Chapter 1
Andria’s POV
"You slut!"
The slap was so fast that I didn’t see it coming; I felt the sting as my father’s hand connected with my cheek, sending my head to the side.
For a second, everything went silent. My ears rang, and my skin burned.
I stared up at him, frozen, my palm slowly lifting to touch the place he’d struck. "Dad...?"
"Don’t speak," he growled in a low voice. "Don’t you dare open that filthy mouth and drag this family’s na into the dirt again."
Tears blurred my vision, but I refused to let them fall. It wasn’t the first ti this was happening, getting accused wrongly with no one to defend .
My voice cracked as I whispered, "I didn’t do anything... Landon was the one who..."
"Oh, please," Lena cut in, strutting into the room with that perfectly fake expression of hurt and betrayal. "He told everything. You texted him, said you were sick and needed help."
I blinked. What?
"And because I’m not a complete monster," she added with a dramatic sniff, "I decided to bring you warm milk. And what do I walk in on? You, throwing yourself at him like so desperate, seductive little..."
"That’s not what happened!" I shouted as my chest heaved. "He ca into my room and..."
Lena scoffed, cutting off before I finished." Who the hell are you kidding? You asked him to see you, and yet you remained in a towel. Andria, how shaless can you be? Do you think we are foolish not to see through your lies?. You must have tried to compel him, you are a vampire after all"
She has thrown that vampire card on my face again to make them believe her, false testimony I could see my father clench his hands with a look of distaste on his face
"N, no, no. Y-you’ve got it wrong. I never texted him. I didn’t even know he was... he sat down, he..." It was of no use explaining, but I did anyway.
"You always have an excuse, don’t you?" Mom’s voice sliced in from behind , venom-laced and cold.
My heart clenched. I recalled how much she loved and protected in the past, but now...
"Just like every other ti. You think we’re all too stupid to see what you’re really like? You were clearly laying on Landon when we ca in. Try explaining that."
I swallowed. It was true but that had been because he yanked my hand and I lost my footing, sending flying on top of him and at that perfect mont, Lena pushed the door and waltzed in.
"Mum..."
She lifted her palm. "And to think I actually interceded for you, begging your father that what Victoria said about you sleeping with Gamma Reed’s son yesterday was a lie, and you’re doing it again today?"
I turned around, heart pounding so loud I couldn’t hear. She was standing there, arms crossed, like I was sothing she’d scraped off the bottom of her shoe.
I looked to Landon, my last chance, my last hope.
He just stood there, leaning against the wall with that smug little smile like all of this was beneath him... as if he were entitled to watch burn.
"Landon," I said, pleading, "...please tell them. Tell them the truth."
He gave a lazy shrug, brushing a hand through his stupid, perfect hair. "Look, I dunno. I truly cared that you were under the weather. But y-you just... misread the situation."
"Misread?"
My voice cracked.
I took a step back, the betrayal crashing over so hard I thought I might drown in it.
"Stop lying. I would never do that to you, Lena," I tried defending myself, turning toward her, "I know he is yours, so how could I even think of doing that?"
"Oh my god, you’re so pathetic," Lena sneered. "Always the victim. Always spinning your little sob stories like it’s going to make soone care."
Her words pierced through like needles. What was I thinking that after all these years, if I tried harder, then probably then, Lena would show so sisterly affection towards .
"I’m telling the truth." My head was spinning, drowning in my own misery.
"Enough!" my dad barked, storming towards .
Instinctively, I flinched when I saw the rage burning in his eyes. "I thought the basent would teach you so lessons, but it seed like I was being too nice."
My eyes went wide in shock as my chest tightened so much I couldn’t breathe. Before I could react, his hand clamped around my wrist like a vice.
"Dad, please... stop, no. I don’t want to go down there. Please."
The basent was literally my nightmare. After being locked down there on so many accounts for a false accusation, one would expect such trauma. One ti it was because Lena lied to them that I wanted to drain her blood. That was after my sixteenth birthday when I just transford.
My father hated so much because I reminded him of the vampire who killed his mother. I’ve spent my whole life trying to show my dad that I’m not the sa as the vampire who killed his mother but my life only got worse by each passing day.
Why did they choose of all children to be adopted? I had dread of the day they would treat as their daughter but I’ve long lost hope, I only wished they would at least see better than a slave.
He paused briefly. "Like I said, too good for you. You’ll suffer worse."
His hold tightened, I felt my bones might snap any second. "Stop... you’re hurting !" I scread.
"You’ve embarrassed this family long enough," he spat, dragging forward. "You want to keep acting like so depraved little leech, with a cunt hungry for any dick? Then fine. But you’re not doing it under my roof."
"Let go of !" I fought him, heels digging into the floor as he pulled out of my room and down the hallway. "You don’t know the truth! I swear I never did that. Landon please. Tell him the truth... Mum... Lena, please."
He shoved open the front door and yanked out into the night, letting the cold air prick my skin as the porch light humd faintly behind us. My heart pounded in my chest like it was trying to escape.
"Get the silver-laced whip," he said flatly. "And flog her hundred strokes."
And just like that, I stopped breathing.
I stared at him, wide-eyed, the words refusing to register. He wasn’t serious.
He couldn’t be serious. He knew that I can’t easily heal from silver, yet he has chosen the silver whip this ti.
He surely is and has been letting out the grief of losing his mother at a young age to a vampire on . And I hated myself so many tis for being the creature that I’m.
The door creaked again, and Lena stepped out behind us, the moonlight catching the fake worry in her eyes. "Dad, don’t be too hard on her," she said with mock compassion. "I’m hurt, but I wouldn’t want her dead."
And then, just to twist the knife deeper, Landon erged. "Alpha Falcon, please, take it easy. I an..." He ran a hand through his hair again. "Can you really bla her? Fifty strokes would be okay to remind her of her morals."
I wished he never spoke up, because what was the point, what he just said dealt the last straw and that was it.
That was the mont sothing inside shattered.
I stopped struggling. Stopped crying. I just... stood there.
But in all of this, I pitied Landon. If only he knew how selfishly ambitious Lena is, and that he was just a pawn in her ga.
I looked my father in the eye and said nothing as the whip cracked through the air.
The first strike felt like fire ripping down my back, but I didn’t scream. I wouldn’t give them that satisfaction.
I lost count after the twelfth.
Maybe the twentieth.
At so point, I couldn’t see anymore. My vision blurred, the world fading to black at the edges.
And as I crumpled to the grass, blood in my mouth, pain in every breath, I made myself a promise in the dark.
No more.
Reviews
All reviews (0)