"Thanks again for your help, Mila," her teacher smiled, handing her a twenty dollar bill. "Good luck on your test next week."

"Thank you, ma'am," she said sincerely, tucking the money away. She felt giddy, hopeful. This was enough for her to leave, finally. All she had to do was get the rest of it when she got home from work and then she could take off.

The day could not have gone by any slower. Mila couldn't help but watch the clock. Tonight was the night that everything was going to change.

Except, nothing ever worked out like planned.

Her brother was watching television when she got home. He called her over, patting the seat next to him.

Her heart raced, and she moved cautiously. Something was off.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" he asked, swigging his beer. He muted the TV, his eyes, so much like her own, were clouded and dark.

She immediately looked down, knowing she wasn't supposed to look at him. "No, sir," she mumbled weakly, unsure of what he was getting at.

His left hand gripped her chin, forcing her face up before his other hand striked her hard.

She cried out, gripped the tender flesh.

"You're a liar," he said, reaching to the table beside him and dropping the shoebox of money she had been saving onto her lap. "What the hell is all of this, huh? You've been holding back on me. You know I work too damn hard taking care of your ass."

What little hope she had been gripping for the last year was squandered in an instant, leaving a heartbreak she hadn't felt since her mother died.

"No," she mumbled, trying to push back the tears, but they began to escape and she couldn't stop them. "No, sir. I was helping a teacher, and-"

He gripped her chin again, and she squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for another hit. She spoke faster, mind going a million miles a minute.

"And I thought I would save it all to give it to you before I took my first test, just as a thank you for everything you've done for me. I didn't keep them from my paycheck, promise."

He huffed, his grip tightening painfully. "You're a stupid bitch. Do you think you're really going to have a match? Cook me something to eat and then go to bed."

---

She cried the rest of the night, muffling the soft sound with her pillow. She cried for her mom, for her childhood, and the new life she had been clinging to that had just been ripped away

All she had left was the money she got today. That would be enough for a bus ride or something, but not nearly enough for her to start over. She had no choice. She was going to have to take that stupid test and hope she had a match.

She didn't want to know what her brother would do to her if she didn't.

Her brother had taken the test twice, and she prayed he didn't have a match. No one deserved what she had. He was a master manipulator, just like her father.

If anyone found out he was hitting Mila, he would be in big trouble. Submissives were the rare gems of society and deserved protection and care.

Those words had stuck to her when she first read them on her first day of training. That's when she began to realize it was not normal to be beaten and pushed around.

Either way, it would seem like she was meant to be controlled the rest of her life, and maybe that's what she deserved for even being hopeful.