Chapter 1

Skylar's POV

Hello my name is Skylar Rodriquez, I am 20 years old. I have long black wavy hair which reaches up to my bum and light brown eyes. I never misbehave, I always do what I am told to do or else there will be consequences. I get abused by my father, Jake Rodriquez and my step mum Brooke Shawn.

I can't leave this house without my parents giving me a black eye. I know what you are all thinking I can leave this place. But I can't, they won't let me, like they said and I quote "we love to torture you and hear you scream in pain, where would all the fun go if you left."

I try to escape, but they would always capture me and beat me 10 times harder. Anyways, I live in London and the weather here is not all that bad, today is raining, arrggghh I hate the rain.

Besides the weather London is a very dangerous place to live in, because of the powerful, feared gang called the vipers, they own London.

The leader of that gang is called Sebastian Knight, I hear many rumours about him which are not pretty, trust me.

Right now I'm in my bedroom, but to be honest with you I don't think it is a bedroom, because in the right corner there is a dusty matress and near the door there is a dirty wardrobe. Also, there is a shattered window, it gets very cold at night and I don't have a blanket to keep me warm. Like my parents said " dirty rags like you don't need to be kept warm."

I'm getting changed into a grey baggy jumper and ripped blue jeans. After that I got a little bag which has some make up in. I really don't like wearing make up but I need to cover up the bruises on my face and neck. I brushed my hair and left it down.

Once I have done that, I quietly walked downstairs making sure I don't wake up my parents. But faith brought me in another direction.

I saw my dad in the kitchen reading his newspaper with a beer bottle in his left hand. Oh my god this cannot be good. I walked to the kitchen with my head down because I'm afraid if I look up my dad will start punching me and lecture me about how to be obdient.

As I was walking towards the fridge, I accidentally nudged his shoulder and all of his drink fell on his newspaper that he was reading. Oh shit.

"WHAT THE FUCK" my dad shouted, he turned towards me "CAN'T YOU SEE WHERE YOUR GOING, YOU FUCKING WHORE!"

The next thing I know I had a burning stinging sensation on my left cheek and I knew he had slapped me.

I covered my cheek with my left hand and whispered more like stuttered "I'm m s o o sor r r y I didn't t mean...."

I couldn't finish what I was about to say because he punched me in the stomach. I screamed in pain, and fell on the floor.

He started to kick me repeatly and I protectively put my hands on my stomach, I had tears falling down on my face. I shouted at him to stop but he wouldn't listen he woud just kick me harder.

My so called father kneeled down to me and wiped my tears on face and said "deserves you right bitch" and left for work.

About 15 minutes later I looked at the time and it read 8:25am, I cursed under my breath bececause I'm late for work. 8:15am is when the sandy cafe opens and it takes me 10 minutes to get there. I got up but immdiately sat back down, my whole body was like it was on fire.

Carefully I got up trying my best to ignore the pain in my lower abdomen, and limped towards the living room. I looked at my self in the mirror and cringed of how I looked, my face was red and my eyes were puffy.

I sorted myself in the mirror and grabbed some pain killers and my ipod and quickly went out the house before my so nice step mum wakes up. (note the sarcasm)

I put my headphones in and listened to breathe me by sia, I love this song. About 10 minutes later I arrived to my destination, I pushed the door opened and the bell rang meaning someone was entering. As I got in I was tackled by a hug, I hissed in pain and Sarah let go.

If you are wondering who Sarah is, well she is the owner of the sandy cafe. She treats me as her daughter, I tell her everything including the beatings. Sarah can't have children and I supported her all the way including her lovely husband Mike. He didn't care if he had no children as long as Sarah is besides him. Mike also treats me as his own.

"Oh i'm so sorry, I just got worried about you and..." before Sarah could finish her sentence, she noticed the bruises on my face. She gasped," oh my.." she put her hand gently on my cheek and I saw her tears threathening to fall out.

I grabbed her hands gently and walked towards the kitchen, once we reached there, she let her tears fall. I hugged her and whispered "Sarah please don't cry..it kills me....Its okay he just...slapped me and kicked me in the stomach...its okay shhhhh....don't cry please."

After a few minutes hugging her and whispering sweet things in her ear she stopped crying and I let go of her.

Sarah said "I don't want to see you hurt...promise me Skylar if they do it again..you would call the police....promise me Skylar."

I couldn't call the police because my parents will find out and I'll be in deep shit. So I lied and nodded my head and replied " I promise, now lets go sell some food" jumping up and down, ignoring the pain in my stomach. Sarah just chuckled at my childish behaviour.

Anyways I started working but before I did that I made sure to put on some foundation to cover the bruises, I really don't want people to notice and give me sympathatic looks.

Sarah called out " Skylar dear could you go to table 3 and ask what they would like please."

I said "okay ma'am" and saluted like a soldier, Sarah just giggled but I couldn't help but laugh too.

I walked up to table 3 and it was a family, they had 1 daughter who looks about 5 years old and 3 son who looked like they were 11,17 and 19 years old. They were all laughing about something the little girl did. I just smiled and I wished I had a family like that. I realised I was starring at them for too long.

I cleared my throat to get their attention and they looked at me, I smiled and said "hello my name is Skylar and I will be your waiter today, what would you like to eat."

Suddenly the little girl got off her seat and came running to me and hugged my leg, she said to me " Yowe pwetty."

I couldn't help but laugh, I picked her up and placed her on my hip. "Thank you beautiful," she giggled, "whats your name?" she replied "sophiwe."

"Hello sophie your such a adorable little thing aren't ya," she giggled and I did the same to. Her parents looked at their daughter shocked and shocked of my reaction?

Sophie's mother said "Oh my..I'm so sorry she.." I stopped her from saying things by putting my hands on her shoulder resuring her thats its okay.

Her father spoke, " sorry about that we are just..shocked of how you reacted." I was confused and asked politely "what do you mean?"

"It's just that when ever we go to cafe's or restraunts sophie likes to hug random people especially the waiters...but..they would ignore her and push her away...but what you did...was the exact opposite."

My smile was turned into a frown, I turned towards the little girl and kissed her cheek, "I would never do that to children, I just love them too much." Sophie's family just smiled at me, I gave sophie to her dad but she wouldn't let go. I laughed and whispered in her ear, " would you like a strawberry milkshake."

She screamed "yessssssss pwese" I smiled and handed her back to her dad. I got their orders and I got them free milkshakes. They were about to pay but I convinced them that it was okay. After that I got back to work.