Chapter 1
I was drowning. Everywhere I looked was water and I couldn't escape this nightmare.
I raised my hand up with all my might, I had no energy left inside me. My limps were tried of swimming in an endless ocean, my lungs felt like they were burning. I felt the light but I was surrounded by nothing but water.
I couldn't make out the sounds I was hearing, it was distant but someone was there...someone who wasn't helping me. Breaking through the surface, I pulled my head out, my legs almost giving away. I had used too much energy for today.
There he was. My Father, a man in a crisp black suit, looked as if he were in a business meeting. He stood there with such calmness on his face, that one shouldn't have when his daughter is drowning.
He looked at his watch and made a face, one that meant I had again disappointed him. "Eloise, Just three minutes? Is that what I taught you? You need to work on your breathing techniques"
Of course, he just wants me to die.
"I'm trying, dad. I've made progress, haven't I?" I was surprised by how much I had spoken, because I had no energy left in me.
"You haven't tried enough. Now chop-chop, you have work to do"
I pulled my body out of the water and positioned myself on the ground. Dad wanted to be a swimmer, and he sure was a good one as much as I can remember. His childhood pictures are all over the house but he stopped swimming when he was 19.
A tragic incident took place, he got into a fight with some boys and things got serious much faster than expected and he broke his arm. That was it. His dreams shattered and he couldn’t swim again.
His best solution to this was putting his label on his children.
I lost my mother after she gave birth to me, so Dad was only left with one kid. Me. Eloise Bennett.
Now it has become my duty to achieve the dreams he could not.
Father never shared anything with me, the only time he talks to me is when he wants to take me for swimming lessons or impose another thing he couldn’t do when he was my age.
But I was his daughter, the one thing I got from him was my curiosity to know everything. Recently, my father has caught my attention. Father goes to his study every night and he never lets me in. After he leaves his study, he puts a big lock on it, even when he just wants water from the kitchen. I have to know what’s in there. Why is he hiding from me? What is he hiding from me?
I will find out.
My eyes were locked on the study door. “That’s not how that door’s going to open” dad’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “You should go to bed now, it’s getting late”
But it is only nine, that’s not late at all.
“I will sleep in a while, I am not sleepy now” I said.
“I said Go to bed, Eloise. I don’t like it when you don’t listen to me” He is hiding something, I can see it on his face. He keeps checking the time on his watch. I can either argue with him or just go to bed. Right now I choose the latter.
“Sure, Father” I gave him a closed smile.
His eyes followed after me as I walked upstairs to my room. I just had to wait until he’s inside his study, then I can go find out what it is that he’s hiding.
