The Gentle Billionaire Always By My Side

In a dark lonely alley, Ariel walked with a slumped body. Her left eye was bruised and was hurting really badly. So was her right arm.

She was fed up! How long did she have to live with that abusive drunk? He claimed he loved her yet each time he came home at night, he would reek of alcohol and force himself on her. If she resisted even a little, he would hit her.

Was that love? How would she know anyway? She never had someone to truly love and care for her.

Ariel was the adopted daughter of the Albert family. Anyone would be thrilled to be adopted by such a wealthy and well off family but instead of being thrilled, she was filled with regret and anguish.

She had the guise of an adopted daughter when she was actually the product of an affair between her father and her unknown mother.

This spite her step mother so much that she made sure she lived like a real bastard child and hid the fact from her to avoid her from claiming rights.

They all treated her like dirt and made her live in the basement. If they were going to treat her like that, why adopt her in the first place? She would wonder.

Her life was hell as it was and then she met Marco. At first he was charming and she fell for his caring and loving side. He was practically the only person who treated her like a living being.

After she turned 18, she left the Albert family and went to live with him but little did she know that she was falling from the pan to the fire.

In the first year of living with him, he was as caring and loving as he originally was but as time went by, he started changing.

He became far from caring and loving and he often treated her like a punching bag.

"Your only worth is your body!" He'd say. "You're completely useless. You should be happy that someone like me loves you!" Other times, he'd say.

But was that really love? She wanted to ask but never got the chance or worked up the courage.

Now she was even doing all sorts of bad things on his behalf. He made her take loans, lie and even steal. She wasn't good at any of that and often got caught. This led to being beaten and even jailed for a week or two.

She still did all those things because she thought he truly loved her and that was what a person receiving love must do. They must sacrifice a bit.

'But Clara never did those things!' she thought as she dragged her body through the dark alley.

Clara was her sister. The real and only true daughter of the Albert family. She was the real princess and was treated like one of course.

She was also one of the reasons why her life was worse than hell while living in that house.

Ariel kept dwelling on this and felt even worse as she thought of how Clara got anything and everything she ever asked for while she was simply a shadow. No! A shadow was far better than her in her circumstance.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she bit her lip. Her hand hurt a lot.

All of a sudden, she heard men punching and hitting from a distance. It was all dark so she couldn't see clearly from her range. Was there a fight? Her curiosity caused her to draw closer and got a closer view.