***
I stare at Ella. “What do you mean, yousold my bed? What the fuck, Ella?”
I just want to sleep. I’m so fucking tired.
And my mother is so weak. The doctor told me she needs to be in hospice care.
But we can’t afford that.
Ella sniffs, waving the notes in the air. “It means we get to survive another week. They came to collect it earlier. I can’t fucking live like this for much longer. It smells like death in here.”
I flinch. “Shut up.”
She only rolls her eyes. “You’ll be more comfortable in the kitchen anyway. It’s warmer in there. And then when Angelica goes, you can have her bed. So don’t be so dramatic about it.”
I should be used to it by now. But the sheer coldness of her words still manage to shock me. “Do you have any empathy at all?”
Her lip curls. “Not for you.”
No. She keeps it all for herself.
***
“Give it to me!”
The belt bites into my back again as I cry out. “I don’t have it!”
“You’re a liar,” Ella snarls. “Isawyou with it. I always knew you’d taken it, you thief. Now hand it over, Anastasia, or I swear I will make your life a fucking misery.”
You can’t possibly make it any worse.
I keep my mouth closed. I don’t say a word as the belt whips against my skin, burning lines of pain.
“I need it,” she screams. “It’s important, Anastasia. It could change everything for us!”
I curl into myself, bracing for the next blow. My hand over the corner of my bra, where the ring is safe.
You’re not having it. It doesn’t belong to you.
***
I stand in front of the casket. Alone.
It’s the cheapest one I could get.
The priest offers me a small, sympathetic smile. “Just you today?”
I twist around. But there’s nobody else.
“Just me. Please start.”
My feet are heavy on the long walk home.
My mother is dead.
I am an orphan.
But… I’m also free.
