Chapter 4: Banished
"Didn't you hear me? Get out of here, slut!"
Athena remained stiff, as her father slapped her for the third time, and asked her out of the family compound.
"Father, I just want my belongings and..."
But Mr. Zack Moore wasn't one to listen when angry. "Shut up, you ungrateful child! I don't want to hear any nonsense from you! The one thing you could have done for me, out of your miserable existence, you failed at it. You couldn't give me a son, and you couldn't keep your marriage. Rather you soiled my reputation, and destroyed my chance of profiting off that proud boy. I shouldn't have let your mother bring you in when she had found you at the barn. Cursed be the person that had dropped you by our doorstep, and cursed be you!"
Athena stirred then, having heard that she wasn't her father's daughter.
"What are you talking about, father? What do you mean..."
But Zack wasn't having any of it. He called for his assistant's son.
"Take this slut out of here. I don't want to ever see her in this compound. She is forever banished from this family, from my town, and from this city!"
Athena cried out loudly in pain, as she felt the breaking of the familial bonds for the second time.
When Ewan had issued his rejection, the same thing had happened. Pain. Loneliness. Rejection. She would have felt useless, would have given in to despair, but for the baby residing in her womb. She had to be strong.
Not wanting the hands of Marco, the deputy's son, on her, she turned around before she could be touched and left the compound, walking the short distance to Gianna's house.