chapter one

"OOO my God!" I screamed as I jumped up from the bed, I looked at my already soaked body as I looked and saw my stepmom holding the bucket she used to pour me water, "why are you still sleeping by this time? You are so useless and I don't know what to do with you", she summarized her statement with a slap which turned my face to the clock.

When I saw that it was 6:00am, I was so furious that felt an inevitable urge to react but that would be a bad way of solving the problem as I also thought of it's outcome to be dangerous so I went down on my knees asking for mercy, she looked at me and walked away leaving the bucket on the floor.

As much as it hurts me, I was quite grateful that she did not use the bucket on me.I almost broke down in tears but immediately I said to myself that I have to be strong if I am to survive in this household with my stepmom.

I went to Claire's room, who was my favourite sister but later became my worst nightmare. When my dad was alive, we always had each other's back, we were like twin sisters but the only difference was my eyes. Actually, thinking about our differences made me realize that the only similar thing Claire and I shared is having the same hair colour with my dad. This similarity made us act like twin but I don't know what came over her afterwards.

" Good morning my lady" I bowed while greeting her. It hurts when ever I greet and bow to a girl I know am older than. She just looked at me and walk to her bathroom. I was leaving her room before she said "I will want you to meet my mum, she will show you my dresses that you will pick from the store for me, lastly I will want milkshake and cupcakes." I was so furious and my countenance fell but still, I held myself and responded "ok, my lady".

We went to James' room but the opposite happened, James ran to me and gave me a big hug and immediately said, "Sis good morning, why are u so wet", he asked cleaning the water on his face. I didn't reply but as smart as he was, he was able to guess what happened, his facial expression suddenly changed that was when I knew that he has put the puzzle all together. "Sis you can leave now, I can clean my room myself", James went back into his room. I tried to oppose his decision but he stopped me saying, "Sis, you should have gotten use to this already, you can not clean my room while I still have my hands and legs intact, if you want to clean my room then you will have to chop off my arms and legs." I smiled and left the room because it was pointless arguing even though I knew that his mum will kill me if she finds out he was cleaning his room himself.

I went to Henry's room who was basically the last born of the house, he was not quite privileged to meet our dad but he was dad's carbon-copy. "Big sis, carry me!! carry me!! please", he said as he stretch his hands towards me,"I will definitely carry you my angel" I lifted him up and he started laughing at me saying "Sis why are you so wet?" That was when I realized that I was still wet. I tried to put him down on his feet but he refused, I tried to explain to him that I was wet, still he refused to let go so I took him to the bathroom and gave him a shower.

After doing all the house chores and running errands, I went to my secret hangout, a place my dad secretly made for me. My dad made a secret room in my mum's grave house for me and sometimes I do wonder if my dad was a seer, he signed the documents of the grave house under my name which made it quite difficult for my stepmom to sell the building because he told his lawyer that I was the only one authorized to sell the house. My mum and dad both died on my birthday but not the same year. My mum died on my fifth birthday, it was a painful one.

My dad came back from work on that faithful day, it was snowing very hard outside. "Clara, Clara!!!," my dad called out to me, "yes dad, dad where is mum", my dad hugged me as I ran to him. My dad was shocked that my mum was not yet back so he called my nanny to inquires from her the where about of my mum. My nanny told him that she have been trying to reach my mum but her line was not going through. My dad was uneasy and tried her line again but it was not reachable, he tried it again, it went through successfully and everybody was relieved. "Honey, am almost home, the snow is much" my mum told my dad not to worry too much but my dad asked her to remain where she was that he was coming to pick her up. I waited patiently for my parents as seconds tune to minutes, minutes tunes to hours. My nanny tried to make me sleep but I refused to sleep. she tried and tried but to no avail so she brought milkshake for me, after taking it I slept off only to wake up in the morning still without my mum and dad by my side. I was confused because it was the first time my birthday was to be celebrated late and little did I not know that there will be no birthday for me. I went to my nanny and asked after my parents but she only said that they were coming back, I looked at my nanny, she looked kind of worried but as a kid I was not too bothered so I went ahead to tell my nanny what I dreamt about my mum.