In that second, her head rang from the force of the slap, the sting blooming across her cheek until her vision blurred. Eva staggered, dizzy, trying desperately to understand what she had done wrong this time. Hadn't she made sure the stew was still warm when he came home? Had she forgotten to trim the grasses in the yard again? Or scrub the hearth properly?
She couldn't think— her father's anger never had a single cause. It could be anything, or nothing at all.
"I heard about it." His voice cracked like a whip. "Kissing a man at the party? Do you think yourself one of those whores from the brothels?" His lip curled in disgust. "You seduced the Iverson's family eldest son. A Seraph! A man of such integrity!"
Eva's lips parted, but the words stuck in her throat. Horror spilled across her face. "Who told you—" The girls. It had to be the Seraph girls. But if the whispers had already reached him, how far had the rumors spread? How badly have it been warped?
That moment of hesitation was all her father needed. His expression twisted into something monstrous. "So it is true!"
"No— no! Father, please, it isn't true! They were jealous because I spoke to Sir Adrian, just once. We never— never kissed. You have to believe me!" Her voice cracked, thin and desperate.
"Believe you?" he barked. "The whole village has heard of it! You've dragged his name through the mud and ruined your own. Who would marry you now? You shame Crestmont, Evangeline!"
His hand flew again, a blur she could not dodge. She raised her arms to shield herself, biting down on her lip as the blows rained down. Then came the hiss of leather, her father unlooping his belt, winding it tight around his fist before lashing it across her back. The pain seared, stealing her breath.
Eva curled in on herself, sobbing, her body shrinking smaller with each strike. Like a child, she could only curl, her body stinging in pain as her father wasn't one to control his power, ever. Tears streaked her cheeks as she cried out, "I didn't do it! Mama— please, Mama, listen! Please!"
But Mrs. Crestmont only folded her arms with a cold harrumph, eyes narrowing in contempt. "What are we to do if this becomes a hurdle for Serena's marriage? Do you ever think of anyone but yourself? I knew that you have always been such an attention seeker but to go this far! To ruin your innocence!"
Eva's heart squeezed painfully. Even her mother, her last fragile hope, had no ear for her cries.
"I didn't," she cried, "I didn't. Why don't you trust me?" She broke into a sob, her voice broken. "I never lied!" Then she turned her wet eyes toward her sister, desperate. "Serena— please, you know me. I would never—"
But Serena only stared back, lips trembling, her own cheeks pale with unease. "Why, Eva?" she whispered, shaking her head, as though her sister's denial meant nothing. "Why would you do that? We were always taught to keep our innocence! It must be that lady... that old lady who lives in the brown hut. I heard she was once a whore. You talked to her before, she must have been the one who had put this dirty ideas to you!"
"W- What?"
Her mother, Mrs Crestmont rolled her eyes, "I knew it was always weird that she doesn't come home early. So it turns out that you were only seducing men! Who knows how many more men have you rolled over with?"
Her words cut deeper than the belt. Betrayal, disbelief, disappointment, all turned against her. Eva's throat closed, her body shaking, the truth trapped in her chest. No matter how she cried, no matter how much she begged, not a single soul in her family believed her.
And in that moment, as the belt struck again and the room swam with the sound of her own sobs, Eva knew— fairness had never belonged to her.
While her family had proceed to dinner, Evangeline could only stifle down her sobs as she reached her hand to her back, feeling the wetness of blood.
"Is she still a virgin?" Mrs Crestmont clicked her tongue, "If she isn't, then how can we marry her off? Her looks isn't too bad but with those bad rumors," she sighed.
"Even if she isn't, no man would want her anymore," her father huffed, "How have I failed myself by raising such a disappointment!"
"Maybe we should marry sister quickly," said Serena with a sigh and when she turned to Evangeline, a look of pity formed in her eyes, "We could find one in the party. I'll help sister! I will talk to the men and see whether someone would take her in despite those rumors."
They continued to chatter, eating from the pot she cooked from but all Evangeline felt was numbness.
She couldn't understand why her family wouldn't believe her words at all, or at least listen to her explanation.
They would have known- she wasn't a promiscuious girl. She has always lived the way her parents taught her, never interact with a man, always working herself to the bone until her fingers weren't as soft as Serena's anymore.
She couldn't understand. Understand how they could talk to her without listening to her once, without questioning her even once, and now eating as though she wasn't still crying and full of scars.
With nothing more she could do, Evangeline dragged her body toward the bathroom. Her eyes were dizzy from the tears she shed, her legs trembling as she pulled herself from the dress that had sticked to her fresh wounds.
As she poured water over her scar, her entire body winced in pain, humming down to her nerves.
The unfairness she suffered, the pain, the sadness, everything finally caught to her and the only thing she could do was to drench herself with more cold water, her body trembling in pain but this way she could let out the louder sobs she had wanted to cry out but feared would only fueled her father into whipping her again.
She could only mutter under the water, crying in a small, broken voice that her family had fallen a deaf ear to, "I didn't do it... I didn't."
And until morning arrives, no one had ever talked to her. Her family, all had treated her as a plague while she busied herself to cook and clean the house despite her wound that were still painfully aching in her back.
Just as Evangeline hoped nothing would go worse from here on, she was faced with an even more horrible day following it..