Surrogate For Mr CEO

I am Elina Anderson. A twenty-three-year-old rural girl. Daughter to the late Juliet Anderson and William Anderson. My mother died when I was just 5 years old.

My father remarried a woman by the name of Caroline who proved to only have Love for the children that she gave birth to. If I did not know any better I would have thought the story of Cinderella was a prophecy of my life.

I have two siblings who are my father's children from his second wife. A brother and sister, Daniel and Danielle Anderson who are twins and are now 15 years old. I have always been envious of them because they got all the love and affection of a mother that I was robbed of.

My father worked far from home and only came home once a year during the December holiday. It gave his wife plenty of time to treat me like dirt.

I love my father and I know that he loves me too, but I could never bring myself to tell him about the way his wife treated me because I feared that he would strip me of his love.

For some reason, he also isolated me from my mother's family after getting married to Caroline. To such an extent that we moved from the Town, where we lived unknown to my mother's family.

For that, I am angry at him because he does not have an extended family. He never talked about the reasons behind him being all alone when other people have extended family. I suspect they all died or that he was disowned by them.

I moved from my village because I met a man, Derrick (30 years old) five years ago, who promised me everything under the sun. A man who promised to take me to university so that I could make something of my life. A man who was seven years my senior.

The naive me fell head over heels in love with this man. It was easy for him to convince the then eighteen-year-old me, who had for years lived under the cruelty of a stepmother, to move away from home.

I remember telling him that I would think about it and that same night when I got home, my stepmother threw lukewarm oil on me for not cooking on time.

It was then that I realized that if I did not get out of there she would kill me, bury me in the backyard, and tell my father that I had run away. So I did myself a favor by running away with the man who loved me, who wanted to see me succeed and marry me.

I didn't even take clothes because my knight in shining armor promised me an entire wardrobe of clothes. All I took was my SAT Certificate, ID, and pictures of my mother and father.

I left while my dad was away at work, meaning I did not get a chance to say goodbye nor get his blessings, there was simply no time because if my step-mother found out that I was going to live the good life, in a big city she would have convinced him to forbid me from going.

It still haunts me that I left home like that, like a thief in the night. Derrick and I had been dating for a month when I decided to place my entire future in his hands.

We moved to New York and I was so excited. Excited to get away from abuse, to finally see what a city looks like, to go to university, and to start a new life. Little did I know that I was putting my life in the hands of someone who would crush it.

"Abusive relationships are like a bad drug, you know it is bad for you but you have a really hard time escaping from it", read the magazine that I held in my hands.

I had never read something more true. It further advised on how a woman in an abusive relationship could free herself. It is so easy for those who have never been in one to say "leave him" when they do not know the complete story.

The thing about being in an abusive relationship is that it requires you to lose your friend, your family, your dreams, your dignity and so much more.

My abuser played his cards right. He made sure that I did not have anyone but him to lean on. When we arrived in New York we lived in a worn-out edo house, the opposite of what Derrick promised.

That should have been the first thing that made me head back to my father's house but between his smooth explanation and the fear of going back home, I did not go back.

He showed me around but not so much because he said it was too dangerous. The Brownsville Brooklyn life was a different life from what I saw in books about New York. I decided to stop wanting more because I had a man who put food on the table and was kind to me.

I kept on nagging Derrick about university applications and he kept on making excuses, another red flag that I ignored.

Derrick took me out to town for the very first

time about six months after moving in with him. I finally got to see the New York that I saw in pictures, it was so beautiful.

I did not ask him why he decided to finally allow me to come with him to town because it was dangerous, but he just said it was because he loves me.

Those words were enough to make me stop asking questions and enjoy the day. When we went back home, we were greeted by devastating news, our Edo house had burnt down. All the important documents that I needed to apply to university were gone.

When I asked him what we would do, he said I should not worry, and that he got us a crib house to live in. It was as though he had prepared for the fire. I did not care about the Edo house, only my papers.

Derrick told me that it would take thousands of dollars to get new ones so I needed to wait until he had saved up enough money to pay for it. I was patient and understanding. It has been five years and still nothing.

My Prince Charming also turned into a monster about three years ago. I was sitting and reading the magazine when I heard the door creak, he was home and my mood went from neutral to completely down. I no longer enjoy this relationship. I love him but he is not the man I thought he was.

It first started with forbidding me from going to visit neighbors, then he started hurting me with his words and then the beating started. I've been thinking about my life and I've concluded that I am meant to be abused.

I snapped out of my sad thoughts when I felt the magazine hit my face hard. I looked up to face him and he had a look of disgust on his face.