BURN

Maria left Lizzy’s room with a heavy heart, She regretted raising her hand to her daughter.

Lizzy was her baby, her daughter, yet it was as though they were strangers and Maria was beginning to get tired, they have never gotten into a reasonable conversation ever since the divorce and Maria wasn’t happy about it.

She stared at her hands as she took a seat on the bed, was bringing Lizzy along with her a wrong move? She asked herself trying to get the clear picture or was she really a terrible mother.

At the same time she felt bad for thinking the way she did but Lizzy wasn’t giving her much of a choice with her behaviour.

“Mum!” A cute tiny voice spoke, Maria wasn’t aware of her presence until she spoke.

“My love” she voiced gesturing for the little girl to come into her arms, which she did.

“What’s the matter?” Maria asked

“May I sleep with you and daddy tonight, I’m scared”

“ Oh my princess there is no need to be scared” she encouraged hugging her tightly against her chest. Maria examined the little girl in front of her, her presence reminded her so much of little Elizabeth.

“ Are you okay?” Coco asked with a worried face as she stared at Maria.

“I’m fine baby, just a little tired from the trip that’s all.” She replied forcing a smile on her face, she wonder when her little Elizabeth had turned into a grown woman without her knowledge, she was stuck and she knew it, she needed to make Elizabeth understand that this was all for her good and nothing more.

The next morning, Maria and Louis decided to go shopping as the wedding was in two days time, they had little time to prepare, Coco had left very early for school, leaving just Elizabeth and Shankar left at home together.

Elizabeth opened her eyes and it was definitely not a dream.

As soon as her eyes came in contact with the room, she let out a sigh before standing unto her feet waiting for the day’s disaster to hit her in her face, speaking of slaps she could feel her mom’s hand still on her face….

She walked towards her dresser where her phone was and there were lots of unanswered messages on her phone, one of which was from her mother telling her about the shopping, the last place Elizabeth wanted to be was anywhere near her mother, she dropped the phone on the dresser before walking towards the window and opening it up, allowing the sunlight into the bedroom.

The view brought a smile to Elizabeth's face, if she was going to live a nightmare she might as well get use to the house, she walked into the bathroom getting ready for the day.

She had just finished taking her bath and was about to leave her room, she was a bit hungry as she didn’t have dinner the previous night.

She took her phone from the dresser where she had kept it, before opening the door. She immediately got a reply from her father, she opened her phone ready to reply him when she bumped into someone on the corridor.

“Ahh!” A loud scream came from the lady causing Elizabeth to lift her head, a young lady in her mid 30s was standing in front of her, she had a glass of hot coffee on her hands.

The impact from the meeting was so hard that half of the coffee spilled on the her hand leaving her to let out a loud cry.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention” Elizabeth quickly apologized as she helped dab her hands dry.

As she was still trying to keep things in control Shakar approached them.

“What happened?”

‘Could things not get any worse’ Emily asked herself as she noticed him.

“What happened Nelly?” Despite seeing the chaos that had happened he still went ahead to question the young lady, wanting know exactly who’s fault it was.

She took her time to explain what happened to him.

“And I’m so sorr…….” Elizabeth words were cut off as they were replaced by a loud scream, Shakar had picked up the cup from the tray swiftly and poured the burning hot coffee on Elizabeth’s hand.

Elizabeth couldn’t help but cry out softly in pain.

She was in so much pain yet she managed to ask him. “What the hell is your problem?”

The young lady felt pity for Emily, for one she knew Emily didn’t hurt her intentionally but Shakar did his intentionally, he didn’t say a word as he watched her closely, the word disgust was written over him face.

“Tell me, why are you acting so mean, I didn’t do anything intentionally to her” she cried as the burn stung, she could see her hands glow red.

“Just listening to her pathetic voice makes me irritated, I don’t answer to you. This is my house and you have no right to question me but since you want to know so bad, you see I just did to you exactly what you did to Nelly and one more thing that was my cup of morning coffee and since you were too clumsy to watch your steps, you had to pay for your mistake.” He concluded, Lizzy’s eyes were still on him, if she had her way Shakar would be lying on the floor in his pool of blood.

She couldn’t believe the height of hatred Shakar had in him and this was all because of her mother, it was obvious the young man wasn’t happy with this marriage just as she wasn’t.

“You should be careful next time because I may not happen to be so kind to you, the next time I may end up burning that little pretty face of yours.” He threatened

Elizabeth curled her hands into a fist ready to risk it all but was stopped by Nelly’s voice.

“Putting it in some cold water would help” she suggested with an apologetic face. Elizabeth nodded before walking with her back into her room.