Chapter 7 Joanna Got Caught

Joanna closed her eyes and mustered all her strength to resist her desires. She pushed Kayden away. "Kay, I am not an adult yet. Let's leave aside what the girls will do to me if they find out that we got intimate. My stepmother will break my legs if she learns about this."

Joanna turned her back at him after she had said what was on her mind.

"Thank you so much for tonight but I think we should leave now. Adhara and Laura will beat the living daylight out of me if I arrive home later than this," Joanna said before she started walking away.

To Joanna, her stepmother and stepsister are the cruelest people she has ever known.

Other people might bully her but not always. But both mother and daughter haunt her any time and any day. Since she resides with them there is nothing she could do to escape their maltreatment; she could only swallow everything while hoping for better days ahead.

"I have waited for a long time for you to love me back. I don't think waiting for a few more weeks or months is a big deal," Kayden said, immediately following her.

He didn't only walk her out of the forest but he insisted on walking her home.

Because Joanna was worried about passersby recognising him as the king, he had to put on the black hoodie Joanna took out of her blue backpack.

"Goodbye, your majesty. Make sure you get home safely and on time or else hell will be let loose if the Queen Mother learns that you are missing," Joanna jokingly said when they reached the front of her gate.

"Since my future Queen is the one who gave the orders then I will surely do as she said," Kayden played along beaming.

"Cut that out, Kay," Joanna hits him on the shoulder before she hurries in. She adjusted the way she carried her backpack after she entered the gate.

Her smile vanishes. Joanna's mood took a 180 degree turn the moment she set foot into her second most dreaded place in the world.

Kayden left only when he saw her enter the brown front door.

Reaching the sitting room, the tiptoeing Joanna unfortunately met her father, Mr Anderson, a man in his early forties sitting on the brown couch reading the newspaper.

Mr Anderson shifted his attention to the main entrance where footsteps came from. "Hasn't school closed over seven hours ago so why are you just returning?" Mr Anderson's cold voice broke the silence in the sitting room.

All the decors and furniture in the sitting room were mainly dark colours of brown and black while the walls were painted in yellow.

"I was with a friend," Joanna replied without stopping. She badly needed to get out of there in case her stepmother was still awake.

She wouldn't be spared for returning so late no matter the reason she has if she is caught by the evil woman.

Mr Anderson slammed his right palm hard against the brown wooden table. "Apart from Audrey, which other friend do you have? Do you mean to tell me that you were with Audrey and yet she rushed home to ask about your whereabouts?" Mr Anderson thundered in annoyance.

Joanna turned to face her father. Her hatred for the man who is her flesh and blood rose to the peak.

"Why lie when you know you will be caught…,"

"You have never cared about me or my wellbeing so what if I lied?" Joanna replied angrily.

Other kids' fathers will panic if their kids don't return the time they were supposed to get home but never has her father cared about her.

There was a day she was beaten until she fainted in a bush. She was in that bush for two nights but yet her father and those she called family never cared whether she returned home.

In fact he didn't even know that she wasn't home despite the fact that he was at home in these two days.

If not Kayden and Audrey who searched for her, maybe she would have died in that bush without the knowledge of others.

Her father never cared whether she lived or died that is why she often acted the same way.

The only difference between her and her father is that;

She always asked whether he was home whenever she returned but he never did.

Today she knew her father wouldn't have known that she didn't return from school if Audrey didn't come in search of her.

The angry Mr Anderson stood up in fury. "Say that again and I…,"

"You know that I am stating the truth, that is why you are so angry. You have never cared about my living and death so stop acting like…,"

"Welcome home Miss Joanna," the old woman standing at the end of the stairs greeted in a cool voice.

"Little Master has been throwing tantrums after he waited for you and you didn't come back," The elderly woman said, seeing that Joanna still wanted to argue with her father.

Joanna hurried up the stairs when she learned that her little brother of nine years was asking after her. "Has he had his meal?" Joanna asked, her once angry expression was long gone.

"You know how Madam hates whenever he talks about you so she forced him to eat when he insisted on waiting for you to come back and feed him," The Nanny said her gaze focused on the direction of Adhara's room.

Joanna wasn't surprised to hear what the evil woman did to her son. Because of Anthony's love for her the woman and Laura had beaten her until she fainted after accusing her of bewitching the future master of the house.

And as usual she was woken up by pouring iced-cold water on her only for them to resume the beating.

She fainted twice that particular day because of their brutal beating so she wasn't surprised that the woman took out her anger on the innocent boy because she wasn't around to vent her spleen on.

"Don't worry Nanny Susan, I will check up on him," Joanna left for her brother's room leaving her father still fuming.

Nanny Susan went away after bowing to the angry man of the house.

Opening the brown door, a little figure ran towards where Joanna stood. Knowing what comes next, Joanna knelt with her hands spread.

"How come my little prince is still awake huh?" Joanna said in a playful tone as she pats her brother's brown hair lovingly. The little boy of nine years pulled away after getting a good hug from his sister.

"Because I was waiting for my big sister to come home and play with me".

Joanna raised her hand and ruffled her little brother's hair. "Little rice ball, do you know what father and Mrs Anderson will do if they heard you talk about playing huh?"

"They will lock me up in my room with my books without letting me out of the house for a week..,"

"If you know the punishment so well then why do you still talk about playing even at the risk of getting spank," Joanna asked, tickling him. She tickled him once again when he didn't burst out laughing like he normally did.

At her second tickling, Anthony's laughter came. For fear that her father and stepmother will come and scold her brother, Joanna extends her hand and shuts the door. She continued with her tickling. The laughing Anthony ran around the room to escape from her.

After a few minutes of playing Anthony fell onto his huge bed. They continued to laugh for another two minutes before their laughter finally died off.

"Big sister, why did you return late tonight? Did the mean girls or the wicked villagers pick on you today?" Anthony Anderson, whom Joanna loves calling 'little riceball', asked. He raised his right hand and stroked her face.

"My little riceball knows what goes on in school even without being told. I guess I should start calling you my little dad since even my father doesn't know this much. He thinks I am the troublemaker because that is what he is told," Joanna said in a carefree tone. She raised her hand and caressed her brother's face.

They might be step sisters and brothers but they love each other very much. He and Nanny Susan are the only ones in the house who treat her like a human, the rest treat her worse than an animal.