My Pain Came Back Once They Betrayed Me Chapter 02

My Pain Came Back Once They Betrayed Me Chapter 02

I closed my eyes and brushed my palm over the stitched gash on my abdomen.

The anesthesia had worn off hours ago, and stabbing waves of pain flooded my nerves nonstop. But I couldn’t tell which hurt worse: the wound on my body, or the raw ache in my heart.

A bitter laugh escaped me. I’d just opened my mouth to tell them my disorder was gone when Zora appeared in the doorway, clutching a lunch box with red-rimmed eyes.

The second Mom laid eyes on her, worry flooded her features.

“My poor baby, does your injury still throb? You’re in no shape to get out of bed and walk around.”

“I’m mostly healed now,” Zora said, lifting the lunch box slightly. “Bella took that blade for me yesterday. If she hadn’t stepped in, I would’ve been stabbed instead.”

She smiled gently. “I made chicken noodle soup for her to say thank you.”

Logan smiled fondly at Zora, full of admiration. “It’s sweet of you to go out of your way for her. She can’t feel pain anyway, so shielding you was just what she owed you.”

Zora chuckled and opened the container, scooping a spoonful of soup and holding it toward my mouth.

I could feel the blistering heat radiating from the broth before it even touched my skin.

Zora pushed the spoon right against my lips, and I flinched hard from the scalding temperature. In the split second I flinched away, she stumbled on purpose, spilling the entire bowl onto the floor.

Hot soup splashed across her calves, and she let out a piercing scream, staggering backward.

The next instant, Logan’s palm connected hard with my cheek.

“Bella Clark!”

He seethed, his eyes blazing with rage. “What were you thinking? Do you have any idea how excruciating even a minor burn is for Zora?”

“She went out of her way to make you soup to thank you, and you bite the hand that feeds you like this?”

My cheek burned fiercely as I stared at Zora, who hung her head and sobbed quietly, putting on the perfect picture of wronged innocence.

“I didn’t do anything,” I stammered. “The soup was boiling hot, I didn’t push you—”

“Liar!” Logan cut me off. “You can’t feel pain at all, so you deliberately knocked the bowl over to get revenge on Zora.”

“Logan, I told you—my disorder’s gone. I can feel pain now.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks against my will, my voice cracking with raw grief. “I felt every inch of that knife when you pushed me toward the kidnapper yesterday. I felt everything.”

“Enough!” Mom cut me off, pulling Zora into her embrace.

“Bella, how did I raise such a cruel, hateful girl? Your sister was lost as a child and suffered through years of hardship.”

“You can’t feel pain, so protecting her in danger is your responsibility. Now you’re making up lies about being cured just to compete for our attention?”

“Mom, don’t blame Bella,” Zora whimpered, her tears sounding utterly genuine. “I wish I’d never been found. I’ve only torn your little family apart.”

She lifted a hand to wipe her eyes, deliberately flashing a band-aid wrapped around one finger.

Logan caught sight of it instantly and seized her wrist gently. “What happened to your hand? Another new injury?”

“It’s nothing,” she pulled her hand away softly. “I cut it while making soup for Bella.”

“All I wanted was to be kind to her, but it seems she hated the chicken noodle soup I made.”

Logan’s mood turned icy in an instant.

He hauled me roughly off the hospital bed without a second thought, gesturing at the puddle of soup on the floor as he snarled. “Drink it.”

I crashed onto the linoleum, the force tearing my abdominal stitches open. The pain was blinding, searing through every bone.

I tilted my head up to meet his glare. “How am I supposed to drink it? It’s all spilled across the floor!”

“You still have a tongue, don’t you? Zora slaved over this soup and hurt her finger for you. You will lick every last bit off this floor today.”

Desperate, I turned to my parents for help.

Dad, who’d stayed silent up to that point, let out a cold scoff, his gaze sharp and unforgiving.

“It’s high time someone taught you a lesson. We spoiled you rotten, and this is the result—this ungrateful attitude.”

Right after he spoke, Logan grabbed my head and forced my face down into the greasy soup puddle on the ground.

Greasy broth coated my mouth and nose, and I thrashed wildly, every part of my body screaming in agony.

He only let go when he spotted fresh blood seeping from my torn wound as my struggled.

A flicker of conflict crossed his face for half a second, then he stood tall, staring down at me from above.

“You have two choices. Apologize to Zora, admit you were wrong, or lick up every drop of soup off this floor by yourself.”