“Well, to be quite truthful, I’ve never met her, so if you do see her, don’t mention me whatsoever, please?”. He let out an honest smile and whispered “Mum’s the word - pun intended” and they let out a laugh. She grabbed her groceries and went outside. The grape-pressing woman followed out and called for her “Hey, mind if I talk to you a minute?”. Caitlin stopped and turned around. “Yeah… sure…” she uttered. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to harm you or anything, just wondering if you’re staying here long term?”



“Yeah,” Caitlin whispered shyly, “maybe quite a while” and then the woman smiled and said, “Those cuts, pardon me for intruding, where are they from?” Caitlin stood there for a moment, she knew this would come at least once while she was out. “Err… I… erm… well… you… erm” she kept thinking, hoping for a good excuse to come out and the woman put her hand on her shoulder “I know… Someone… did this, didn’t they?” Caitlin couldn’t hide it anymore and she burst into tears yelling “I… I can’t do it anymore, all this fake happiness when my life is a total shambles” and the woman put her hands on her shoulders and said “Hey, don’t worry, I’m a therapist - Doctor Hunt, if you ever need to talk, I’ve got spaces in my appointment book, all confidential of course.” Caitlin nodded and the woman smiled. “I’m Naomi, by the way, Naomi Hunt”



Caitlin walked home after a few minutes of talking and walked inside, shouting “Hello? Anyone home?” in which a figure walked down the stairs, a figure who looked exactly like the woman in the photograph. Caitlin stopped feeling anything and it felt as if time stopped. All of a sudden she came back to reality with the sound of “erm, who… are you?”



Caitlin tried her best to come up with an excuse but all that came out was “erm… err… well… you… erm… see…” and before another ‘erm’ could get in her sentence, the woman said “oh my god,” and stepped off the last stair in shock, tears going to her eyes, “C-C-Caitlin?”



Her mother would recognise her features from anywhere, the eyes, the nose, the mouth and the hair colour, it all came flooding back to her and she put her hand to her chest. “It… is… isn’t it?”. Caitlin nodded slowly and her mother let out a cry. “So many years,” she uttered, “so many years without you, so many years brainwashed” Caitlin looked confused, “brainwashed?”
“It’s what he did, isn’t it? He must have told you the story of me apparently abusing you and beating you to a pulp? He must have brainwashed you to... hate me, mustn’t he?” Caitlin realised what she was saying, her dad told her stories of when she was younger, where her mother would hit her and scream at her for the slightest thing. She had always believed it, and always thought her mother left because the police were on to her. “He even made you bruised, hit you and always slapped you if you annoyed him. Boy, his drinking was something else, once he had a bottle of vodka he’d go full rampage on me… and you.”

A tear swelled up in Caitlin’s eye. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but it made so much sense, yet at the same time, it made so little. “Why would he hit me?” she asked, quietly.

“Can’t you see your eye? Your face?” She reached out her hand to her, “You’re so broken, but if it wasn’t your dad, who was it then?”
Caitlin went quiet, she didn’t want to say anything, she just stood there and sighed.
“Please…” Her mother cried.
“It was dad, okay?” she snapped angrily, “Are you happy now? Worst daughter ever who would only find you if she was being beaten up, huh?”
“To come out of that… with… so much bravery, so much strength, I’m little of shame, I’m more of pride.”
“Proud? PROUD? Proud of this stupid girl who couldn’t get away, believed and still does believe that maybe he does love me, he just can’t show it in the right way…” They were both silent a moment “Well? Maybe he hasn’t been shown love in his life and may-maybe maybe… maybe” and she broke into a pit of tears… “I can’t make excuses anymore,” she cried, “I can’t be this strong girl who believes her dad’s a good man, because he’s not, he’s a monster and a monster who can’t even treat his own daughter like a person…”
She stood there crying and her mother didn’t know how to treat a situation like this, she’d never been in front of her before. She tried to go and hug her but Caitlin just turned around and cried even more.



“It’s Natalie” she said. Her daughter looked at her confused and Natalie went on to explain herself “You don’t want to call me mum, it’s obvious.”

Caitlin didn’t reply and Natalie knew she wasn’t going to get anything out of her, so she walked out and went to her flat underneath.

Natalie went to her kitchen and opened a bottle of wine, she sipped it as she cried herself, cried because all those years she never got to see her grow up… and now? Now she couldn’t protect her from the monster of a dad.



Nobody really knew what happened between Natalie and Caitlin’s father, all people in bitville knew was that she left because she had enough. All people back in their hometown of Pondes was that her mother was an abusive piece of crap that didn’t care for her or anyone else, which for what could be seen now, was absolute lies...