Reborn, I Stopped Begging for Love, Then They Cried With Regret Chapter 02

Reborn, I Stopped Begging for Love, Then They Cried With Regret Chapter 02

Grant glanced at Tessa.

“We can afford a few outfits. There’s no reason to look cheap.”

Mom immediately chimed in.

“Exactly. Grant always thinks things through.”

Then she turned and shot me a glare.

“What are you waiting for? Thank Grant.”

I took the shopping bags.

“Thank you, Mr. Mercer.”

Half an hour later, I walked into my stepfather’s sprawling mansion. A sweeping staircase and crystal chandelier dominated the foyer.

The luxury condo Dad had bought after winning the lottery in my previous life suddenly seemed tiny by comparison.

Not that any of it had anything to do with me.

Carrying my new clothes, I quietly retreated to the room Mom pointed out as mine. The room was huge, and the bed was soft.

I lay down and closed my eyes as a dull ache pulsed deep inside my head.

At dinner, Mom carefully coached me through table manners.

“Hold your knife and fork like this. And try not to slurp your soup.”

She was terrified I would embarrass her and make her look bad in her new home.

Across the table, a mean little spark flashed in Tessa’s eyes. She picked up a bowl of hot soup and held it out to me.

“Here, hick. Have some soup.”

Just as I reached for it, she deliberately let go.

Scalding soup splashed across the back of my hand.

Before I could even make a sound, Mom cried out.

“Why are you so careless?”

“What if you ruin the carpet?”

“Go take care of that in the bathroom!”

She cared about the carpet and about how this made her look. The one thing she didn’t care about was the back of my hand, already red, swollen, and blistering.

I dabbed at it with a napkin, got to my feet, and lowered my head.

“Sorry.”

Grant set down his silverware, his expression hardening.

“Tessa. Apologize.”

Tessa pouted.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. It’s not my fault she didn’t hold on to it.”

Grant’s voice turned stern.

“I’ll say it again. Apologize.”

Tessa grudgingly muttered, “Sorry.”

Mom hurried to smooth things over.

“She was only fooling around.”

“She’s tough. She’ll be fine.”

“Grant, don’t be mad at Tessa.”

Grant ignored her and handed me a tube of burn cream.

“Put this on.”

I took it.

“Thank you.”

Back in my room, I sat on the edge of the bed applying the cream when my phone rang.

It was Dad.

Loud voices and clinking glasses filled the background. He lit a cigarette, his voice smug with excitement.

“Your dad’s about to strike it rich!”

“That lottery ticket is a sure thing!”

“But you’re with your mom now, so don’t come crawling back for a share of my money like you did in our previous life.”

“I need to figure out what I’m going to do with all that money.”

“You stay right where you are with your mom!”

I spread the cream over the blisters on my hand, my voice flat.

“Okay. Hope you hit it big.”

After I hung up, I heard soft footsteps outside my door.

Mom was standing outside my door; I had no idea when she’d gotten there. She pushed the door open and looked at me warily.

“Cut back on talking to that broke loser of a dad.”

“And don’t bring any of his low-rent ways into this house.”

“I worked hard enough just to find my place in this family.”

“You’d better behave yourself. Don’t drag me down with you.”

I looked at her carefully maintained face.

“Okay. I won’t.”

Apparently satisfied, she turned and closed the door behind her.

In the middle of the night, my head felt like it was splitting open.

The pain was so vicious it felt as though my skull were being torn apart, and cold sweat slicked my skin.

I opened the drawer. My bottle of painkillers was empty.

Using the wall for support, I slowly made my way downstairs to find something for the pain.

The living room was dark.

When I stepped onto the patio, I found Grant there, unable to sleep too. He stood there with a glass of red wine in his hand, looking out into the night.

At the sound of my footsteps, he turned around.

In the moonlight, he looked into my lifeless eyes and spoke in an even tone.

“Tessa lost her mother young.”

“That’s why she gets prickly whenever someone new comes into this family.”