chapter 4

Rebecca's scream was ear-splitting, shattering the villa's tranquility.

Then darkness engulfed my vision, and my consciousness faded.

I'd been starving for too long, and my blood sugar dropped.

When I woke up, I was in the hospital. My wrist was bandaged, and there was an IV in the back of my other hand, pumping thick nutrient solution into my body.

In the VIP ward, only Samuel was listening to the doctor's instructions.

He got me discharged that night.

Evelyn said, holding my hand with a pained look, "Sevyn, it's all my fault. I've spoiled you all these years. How could you resort to self-harm at such a young age? Just because you were disobedient and didn't eat for two days, you did something so extreme. You really broke our hearts.

"Don't ever do that again. You scared me to death."

I glanced at Rebecca, who was sulking in silence, and weakly replied, "Mom, I was impulsive. I won't cut my wrist next time."

Evelyn was taken aback. She wasn't sure if I meant I'd stop self-harming or just choose a different way.

The Wrenley family was now in a bind. They never expected the orphan they adopted from the orphanage to be so stubborn. I wasn't swayed by money, didn't bow to pressure, and even dared to slit my wrist when pushed too far.

But for Rebecca's sake, they had to be patient.

That night, I finally had a meal. The fluffy staple food tasted so good, filling my empty stomach and boosting my flagging spirit.

The next day, on the way to school, Rebecca was about to sneer at me as usual but swallowed her words.

Guess she learned her lesson.

In the classroom, when my classmates saw the bandage on my wrist, they asked Rebecca, "Rebecca, what happened to Sevyn's hand?"

From the Wrenley family's attitude towards me, they assumed I was more like a plaything for Rebecca than a real member.

"Poor thing. Sevyn thought our family's food wasn't good enough, so she went on a hunger strike for days. I felt sorry for her and told her to eat, but then she just slit her wrist. You have no idea how scared I was," Rebecca whispered, then pretended to pat her chest in fright.

My classmates looked at me in disbelief.

"Don't stare at her. She might hold a grudge. Even I don't dare to say a harsh word. If we upset her, she might try to kill herself again," she added.

Sure enough, a boy bumped into my back on purpose as he passed by my desk. I lurched forward, and my ribs hit the corner of the table hard.

I gasped in pain, clutching the sore spot.

"Sorry, Sevyn. I wasn't watching where I was going," he said, then walked off arrogantly.

What a half-hearted apology.

After the pain subsided, I went back to reading.

Someone sneered, "Sevyn, stop wasting your time. You study so hard, but you always end up at the bottom of the class. Why bother?"

I put on my headphones to block out the noise.

They said the timid cowered before the tough, the tough yielded to the aggressive, and the aggressive trembled at the reckless.

When I compared the current bullying tactics with what I endured in my past life, they seemed like child's play. It was almost making me wonder if Evelyn and Michael genuinely treated me as their daughter.