Tasting
Chapter 250

250–Another Day In Hell

Nora:

I was resting in my room, trying to calm myself down when I dozed off for a brief moment.

I woke up to the sound of a belt hitting my bed. My body jolted, and my heart jumped, lodging in my throat.

Right beside my bed stood my father, a belt in his hand.

“Are you going to spend yet another day lying in bed?” he yelled, forcing me to scramble out of bed. I almost tripped, as I hadn’t fully healed yet.

The last day’s training had left me badly wounded.

“Learn something from him,” my father sneered, slapping my cheek and pointing at my brother, who stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest.

“He is my real pride. You’re just a weakling that I have to train in hopes of ever making you powerful. But all you want is to enjoy the luxuries and be timid.” His every word had been engraved in my memory.

Ever since I was a child, he had complained about me not being good enough to make him proud. I hated my life.

Why must I train?

Why such tough love?

Even if training was necessary, why all the time? Couldn’t I rest for a single day without getting beaten by my dad or verbally abused?

“She’s lazy, Dad. I bet she wants to run away and start somewhere new. She won’t even miss us. She sees us as her enemies,” my brother’s voice made me hug myself. He was the worst.

Sometimes I wondered what I had done so wrong to deserve his merciless abuse.

“That will never happen. And we are not your enemies. Our enemies. are those alpha kings and their sons. So you better get on your feet and start training,” my father’s whip made me wake up in a sweat.

I rubbed my face in my hands and gasped. My breathing was erratic, and my mouth had gone dry.

The haunting memories of my life before coming here were the worst. But what if this mansion became the same for me?

This is why I still wanted to live here. No matter how much they yelled. at me or looked at me differently, at least the pain and torture I endured at the hands of my father and brother would never match this level.

Hence, the brothers annoying me or yelling at me didn’t seem so bad.

I had just decided to rest again when I heard some commotion downstairs, and my heart began to beat loudly once more.

What was going on downstairs?

I hoped I wouldn’t go down and replace Natalia lying about something I supposedly did, especially since I hadn’t even left my bedroom since the brothers left.

250–Another Day in Hell

So, I jumped out of bed and went straight to see what was happening. There were my stepbrothers standing with Lord Atwood, and then. there was Ford Ledger standing with Daphne.

I had a feeling she had arrived to talk about her arrest and probably get it pushed.

“We don’t want to talk about it,” Lord Atwood gestured for them to

leave, but Ford shook his head.

“You heard that man say it. Why would you not want to talk about it?” he sounded aggressive this time.

“The council heard it too,” he added.

I began to wonder if this was even about me at this point. They must be discussing their own issues.

“Or he must be fooling us,” Ryker stepped up, facing Ford to silence him as he stood between his father and Ford.

“You mean to say your brother failed to do his job?” Ford muttered as he slightly turned to Silas, whose veins started to pop.

“Besides, you can avoid it all you want. But the council will want answers,” Ford sighed, and that’s when I noticed Daphne raised her head and looked my way.

“And what’s even more worrisome is that she wasn’t at the hall during that time,” the minute she said that, my body started to tremble.

They were indeed talking about me.

But what could it be that involved the council too?

“Ask her where she was all that time?” Daphne persisted, making heads turn to me. I steadily started to walk downstairs, watching their stares deepen as they looked at my face.

“What is going on?” I inquired with a steady heart,

Lord Atwood looked so down that I didn’t even know what to say.

“Did you recognize the man from that trip I had with you?” Nash stepped forward and posed the question.