disbelief, unable to understand how the world could be so normal when someone had just died.
"I'll tell everyone that you were responsible, the hotel elevator was faulty and I'll tell everyone" I swore, he looked at me with dead eyes as if I bored him then gestured to the men behind me and they pulled me away dragging me as I screamed, the first one landed a blow, we were outside, no one to hear me scream, then a slap.
They hit me over and over, blood pooling in my mouth as they did, when they stopped my ribs were aching along with every part of me.
"You talk and you're dead,'' one of the men spat at me.
I lay there wishing I could die, someone took me to the hospital, someone paid my bills, I have no idea who he was, only that he was male, but that mattered less than anything because, by the time I woke from my beatings, she was dead.
I buried her in the winter, Mr Peter – a man she loved was not there, and Nancy was not there.
I stood alone over her casket lying in the frozen ground, a single red rose clutched in my finger, tossing it in along with the frozen sand I swore on the heavens and the earth and the dead that lay still, I would make them all pay.