My name is Kaluwa Ryder.

I was born into an impoverished southern family of African immigrants. I am the second eldest of the three children. We live by our parent's traditional Southern values; for example, the older sister growing up to watch the children (little brother and I), help with housework, and find a suitable husband to marry that father would approve of. The next would be my little brother, whose set to become the "man of the house" like our father.

Then there's me, the forgotten middle child of the family.

Why is that? Well, from how I have come to understand; was that Mother was supposed to have a boy and a girl.

At the ultrasound, the doctor told them they were expecting a boy, but at the birth, instead had another baby girl. To them, my very existence had put a wench in their plans of having a son in the family. Luckily, our mother was able to get pregnant with a boy for real this time and thus was able to reset their plans for their long-awaited son back in motion. Since I wasn't as beautiful and dignified as my sister or as masculine and awe-striking as my brother, I was to be a maid for our family.

I was never allowed to call my parents Mother or Father as I was not considered family.

Instead, I am to address them as Ma'am/Miss and Sir. Whenever I was to make a mistake, even once, I was to be punished. Whatever they felt was necessary hit me with whatever was easy to grab. However, I didn't even have to make a mistake to receive punishment. Father couldn't stand the sight of me. My existence was forever a curse in his eyes. An overgrown black shadow that can never seem to disappear.

"You weren't supposed to be born."

"Your a stain on this family."

Those were just a few things that "Father" would tell me. At first, the punishments were simple lectures would be verbal. The things they would say to me were;

"You're worthless."

"Why were you born?! I should've never given birth to you!"

"You were a mistake on this family."

"I should've killed when I had the chance."

"We let you stay in this family, so you better be grateful."

"You're nothing but a servant. Remember that!"

They would say these things to me on a daily bases. I already knew they only wanted me around to do housework and their personal needs. Soon the punishment got worse once my body started going through physical shifts to a mature woman causing their hatred for me to grow even more.

...