Belated Redemption

Blood trickled from the wound and streamed down my thigh, soaking into the carpet until the fibers turned dark red. Agony shot through my leg, the pain sharp enough to make anyone else scream.

I barely reacted.

I was used to pain, after all.

During the seven years I had spent in the mountains, I experienced it every day. I had endured pain much, much worse than this.

Jasmin's hand trembled as she snatched the glass shard out of my hands.

My dad rushed over with a muffled cry and pressed both hands against my thigh. Blood seeped through his fingers almost instantly.

My mom grabbed her phone to call an ambulance, only to drop it because of how much she was trembling.

Jasmin spun toward me, her face pale with fury. "Are you insane? Did you seriously just cut yourself because I told you to?"

I looked at her calmly, not quite understanding why she was so angry. "Didn't you tell me to do that, Jasmin?"

I had to obey if I didn't want to get beaten up.

That was the only rule of survival I had learned during those seven years.

I couldn't afford otherwise.

Disobedience meant being tied to a tree and left without food for three days.

Bracing one hand against the floor, I reached for another shard of broken glass. "That was just a tiny cut. It might not be enough to patch him up."

Jasmin bumped into the coffee table beside her, knocking over a glass that shattered on the floor.

With her eyes bloodshot, she shrieked, "Stay away from it! Don't touch anything!"

I immediately pulled my hand back.

Then, I dropped to my knees and lowered my head until my forehead struck the bloodstained shards scattered across the floor. "I'll behave. Please don't be angry, Jasmin."

My dad broke down.

He pulled me into his arms and held me tightly against his chest.

I did not dare move.

I simply stayed where I was, allowing him to hold me.

The ambulance arrived soon afterward, and the paramedics carried me out on a stretcher.

...

At the hospital, the doctor was getting ready to stitch my wound while a nurse went to get the anesthetic.

But before she could bring it over, Reagan suddenly rushed into the room, sobbing.

A Band-Aid covered the scrape on his leg from where he had slipped earlier that day. He threw himself into my mom's arms and clung to her. "Mom, does Jasmin hate me now?"

He pointed toward me. "He deliberately hurt himself in front of her so she'd blame me instead."

Jasmin frowned and turned in my direction. "Deagan, do you have to make this entire family miserable?"

I immediately stopped the nurse. "No anesthetic, please. I accept my punishment."

The doctor froze with the syringe still in his hand.

I looked at him and added, "Just stitch me up."

The needle pierced my skin again and again as the doctor closed the wound.

I did not even flinch.

Reagan hid behind my mom with one hand covering his mouth. My mom turned her face away, unable to watch.

Jasmin dragged a hand through her hair in frustration. "What are you trying to prove now? Who said anything about punishing you?"

Once the doctor had finished stitching me up, he recommended that I stay overnight for observation.

My mom left to take care of the admission paperwork, leaving Jasmin and me alone in the ward.

She stood by the window, staring outside with an irritated look on her face.