Bullied Cinderella - Hollie Hutchins Page 0,14

I would have to see them for myself before I really believed they were okay. But there were no other options. It would be impossible to find trustworthy transportation at this hour, and the horse cart that delivered me there was long gone.

I reluctantly followed the woman into her home. She couldn’t tell me much about what had happened to my mother and sister - only that they left their address with her in case I ever came back to the house. They didn’t have a phone installed yet, so there was no number to call. Just the address. I tried to imagine what must have been going through their heads this entire time and felt overwhelmed with guilt. It felt impossible to wait until the next day to know how they were, but they had spent months worrying about me - not knowing where I was or if I was okay.

I could barely sleep that night, even after the generous, filling meal my neighbor provided for me. It didn’t feel like anything in me could rest until I saw my mother and sisters again. I needed to tell them I was sorry. I had failed, and I didn’t even have anything to show for my hasty, stubborn decision to run off to the auction.

My stomach turned as I traveled to their address the next morning. I wanted to stay far away from that nightmare of an estate, but here I was willingly being carted right back to a property that I gathered couldn’t be more than just a few houses over. My mouth dropped when he pulled up to the hacienda on a big sprawling property.

“This can’t be,” I murmured for the twentieth time.

“This is the address you gave me! Now pay me and get out!”

My neighbor had been kind enough to give me a little money to pay for the ride, which I tossed over to him just as rudely as he had ordered me to get out. One thing that had changed about me after meeting Leonardo and his cousins was that I had even less tolerance for rudeness than I did before.

I was hesitant to knock on the front door, convinced that this couldn’t be the right place. But before I even made my way up the rest of the long driveway, the door flung open. Jada stood there with tears streaming down her face.

“Lucia!” she cried, not wasting another second before flying forward to throw her arms around me, nearly sending us both toppling over.

We rolled around on the ground, crying and hugging each other for a long time until mother finally came out and yelled at us for acting indecently. Of course, the moment Jada freed me, she couldn’t stop herself from acting just as indecent as she embraced me.

It must have been at least an hour before the three of us were finally able to calm down enough to speak actual words beyond “I can’t believe it’s you!” and “You’re home!”. When the chance finally did come, I noticed what was missing.

“Where’s Elaina?” I asked with a hard gulp, afraid of what the answer might be.

“Next door!” Jada smiled. “She’ll be so happy to see you!”

“How...why...where did…,” I stammered my way through trying to make sense of it all. “How did you all end up here? I was...I have been down the street this whole time.”

Their brows furrowed and pure heartbreak shined through their eyes. “If we had known,” mother sobbed.

“You couldn’t have known! I wasn’t allowed to write letters or send money or...anything. It was awful. How is Elaina!? I have been worried sick about her! She had to have lied in her letter! That auction is a terrible place and the people who get workers there are monsters! Slave drivers!”

I saw the pain on my mother’s face and regretting spewing all of that out. I should have lied too, for her sake. I realized right then that’s what Elaina did. She lied so we wouldn’t worry or beg her to come home.

But instead of apologizing, all I could do was break down in tears. “I’m sorry. It was a terrible mistake to go. I should have never left you two. And I don’t even have a penny to show for it. One of my employers helped me flee in the middle of the night, and I had to leave all of my money behind.”

Jada reached over and squeezed my hands in hers. “Oh, Lucia. You don’t have to worry about any