Chapter 709 - Seven Hundred And Nine: Deborah -2
The third point of view:
Deborah learned from a young age that having hope was cruel. Believing in the impossible to happen was the same as drinking poison and hoping that it doesn't kill you.
So she gave up on faith from then on and crushed the dream that her father would come for her - because it would never happen. Moreover, why would her father come for an ugly pig like her - so they called her.
So she stayed with her mother and step-father hoping that someday they would change their attitude towards her. As if fate finally smiled her way, her younger sister liked her, no, loved her. As little as she was, she would defend Decorah fiercely from the bullies - including their own parents.
Thanks to the love showered upon her by her sister, Deborah was able to breathe. Her dear sister was a good manipulator and a great actress and through her tears, she forced their parents to provide Deborah's needs as a growing lad that they neglected for a long time now.
Opal was her sister's name and in Sanskrit origin meant "jewel". In Deborah's eyes, her sister was a jewel sent to her from heaven. But then, good things never last long. One day while she had been playing with Opal, as usual, her dear sister fainted and was rushed to the hospital.
Deborah could never forget how frightened she had been while her sister remained in the emergency room. She conjured numerous sceneries in her head where the doctor would come out and announce that her sister was dead.
However, none of that happened yet the result wasn't promising either. According to the doctor, Opal had Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)?- a hole in the heart - and needed surgery because of the hole and the location. Aside from that, she was at greater risk for developing endocarditis, an infection of the inner surface of the heart caused by bacteria in the bloodstream.
Unfortunately, there was no money for surgery. After their father lost his job, his mother became the breadwinner of the family and her father since then made no effort to find one.
Her mother tried her best to gather enough money for the surgery and even had to borrow money from friends and neighbors while her father went about drinking and wallowing in self-pity.
Thanks to Opal's illness, it took much of her mother's time and attention and she was seen less and less at home and that was when it began.
One night, her step-father came back home drunk as usual. Deborah was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the both of them when he staggered into their living room and she had to leave everything she was doing to help him to his room.
Deborah winced because he reeked of alcohol and his breath stinks. But then something happened, the instant she put her arm around her father to steady and help him on his feet, the man groped her and she let go of him immediately.
He fell to the ground while Deborah was mortified by what happened. Perhaps, because it was the first time such a thing happened, she surmised that it was a mistake and didn't think much about it.
However, that was the beginning of her misery.
The next few days that followed made Deborah increasingly aware of her step-father.?While they passed each other, he would mistakenly brush his arm across her body and would pretend that nothing happened. From that day, he would make suggestive remarks about her body that were quite sensitive - something that had never happened before.
Call it her sixth sense or something but Deborah knew she was endangered. She began to sleep with her door locked and made sure to limit her encounters with her father - she cooked on time and ensured dinner was ready before he came back home.
Her father must have discovered her tactics because one day, he came home on time and she had no choice but to serve him his meal. As soon as she was done setting the table, her father reached out and pulled her to his laps.
"Why are you being so grumpy?" He laughed while she struggled to be free from him.
"Don't tell me you've not done it. I see the way that the boys on our street have been staring at you lately," He said while touching her breast.
His grip was tight around her and she couldn't break out of his hold no matter how much she tried. So Deborah did the only thing that came to mind, she grabbed the hot soup on the table and poured it on him.
While he howled in pain, she took that opportunity to escape for her life. Deborah never returned home that night and contemplated going to the hospital and telling her mother everything.
But then she couldn't, she knew how much stress her mother was undergoing because of her sister's illness, and would she believe her anyway? Would her mother believe that her husband, her step-father was making advances on her? Not to mention the fact that their relationship wasn't that great anyway.
That night, she slept at a kind neighbor's place and the next day onwards chose to sleep at the hospital where she felt safer. Her mother noticed the changes and questioned her, Deborah lied to her. This was not the time and setting to tell her of her husband's actions.
For almost a month, Deborah didn't sleep at home and was much happier spending time with her sister Opal, who was finally scheduled for surgery - thankfully, she didn't have to worry about school because she had graduated from high school. That allowed her mother to return home and spend time with her husband.
Finally, Deborah went home and to her relief, her step-father changed. It seems that her mother returning home was a good thing because it somehow brought him back to normal and they went back to their previous step-father and daughter relationship - although it was somewhat awkward.
No matter what, no one was going to delete whatever happened between them. Even though everything went back to normal, Deborah was still cautious and she became tense again when her mother resumed sleeping at the hospital.
Contrary to her fears, it seems that her step-father finally changed because he didn't try anything funny with her or so she thought. Who knew that the man had been nothing but a patient panther waiting for the right time to strike and he did it that night.
Deborah was so relaxed that she forgot to lock her door that night and the devil struck. He tried to force himself on her but she struggled and somehow grasped the water jar on her side and hit him hard on the head.
She thought her step-father would go after her but the man remained limb on the bed and that was when she realized that he was not moving and bled profusely from the head.
Deborah had no choice but to raise an alarm where the ambulance was called by neighbors and her stepfather was taken to the hospital. And that was the point where everything came into the limelight.
Her mother had been furious and even when Deborah narrated to her that her husband nearly raped her, the woman didn't believe her. Her mother continued to rain assaults on her with words claiming that she was just like her father Niklaus and had come to ruin her marriage!
That night, Deborah received the truth she had been wanting to hear all her life. Her father was alive all this while and she knew him as well?!
The Spencer group was a huge conglomerate with several subsidiaries and she often saw Niklaus on televisions either giving a speech or receiving an award. That man was her father?! It shocked her to the core.
Hope reignited in Deborah's heart and she thought somehow that things would change once he knew about her existence. So she ran away from home with the hope of making her existence known to her father. He would take her in and give her a different life from the one she grew in.
But then the reality was far from her imagination and even after a year, Deborah couldn't get close to her father. The man was high profile and always surrounded by his security details.
It was not easy for Deborah, she had lived off the street and could only afford a batcher house with a friend she made after months of doing menial jobs.
However, luck finally shone on her face and she got a job at Spencer groups headquarter as a cleaner. It was a huge miracle because she got to see Niklaus come and go to work often and there were huge chances of her telling him of her existence.
But then, it was easier said than done, each time Deborah got close to grabbing his attention, she would lose her courage and end up only wishing him a nice day. This continued until one day, she made up her mind.. It was time for her father to know the truth.
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