chapter Three

pov Eleanor

I woke up in the middle of the damp grass, my aching body craving rests as my eyes struggled to adjust to the intense sunlight. Confusion washed over me as I realized I was several yards away from home, with no recollection of how I got there. A shiver ran down my spine, warning me that something was wrong. Carefully, I mustered the strength to get up and decided to enter through the back, jumping through the window of my room. It was approximately three o'clock in the afternoon, and I silently thanked the fact that Emily and Johanna were busy, immersed in their beauty rituals for the ball, which meant they would be distracted enough to forget about me for a long time.

It was almost dusk when I heard noises downstairs. I hid behind the door, apprehensive. I knew Emily and Johanna had returned home after a long day at the spa, and I didn't have enough courage yet to face them again.

"Mom, you should have seen her face! Her eyes were full of tears, she really believed that Asher would accept her as his mate or that he loved her," Emily's voice echoed in my ears, and I bit my lip to keep from screaming, pressing it so hard it began to bleed.

"I saw the video you made of her running. It's truly pitiful. At this moment, the video is circulating on all social networks, and all pack members have seen it. She will never be able to find another mate who will accept her after being exposed in this way," Johanna shrugged, showing no remorse.

"The best part was when I told her that she was to blame for her mother's death and that Dad had died of grief for having to live with the cause of his beloved wife's death!" Emily said, trying on the dresses that were in the bag.

"I just loved that moment in the video. I felt like I finally had my revenge. After almost being abandoned by her father because of Cristina, who was just a blind wolf. But when he realized she was his true mate, he refused to reject her. So, I had no choice but to poison her so she would die in childbirth. The idea was that the child would also die with her. The fact that Eleanor survived my poison was an unpleasant surprise and an obstacle to my plans."

Shock paralyzed me as my stepmother's words echoed in my mind like a whirlwind. Johanna had always told me that my father had abandoned my mother when I was born because she was blind, and that she died of grief after giving birth to me. I spent years hating my father for it, refusing to visit his grave or bring flowers to him at the cemetery. This revelation shook the foundations of my beliefs, leaving me lost in a sea of conflicting emotions.

"Maybe that's why Eleanor can't awaken her wolf..." Emily commented absentmindedly as she tried on a yellow dress in front of the mirror.

"Indeed, the poison I used was lethal to werewolves. Since she was still a newborn baby, maybe that affected her wolf nature irreversibly. But frankly, I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, Eleanor shouldn't be alive. I've kept her all these years just to have someone to do the heavy lifting and take care of the house, after all the anger Cristina caused me, it was amusing to make her daughter the maid," Emily laughed disdainfully.

A wave of revulsion washed over me, struggling to keep calm in the face of the shocking revelation. The coldness in my stepmother's voice and the indifference towards my existence cut like sharp blades.

"Do you think she'll leave the pack now that Asher publicly rejected her?" Emily asked, curious, as she adorned her hair. "Where would she go? We're the only family she has. Eleanor is too weak and won't survive on her own. The only reason she endured so many years of humiliation was that she had nowhere else to go. Everyone shut their doors to her when her father died... The only person who took her in was me. Luckily, I made her father sign a document before he died, transferring her guardianship to me. That way, I would be responsible for her and all the other assets. After all, how do you think we've managed to keep this house? With the money from that filthy creature. Tyler loved her, he would do anything for that girl, and I even managed to make her hate him. On his deathbed, Eleanor refused to see him. She truly believed he had abandoned her mother to die, but in reality, Tyler feared that Eleanor would suffer from blindness in the future, like her mother. He left her a good amount of money, but I made him believe that I would take care of her as if she were my daughter... Now that she's turned eighteen, the money her father left her is gone. We've spent it all. She's no longer useful to us."

The weight of my stepmother's words fell on me like a sentence of condemnation.

"What if we sold her?" Emily said with a sadistic smile on her face, her eyes gleaming with the cruelty of her suggestions. "We could sell her as a sex slave. After all this exposure, that's the only future she can have..."

"Tyler and Cristiana must be rolling in their graves now, seeing their future daughter become a fifth-rate prostitute. Although to be honest, she's so ugly that I doubt anyone would pay more than ten dollars for a night with her!" Johanna said, letting out a sinister laugh as she watched Emily's expression in the mirror.

"I've chosen my dress for the ball already, it will be this one!" Emily announced, holding up my mother's dress, the same one I had carefully washed and hung out to dry on the clothesline.

I clenched my hands tightly, feeling the anger burning inside me. I desperately wanted to rip that dress off her body. It belonged to my mother; how dare she wear it? Blood boiled in my veins, my mind swirling. I was alone in a world where those who should protect me were the same ones planning my destruction.

"I'll wear this one; for sure, I'd be the prettiest girl at the ball. Asher will introduce me as his partner in front of everyone, I need to be flawless. As for Eleanor, we'll decide later what to do with her," Emily said, indifferent. "Where is Eleanor? This was the dress she was wearing yesterday; she must have returned home..." Emily's voice made my body shiver; they couldn't find out that I had heard every word they said, so there was only one thing I could do.

I took a bottle of pills from the dresser and placed a few pills around it, throwing the rest out the window, and leaving the bottle empty. I lay down on the bed carefully not to make any noise and covered myself with an old sheet, my mind swirling with tension.

"Where is that filthy girl... Eleanor!" my stepmother shouted as she climbed the stairs, her sharp voice echoing through the empty hallways. I remained still, holding my breath, as I waited for my plan to succeed.

"Look at her, she must have overdosed on sleeping pills. Maybe that's the only way she found to deal with rejection..." Emily laughed mockingly as she saw me lying on the bed, my eyes closed in a feigned sleep.

"Do you think she heard us?" my stepmother asked suspiciously, her footsteps approaching the dresser. She picked up the bottle next to me, noticing it was empty, and placed it back on the dresser.

"Mom, she's out cold. She must have overdosed on sleeping pills. When we come back from the ball, we'll figure out what to do with her. Maybe we'll find someone to sell her to tonight. Asher asked us to come early because he reserved the best seats for us! Let's go! If we're lucky, when we come back, she'll be dead," Emily pulled Johanna by the arm, slamming the door and rushing downstairs.

As soon as they left, I sat up in bed and took a deep breath, relieved not to have been discovered. My mind was already working on an escape plan, as I knew my time there was running out. There was only one person who could help me in that moment, the only person I could turn to in this difficult time.