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 name into the dirt again."
Tears blurred my vision, but I refused to let them fall. It wasn't the first time this was happening, getting accused wrongly with no one to defend me.
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 me 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 some desperate, seductive little…"
"That's not what happened!" I shouted as my chest heaved. "He came into my room and…"
Lena scoffed, cutting me 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 shameless can you be? Do you think we are foolish not to see through your lies?"
"N, no, no. Y-you've got it wrong. I never texted him. I didn't even know he was… he sat down, he…"
"You always have an excuse, don't you?" Mom's voice sliced in from behind me, venom-laced and cold.
My heart clenched. I recalled how much she loved and protected me in the past, but now…
"Just like every other time. You think we're all too stupid to see what you're really like? You were clearly laying on Landon when we came in. Try explaining that."
I swallowed. It was true but that had been because he yanked my hand and I lost my footing, sending me flying on top of him and at that perfect moment, 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 something 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 me 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 me 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 someone care."
Her words pierced through me like needles. What was I thinking that after all these years, if I tried harder, then probably then, Lena would show some sisterly affection towards me.
"I'm telling the truth." My head was spinning, drowning in my own misery.
"Enough!" my dad barked, storming towards me.
Instinctively, I flinched when I saw the rage burning in his eyes. "I thought the basement would teach you some lessons, but it seemed 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 basement was literally my nightmare. After being locked down there on so many accounts for a false accusation, one would expect such trauma. One time it was because Lena lied to them that I wanted to drain her blood. That was after my sixteenth birthday when I just transformed.
My father hated me 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 same as the vampire who killed his mother but my life only got worse by each passing day.
Why did they choose me of all children to be adopted? I had dreamed of the day they would treat me as their daughter but I've long lost hope, I only wished they would at least see me 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 me!" I screamed.
"You've embarrassed this family long enough," he spat, dragging me forward. "You want to keep acting like some depraved little leech, with a cunt hungry for any dick? Then fine. But you're not doing it under my roof."
"Let go of me!" I fought him, heels digging into the floor as he pulled me 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 me out into the night, letting the cold air prick my skin as the porch light hummed 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 time.
He surely is and has been letting out the grief of losing his mother at a young age to a vampire on me. And I hated myself so many times 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 emerged. "Alpha Falcon, please, take it easy. I mean…" He ran a hand through his hair again. "Can you really blame 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 moment something inside me 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 game.
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 some 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.