The Prada Plan 2. Ashley Antoinette

more like her?”

      Natalie selfishly blamed Leah when inside, she knew that the real comparison she was making was between herself and Dynasty. It wasn’t Leah who Slim didn’t want; it was Natalie. She had never been woman enough for him, but admitting that to herself would be like holding a mirror to her tarnished face.

      What she did not know was that she was filling her daughter with insecurity and jealousy. The irrevocable damage she was doing would scar Leah for years to come. For the first time in her life, Leah knew what it felt like to hate another human being. She despised the little girl that she had seen Slim with. The green-eyed monster had his sights set on her. Envy consumed her, and her heart burned so badly that she felt as if she were choking. She couldn’t understand what the little girl, Disaya, possessed that she herself did not. Why wasn’t she worthy of a father’s love?

      As her mother belittled her and compared her to the green-eyed beauty queen that Slim claimed as his daughter, Leah hardened herself on the inside. She turned her face toward the window so that her mother would not see the tears that cascaded from her eyes. Her insides were in so much turmoil that her stomach felt hollow.

      Why does my daddy love that other little girl more? Why won’t he love me? Nothing in the world had ever felt so bad. After everything she had been through in search of his acceptance, she felt scorned. Scorned by life, burnt by the mother who was supposed to love her, and thrown away by the father she never knew. It was on that day that she became a bad seed, and everyone who had ever hurt her became her enemy. She never wanted to be so vulnerable again. She was closing off her heart, and she promised herself that she would never allow anyone to trample on her feelings ever again.

      Leah looked down at the puddle of blood that pooled around her bare feet. A sickening calm spread over her as she looked into her mother’s eyes. As they stared at one another, hatred filled the space between them. Unspoken apologies were overdue, but unfortunately, it was too late. Whatever needed to be said would be forever lost in translation. Death had silenced Natalie forever as her dead eyes questioned why.

      Leah had snapped, and something inside of her felt that her actions were justified. Tired of the nightly abuse that her mother was inflicting upon her, Leah told herself that she had endured enough. Natalie never saw it coming.

      After being betrayed by her own mother, Leah felt no remorse for the sinister things she planned in her head. The woman she had loved the most had allowed her to be defiled, had used Leah for her own selfish motives, had brought Leah’s world crashing down around her. She was no longer an innocent child. Detached from right and wrong, Leah acted instinctively, defensively.

      She was tired of her private parts being touched by different men, and tired of being compared to the little green-eyed girl that had Slim’s heart. She would never live up to the unrealistic expectations that Natalie had set for her, and she was constantly terrified of what man may walk through their motel room door next to have his way with her. She did what she had to do. So far detached from what was right and wrong, Leah resorted to her only method of escape—murder.

      The many men who had climbed atop of her small body had driven her to her breaking point, and Natalie was the one to blame.

      The stench in the room was overwhelming as the summer heat baked her mother’s dead body, but still she couldn’t move. She was stuck, staring into the lost eyes of the woman who had failed to nurture her. Psychologically, Leah was unstable. Her mental and emotional state had been compromised to the point where she felt nothing. Even the horrid stench of the corpse or the sight of her mother’s drying blood didn’t disturb her. She was disconnected from all emotion, out of touch with the good little girl that she used to be, unplugged from reality. All she knew was that everything that had happened to her had brought her to this point.

      She was so full of hate that it poured out of her eyes, giving her rotten intentions away to anyone who cared to stare into her soul. What could have been a beautiful girl with so much potential had been transformed into a troubled one with too many demons to count.

      A knock at the door caused Leah to look up, but she made no effort to move.

      “Housekeeping,” the voice announced just before she saw a young woman enter. “Oh my God!” the woman shrieked as soon as she laid eyes on the gruesome scene before her. She hesitated, unsure of what to do or what she had just walked in on. She looked around the room in fear, figuring that someone else had committed the crime. When she was sure no one else was in the room, she motioned for Leah.

      “Come on, sweetheart. Come to me,” she urged.

      Leah stood up with a blank stare in her eyes and slowly walked over to the housekeeper. It wasn’t until the woman saw the bloody knife in Leah’s hand that she realized what had actually occurred.

      “Did you do this, honey?” she asked with wide, doubt-filled eyes. No little girl could possibly cause such carnage.

      Leah nodded her head as she dropped the knife to the floor. Her bottom lip began to tremble as she stared at the lady who was kneeling before her. The woman grasped her shoulders.

      “Why, sweetie? What happened? Why did you do this?” she asked, genuinely concerned.

      The tears that rained down her face didn’t match the ice-cold look in her gaze. “Because she hurt me,” Leah responded, her voice monotone and unflinching, unapologetic.

      The woman was taken aback by the satisfied leer that Leah wore, and she stood to her feet as she backed away from the little girl. She could feel the devil in the room, and she instantly knew that something evil lived inside of Leah. She was no ordinary child. She was unremorseful, and had far bypassed the realm of sanity….

      The blaring shrill of the car horn behind her caused Leah to snap out of her daydream. Thoughts of the past plagued her, and she gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned crimson, the same color of the blood she had spilled over the years. Sticking up her middle finger at the impatient driver behind her, she sped off, running from her troubled past and chasing her own destiny—one that fulfilled her need for acceptance and her obsession for revenge.