THE LETTER
Chloe scanned the piece of paper in her trembling hands with her heart thudding aggressively against her ribcage. In her state of shock, it fell freely to the ground.
Unmoving, she stared blankly at the air, trying but failing to phantom what she had just read.
"Chloe! What is this?" Her younger sister's voice rang out as she bounded towards her, pulling her out of her still state.
She watched with widened eyes as Trixie crouched to grab the paper and quickly sprang into action, snatching it out of her small hands.
"It's nothing, go ahead and change out of your dirty clothes." She told her in a soft tone. They had just gotten back from the neighbourhood park after feeling guilty for not spending enough time with her and the child was covered with mud stains.
Trixie gave her sister a cute pout as she did many times when she wanted to get her way but quickly realized that it wasn't working this time around. With a huff, she dragged herself to her room as instructed.
It was only after she heard the slam of a door and was sure that her sister had left before she read through the contents of the paper again. She sagged on the couch with glassy eyes as she stared at her father's cursive handwriting. The note was short and direct.
Chloe,
If you're reading this letter, just know that I am dead.
Life wasn't worth living anymore, not without your mother so I decided to put an end to it.
That was all the note said, it basically a suicide note and had been placed on the coffee table where she could easily take notice of it. She was filled with bafflement at the whole thing.
Chloe did not know what emotions to feel as she processed the news of her father's death. To tell the truth, her father had always been a terrible man as long as she could remember.
She recalled how her mother would ask her to hide away in her room every time her father was in a bad mood or he came home reeking of alcohol. She would tremble in fear hearing her muffled screams and cries whenever it happened, but her mother refused to report him out of fear. She would watch her mother cover her bruises everyday and pretend that everything was fine, her lips would spread into a smile with pain in her eyes but she did not say a word of complaint. Chloe would try to convince her mother to run away, but they had nowhere to go. They were already living in the house her mother inherited from her grandparents when they passed, there were no other options for a woman to go with two children. This went on until she eventually died of a brain tumour.
Chloe was barely an adult at the time, she had to deal with the death of her mother and single handedly raise a one year old. To make things worse, her father had been fired from his job after he was caught day drinking and had lost all his money to his gambling addiction. Then she had to drop out of college and get a job to pay for the bills and all of their needs.
Things took a drastic turn when she tried to get rid of the alcohol in the house. She had gathered everything and dumped it down the sink out of anger, and that was when the beatings started. He turned Chloe into his personal punching bag and would say all sorts of degrading words to her blaming her for all his problems. This had been going on until the last week that she had noticed he did not return home from his daily trips to the bar. She had expected him to come back sooner or later and now she could do nothing but stare at the note she held in her grip.
Chloe felt so many things at once; anger, for the way he treated his family, sadness because she had lost both of her parents and was now an orphan, but mostly she felt relieved that she no longer had to deal with him.
She noted that he did not even sound remorseful of his actions, and wondered how he had been affected by the death of her mother if he had been responsible for her eventual death. She scoffed at the fact that he did not even seem concerned about the children he left behind.
"Of course, still a piece of shit until the end"
Chloe refused to mourn the man who had made her life a living hell, no she would go on with her life as if he never existed in the first place.
She imagined how much better her life would be now, there would be no more beatings and the house would no longer smell like alcohol, maybe they could even move to a smaller apartment, leaving all the bad memories behind and making good ones.
Her mind was filled with thoughts of the possible future, she thought of even going back to college to finish her degree and getting her dream job.
She wiped the stray tear drops from her eyes at the sound of oncoming footsteps.
"Chloe! Chloe! There's bubbles everywhere!" She exclaimed, waving her arms and spinning around the living room in her birthday suit.
Her heart warmed as she stared at her sister who was covered in bubbles, she took pride in herself for protecting her from her father. She had ensured that he was never able to taint her innocence, blissfully aware of everything that had been going on in their household.
"Trixie! What did you do?" She asked with a half amused tone, raising her eyebrows at the child's form.
"I just wanted to take a bath!" Trixie exclaimed dramatically.
"Alright miss bubbles, let's go clean you up properly." She retorted, leading her back up the stairs.