Charity

The next day the Woods family had packed up all of their possessions and as a packing crew took the boxes and loaded them in the vehicle, a different crew of construction workers with hard hats and a truck complete with a wrecking ball moved into the compound and headed towards the house.

As they left, they turned and watched as the building was demolished and Beth could not hold back her bitter tears.

“Look at my beautiful home.” She wailed as she saw the house she had so treasured fall into rubble.

“Don’t worry, soon you are going to have a bigger and better home than this, I promise.” Bill boasted and Beth sniffled as she nodded, sure that soon she would be the envy of everyone who was probably laughing at her misfortune currently.

“Come on mom, we have to leave now.” Garnet said before leading her mother to the car and they drove off.

She hated the fact that she would have to live off Bill’s charity, it was a very dangerous thing to do because he could demand payment in form of marriage but Garnet did not intend to be at his mercy for too long. She would find a job as soon as possible and move her family away from his greedy clutches before he could take advantage of her situation.

When they got to a building, Bill showed them to the apartment at the top of the building and he was true to his words. It was a luxurious apartment with five massive bedrooms, a kitchen fitted with shiny chrome appliances and a view that overlooked the city.

“This is unbelievable…” Beth marveled as she walked through the rooms of the house. This apartment was probably worth millions and looked better than their house which had not had any maintenance done to it in years.

“This is the housekeeper who will take care of the house and keep everything stocked up, you won’t have to worry about anything while you are here.” Bill said charmingly as he gestured to a chubby lady with a bright smile and a pink maid’s uniform.

“Bill, that is too much. You have already done so much and you don’t have to worry about catering to our daily needs, we can take care of it ourselves.” Garnet protested and Beth nudged her out of the way.

“Don’t say that Garnet, I am sure that Bill is comfortable doing this for his future wife after all who else will do it?” She said knowingly and Garnet frowned while Bill nodded in agreement.

He did not miss the fact that Garnet had frowned when her mother called her his future wife and he smirked. It was too late and there was nothing that she could do at this point, she had run away from allowing any commitment between them for so long but he had her trapped now.

He would marry her and be able to boast that the most intelligent and beautiful woman in the entire city was his wife, then he would dump her at home and have a good time with all the women who would be begging for his attention. He almost rubbed his hands together from the thrill of anticipating having her all to himself.

“When you are settled here just give me a call so that I can get you a job, those losers that fired you are going to regret what they did.” Bill swore then hugged Garnet while she stood stiffly and could only take a breath when he was gone.

She went into what was to be her room and sat tiredly. It seemed that every way she turned there was some form of entrapment waiting for her, how was she supposed to get away from all of this if her family was dependent on Bill? She stood up resolutely and looked through the boxes in her room and pulled out an outfit.

She would not wait for Bill to find her a job, she would go right now and find something for herself and get her family away as soon as possible.

As she walked out of her room she was met by Beth who looked in surprised at her.

“Where are you going dressed like that?” She asked suspiciously as she looked up and down at her.

“I need to go and look for a job, I can’t just wait around for one to fall on my lap can I?” Garnet snapped and continued to walk to the door.

“But Bill said he would find something for you to do didn’t he?” Beth called out but Garnet ignored her and walked out of the door.

Beth turned around and saw Greg watching.

“Won’t you say something?” She snapped in anger.

“I don’t think it is fair that we saddle Garnet with all these responsibilities.” He said softly.

“Then maybe you should have not been stupid enough to get kicked out of your job.” She yelled in irritation. “All I am trying to do is ensure that Garnet does not end up like me, with a useless man who cannot provide for her.”

“I still don’t think that pushing her to be with Bill when you know she does not like him is a great idea.” He answered.

“That’s right, don’t think because it is useless if you do. Garnet is going to be married into the Pearle family and all our money problems will be a thing of the past.” She said and pushed past him while he continued to look at the door with defeated eyes.

Beth was right, he was the cause of the misfortune that had befallen everyone in the family. But if he had not taken the decision he had taken then things would definitely have been awful, he could not live with the mistakes that he had already made and leaving was the only way he would have been able to stay sane.

Unfortunately, now the burden had fallen on Garnet’s shoulders and he knew that Beth would not rest until she sold off their daughter to the highest bidder. The worst thing was that he was helpless to put a stop to it and was forced to watch everything as it happened.