Breathe

Later that night, during dinner.

The Su family is having their dinner in the rectangular table a few meters away from the sink. The dining and living room were in the same room. There's a cabinet under the television that was hanging on the wall. An L-shape sofa positioned next to the stairs and a wooden rocking chair next to a plant by the window.

The house was simple yet homey. Daniella knows that her kids didn't complain as it was warm and cozy, unlike the villa.

They have a small balcony next to the kitchen, a small four-seater table was outside and a couple of flowers in the pot were planted and designed by Daniella.

Constantly, a sound of cars, truck, horn or people screaming can be heard in the living room except if they closed the door. After moving for some days, they all realized how entertaining it was to hear fights outside, mostly from the gay in the salon.

Evan has forbidden his children to curse even though they can hear it all the time. The neighborhood was full of people living a simple life, so saying vulgar words, partying and fighting was not a big deal.

Selena was helping Daniella to serve the food even after being in the market for almost six hours.

Thankfully, they were able to sell all the clothes and still earned good money.

Sitting next to Evan was Louisa, she hasn't touched her food. Her mother prepared a breaded turkey breast, she knows that it's turkey based on the texture but, her mother said it was not.

She took her spoon and decided to eat the side dish. It was lettuce with tomato and red radish cut in cubes.

"Eat the meat Louisa," her mother glared at her.

Her lips pressed in annoyance.

She picked up the pad laying on her lap and wrote down, "You said it was not meat," she looked at her mother with pain expression on her face.

"That turkey is organic. Either you eat that or this baby back rib," saying that with a hard tone, Daniella pushed the plate with back ribs in it towards Louisa.

Louisa shook her head and leaned back on the chair, her hands crossed as she sulked, staring at her plate.

But Daniella was also tired today. She spent the whole day painting the Cafe while Evan was fixing the floors. Even though she adores Louisa's sulking face, her body needs protein.

"Isa, either you eat this or get hungry. You can't eat salads every day," she insisted.

But stubbornness runs in their genes. With her lips pressed together so tightly, Louisa shook head vigorously, rejecting to eat.

"Are you trying to test my patience Louisa Su?" her mother voice rose, round black eyes were glaring at her.

Louisa didn't reply, she turned to her father, asking for back up.

"Honey, maybe you can try two bites. For me?" Evan soothes his daughter by brushing a hand on her hair.

Louisa shook her head one more time, refusing to eat.

And with that, Daniella's patience has run out. She got up and took one of Louisa's skeleton doll and gestured to throw it at the window.

"You either shove that turkey in your mouth or say goodbye to you precious doll," Daniella threatened without blinking.

"Don't even try to scream!" Daniella continued.

Louisa didn't move. She stared at her doll with her eyes shining in tears.

She looked at her father and could see him thinking about whether to take her mother's side or nor.

"Daniella, this is not the right way. Put it back and Louisa will eat this turkey. Right honey?" her father hopefully said after he cut a piece of meat and moved it closer to her mouth.

Louisa shook her head, determined to not eat any meat.

"In the count of three..."

"one...two..."

Seeing that her mother was not buying her sad expression. Louisa grabbed the turkey breast with one hand, not bothering to cut it and ate it like a pig.

Her lips moved to bite the meat while her eyes, glistening with tears were staring at her dolls hanging. Her mother was holding it through its neck and she felt pain by just watching it.

She ate the meat in no time when her plate was finally empty. Her mother handed her the skeleton and she swiftly hugs it and sat on the sofa. The tears in her eyes have been dried out after she felt the skeleton doll in her arms.

In the other side, after the triplets saw the anger in their mother's face, their hand hastened to shove the food in their mouth. The last thing they wanted was for their mother to noticed how much they were avoiding the vegetable.

Selena wanted to laugh. The fear was painted on the triplets faces. She gave a half shrug and focused on her food.

As she was about to finish her plate, her phone on the table rang.

Her brows creased in confusion when she saw her father's number on the screen. She excused herself and walked to the balcony to answer it.

"Yes, Daddy?" she answered with a bored tone. Until now, she's still angry that her father has placed a limit on her credit card without consulting her.

"What's with the attitude?"

"Dad, how am I suppose to live with the budget you gave?" she complained, not minding her tone.

"Why don't you work then?" he snarled back.

She scrunched up her face, frustrated that her father was no longer the sweet father she remembered.

"What do you want dad?" she calmly asked.

There was a moment of silence before her father let out a deep breath and she was not liking it.

"I have arranged a marriage for you. His name is-" whatever her father wanted to say has been cut out when she hung up the phone.

Her eyes dimmed in anger. Her father has suddenly changed after some years of living with Samantha, her stepmother. The woman was nice, at first she likes her but after she found out what she did to her Aunt Daniella, her respect to her has degraded.

And since then, her father has tried everything to get her to be close to Samantha but she can't. Samantha also didn't attend her mother's funeral, even Daniella whom her mother had tried to assassinate attended her mother's funeral but not Samantha.

She understands that her mother had once kidnapped Samantha's sister but still, she could not accept the fact that Samantha was not on her side when her mother died.

Her hand tightly wrapped the phone she was holding. She wanted to scream, shout on somebody or hit someone but she can't. She could not even kill an ant let alone hit a person.

So, she diverted all her anger to her phone and squatted on the floor. So much emotion was flowing in her heart.

After some time, she was able to calm herself. She got up and entered the living room as if nothing has happened.

She sat back on her chair and continued with her food. When she was done, Daniella handed her cash and looked at her with a smile on her lips.

Right there, she realized that Daniella wanted something.

"What is it?"

Daniella removed her plate and spoke while placing the plate in the sink.

"Can you buy a soy sauce in the convenient store? It's ten minutes walk from here," she raised an eyebrow after hearing Daniella's request.

"It's eight in the evening and we have already eaten. What is the soy sauce for? can't it wait?" she hurriedly asked.

Daniella who's been standing by the sink turned to face her, both hands on her hips, Daniella looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"I need to marinate the meat for tomorrow's lunch. I would have asked my kids but, they are too young to be in the street at this time,"

"You're scared something might happen to your kids but not to me? Daniella, do you even consider me as your family?" she said with sarcasm.

"You are my family. That's why I am asking you to do it."

"What about Uncle Evan?"

"He's putting Louisa to sleep."

Selena was speechless, even she tried to reason with Daniella, she can't. The woman has too much in her brain that she will never win an argument with her.

She got up and shoved her phone in her pocket, then she put the money in her wallet and took the blazer she threw on the sofa earlier.

As she walked out of the house, her heart suddenly pounded. She doesn't know why but, she suddenly got a feeling that something bad is about to happen.

Her feet wanted to go back but her mind processed Daniella's reaction once she finds out that she chickened out like a little bitch.