Uncle Patrick
As Grace walked further into the building, a memory from the past flooded her brain. She hated bumping into Patrick because of this particular reason.
After Vincent was born when she was 4, all affection went to him. As a child, she was naturally jealous. There were no more outings between her parents and her. The worst part was that her father was always on business trips. The company had grown, so he wasn't always available. Carla no longer had time for her or her childish demands because having Vincent seemed to remind her that Grace wasn't her biological child, and a few times she slipped when talking to her father and addressing Grace as 'Your daughter'.
Growing up, she was bullied a lot in school because she was chubby and had plump cheeks. She also wore braces to make it worse. Therefore, she was the least pretty child around and other kids did not miss the chance to remind her of that fact, even though her father assured her that she was beautiful.
Getting bullied at school and whenever she went to a birthday party, and being neglected at home was too much for a girl her age to bear.
They usually didn't have many guests come over since her biological mother didn't have any family. Her mother was an orphan. She had been raised by her grandfather, who left her the few properties he had before he died. She had sold off the properties to start up the company now known as ANC. Her father had no family either. At least that was what he told all of them, so they also believed he was an orphan. Carla Bernie had been the only normal one in their group. She came from a complete middle-class family and had a younger brother, whom the Bernie's family adored, named Patrick Bernie. Grace didn't know why his family loved him so much when there was nothing special about him. So those who visited their apartment were friends or relatives of Carla.
Patrick always visited their house, and sometimes, he stayed the night. It wasn't until she was 8 and he was 19 that he tried something disturbing.
She was in the garden behind the house, getting her homework done when he took the seat beside her and began to pat her on her hair.
She enjoyed the affection and even smiled at him and returned to focus on her homework, but his hands slipped from her hair to rub her upper arm where he squeezed her gently.
"Come sit on Uncle's laps." He said one, holding her hand.
"Why?" She asked him with childish innocence, looking up to find him smiling at her.
"You can focus on your homework properly if you sit on your uncle's lap and let him play with your hair."
She shook her head. The nanny taking care of her had taught her a lot of things, especially things she should do and ones she shouldn't do. And most of them were centered around being touched or held appropriately, either by the opposite sex or the same sex.
"I don't want to." She snatched her hand from his grip and saw how he frowned, but she ignored it and focused on her assignment. His hand came again, and this time, he placed it on her thigh.
She jerked up from her seat to avoid him and fell to the floor.
"Leave me alone!" She yelled in her tiny voice and tried to get up. Her voice was quite loud, and as Patrick tried to cover her mouth, he accidentally hit her nose with his fist, making her wail in pain and burst into tears.
"Shit! Stop crying, for fuck sake! See what you have caused." Partick cursed when he saw blood dripping from her nose and panicked.
"Shhh. Don't tell anyone I touched you." He crouched down beside her on the ground, and out of fear, her cry increased. When she tried to run away from him, he held her back, covering her mouth with his large hand and warning her not to tell anyone about it.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Patrick jumped and let go of her when he heard his sister's sharp voice.
Carla's eyes widened when she saw Grace's bleeding nose and helped her up.
"Jesus! What happened to you, Grace?"
Grace hid behind her and tried to speak through her sobs while pointing at a guilty-looking Patrick.
"H-he... t-ouched... my... body. I t-t-told him to... leave me a-lone and he... hit me."
"Don't believe her, sis. She is lying." He said this while glaring harshly at Grace, who was still hiding behind her mother.
"Really?" Carla sounded angry. "And why would she lie about something like that at this age? How could you touch her body? Are you insane?" She raised her voice at first, but then remembered they were outside and looked around to be sure no one was around.
Vincent began to cry inside the apartment, causing her to sigh.
"Don't ever do this again. Do you know what is going to happen if her father finds out about this?"
"So you are going to tell him?" Patrick scoffed. There was no ounce of guilt or remorse in his tone.
"Shut up! You are lucky that it was I who came here— I'M ON MY WAY, BABY!" She turned to yell at the apartment where Vincent was desperately crying for 'mummy'.
"Let's go inside, Grace." She held Grace's hand and pulled her with her towards the building.
"Stay away from uncle Patrick, okay? And don't tell your daddy or anyone about this. Am I clear?" She said with a warm smile and hurried her pace inside.
Grace nodded.
As soon as they got in, Carla handed her over to a maid to clean up her nose and hurried to carry Vincent.
Grace watched her mother's back sadly as she left.
She had thought Patrick was going to end it there, but that had been just the beginning. And as usual, Carla only scolded him a little until Grace grew to realize reporting to Carla was useless.