ＣＡＬＩＦＯＲＮＩＡ， １９７７

ʜᴀʀɢʀᴏᴠᴇ ʀᴇꜱɪᴅᴇɴᴄᴇ

The sound of something breaking in the kitchen downstairs woke Daphne Hargrove from her slumber. It wasn't anything new, she knew her parents were finally home from the party and were now fighting, but their shouts still made the young girl flinch.

A faint knock on the door to her room could be heard and Daphne knew who it was before she even opened it. It was Billy. The two Hargrove kids would often stay with each other until their parents were done fighting, after which their mother would come up to check up on them with a new bruise each time. It was a cruel routine that they were unfortunately used to.

Albeit young, Daphne understood that her father hurt her mother every day. He tortured her. And it pained the young girl to see her mother smile in front of her and Billy as if she wasn't in pain. 

Daphne once vowed to herself, that she would grow up and become successful, so that she could set her mother and her twin free from the claws of their monster of a father. But that vow was long forgotten when the sound of a door slamming shut reached the twins' ears. Billy immediately ran to the window of his sister's room, "I bet it was dad who left."

That was true, their father had stormed out of the house, one too many times.

"I wanna go check on mom, Billy." Daphne cared about others more than herself, another quality of hers that her father hated, "I'll go first and then I'll call you, okay?" Without any other words, Billy went to the kitchen.

"Okay."

Billy Hargrove was a protective brother, he wanted to keep his sister away from all the bad things in the world for as long as he could.

It had been about five minutes after Billy had left Daphne's room that she heard some noises. Worried, she got up in a hurry and climbed down the stairs, searching for the source of the noise, but she didn't have to search for much longer. There stood her father, one had in air and the other holding the collar of Billy's shirt, lifting him slightly off the ground.

"Your whore of a mother left and it was her choice! Drill that into your brain!" As the rough hand came in contact with Billy's cheek, the silence that followed was too much for Daphne, "Leave him alone!"

Suddenly the attention of the adult was on the little girl as he let Billy go, making him fall to the ground with blood in his mouth and a bruise on his right cheek.

"Daphne. Haven't I taught you better than to interrupt me when I'm talking..." His tone and his words terrified Daphne, the man took big steps towards the little girl s she backed away until her back hit the wall.

"When you disobey me, there will be consequences!"

Daphne's head flew to the left side as she immediately felt the pain crawl up her jaw, her father's hand rose up again, ready to strike her again when Billy came in front of her out of nowhere, "We apologize, sir. We won't disobey you again."

Billy always tried to protect Daphne and she tried to protect him too.

ＣＡＬＩＦＯＲＮＩＡ， １９８０

"You're annoying, Billy." 

"Just go back to your damn room, Daphne!"

"Why are you so mad, what did I do?!"

"JUST GO BACK TO YOUR FUCKING ROOM, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Those were the last words she had heard from Billy in an entire week. He'd been ignoring her, as if she never existed and he never had a twin. It pained Daphne because she could feel that things were changing. Billy was becoming angrier day-by-day and since he couldn't take it out on their father, he took it out on her.

Occasionally, Daphne would get scared of her twin because he started resembling their father when he got angry. But, she knew better than to give up on her brother. He'd come around.

"You need to learn how to make food, Daphne." Neil Hargrove had said as the three of them sat on a dining table, eating the shitty take-out food their father had brought home.

"That's misogynistic but fine, I'll do it."

"I'll do it, what? Do I need to make you remember your manners?!"

Daphne flinched but immediately opened her mouth, knowing that not answering him would only make it worse, "Dad. I'll do it, dad. You don't act like one though."

The last part was only meant to be heard by her, but somehow, Neil Hargrove picked up on it and got up, slamming his hands on the table.

"Get up. Quick!"

Daphne obeyed, keeping her head down as her father approached her, "Look at me. Look at me when I tell you to!" 

Daphne looked up but was immediately greeted with a punch so hard that it sent her tumbling to the ground, "Say that again, you bitch! You're just like your mother, ungrateful! And selfish!"

Each word was followed by a hit, or a slap, until her father was done and went to his room, leaving the 14 year old girl injured.

As Daphne was sprawled onto the floor, her face touching the cold floorboard, her eyesight blurry, she looked at Billy, who was sitting on the dining table, eating dinner like nothing was happening around him, "Billy, help...it hurts everywhere.."

But her meek whispers fell onto deaf ears as Billy got up and washed his dishes before walking towards his sister, "You brought this upon yourself." And he simply left.

His cold words hurt Daphne, and she knew in that exact moment that a very big change forced its way into her life.

Billy stopped protecting Daphne.

ＣＡＬＩＦＯＲＮＩＡ， １９８２

"It was your fault! Your whiny self drove mom away! If I had the chance, I'd leave you too!"

Daphne simply closed her eyes and sighed. It had been like this ever since that night in 1980. Billy had become someone Daphne didn't recognize anymore. She hadn't given up on him though. 

She knew that Billy was angry at their father. But his anger changed him, and in some ways he was influenced by their father too. It was easy for a child's mind to be influenced and the two had been exposed to violence since a young age. 

That night, their father returned home and asked for the report cards that they'd gotten today, "William, get yours and your sister's report cards."

Normally, Billy would've refuted with something like, 'Am I her servant?' or 'She has two legs, she can get it herself.' When Billy came back and handed his father their report cards, he immediately started scanning through them. 

"Nice work, William. At least you didn't fail. But I want better next time, you got that?!" 

Neil Hargrove then turned his head towards his daughter and Daphne swore that she felt the air around them shift, "Daphne. What are these shitty grades! Are you just dumb like your mother?!" 

Daphne was confused, she had passed with an A grade in almost every subject, her confusion was cleared, though, when she was handed her report card. 

It wasn't her report card.

Realization dawned upon Daphne. Billy switched their names on the report cards, the betrayal was written on her face as she looked at her brother with pained eyes while his held no regret. Before she knew it, she received a slap on her face.

It was a long night in the Hargrove household.

The neighbors could hear the screams of a 16 year old Daphne as she was backed onto a wall with her father's fist coming in contact with her face and stomach, he didn't even give her the chance to breathe properly.

Something in her snapped the moment her eyes flickered over to Billy's figure standing behind their father, "Dumb bitch..." he mouthed those words.

"You should stop now, you know." Daphne said with her hair covering her face as she looked down, her words were eerily calm. Her voice was distant.

"What did you just say?!" Neil Hargrove raged, "I said you should stop, or else the neighbors might call the cops, we wouldn't want that happening, now would we, father dearest."

It was as if something in her had unleashed that night. An instinct. Survival instinct.

"Shut your trap." Daphne knew that she had startled the two men in the room when she chuckled, "I suggest you to check with the school whether it was your daughter or your son who got those shitty grades. Might make you less dumb in my eyes."

Cold as ice, were her words. Neil Hargrove left the house in a fit of rage that night.

Daphne stepped closer to her brother, her eyes stared into his with a new confidence, "If you think that I'm gonna let a jerk like you and an asshole like our father walk all over me, then you thought wrong, Billy." 

Billy felt the distaste and anger in her tone when she said his name.

That night was the night Daphne Hargrove changed into someone Billy didn't recognize. Daphne   was done. She had given in, finally, for the sake of her survival in the toxic household.

So, Daphne started protecting herself.

...

𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫! 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐨𝐭𝐞!<𝟑