Rojo had hit Sophia over and over amidst Julianna’s screams until her mother had slumped. Her father’s knuckles were bloody from punching her mother in her bleeding face. Sophia was a crumpled mess in the sitting room corner and Julianna ran to her immediately after her father stepped away.
For the following weeks, her mother had stayed in bed too ashamed to be seen with a black eye, a missing front tooth and bruises of different colours on her body. Her father had basically acted like an annoying, discreet housemate; came very late and left early before anyone else but not before shouting and smashing one thing or the other.
Julianna had been left with looking after her mother every day and finding ways to provide dinner for the two of them. She even went back to Mrs Maddily on one of t
