Chapter 2

"You have no idea how to stand or sit properly. How did the Lawsons give birth to someone as disgraceful as you?"

He pulled Anne back onto the couch. "Enough, stop wasting time on her. Anne, didn't you say you wanted those peach tarts from South District? I'll have someone buy them right away."

"You’re the best, Ken!"

I knelt on the cold floor, watching this scene. My empty head started throbbing again.

The dinner table was filled with all sorts of delicacies for Christmas Eve. I was seated at the end of the table, with only a pair of lonely cutlery in front of me.

"Jane, you must have eaten very simply up there for the past three years." Anne picked up the serving fork and placed a piece of bloody, medium-rare beef into my bowl. "Try it! This is the top-grade beef Ken specially had delivered back from abroad. It's really tender."

The blood on the meat stained the potatoes red, and its strong smell rushed straight into my nose, making my stomach churn.

It was the smell of countless nightmares I had had in the past three years.

The suspended baskets and the raw meat hanging from them became an unshakable shadow that haunted me.

“Blargh!" I covered my mouth and bent over, violently vomiting. I then swept the expensive beef onto the ground.

Thud!

Ken slammed his fork down on the table and pointed at my face.

"Jane! You're picking a fight on purpose, aren't you? Anne served you some food out of kindness. Why did you react like that? Did you think it was dirty?

“Just look at yourself. You don't know how to appreciate the finer things in life!"

I retched so hard that tears streamed down my face. I could not utter a single word to defend myself.

Anne hurriedly rubbed Ken's back to soothe him, her eyes welling up with grievance. "Ken, don't blame Jane.

“M-maybe it's because Jane spent so long up on the mountain living a vegetarian, prayer-filled life that she can't stand the sight of meat. It's my fault. I shouldn't have put the beef on her plate."

"You're just too kind!" Ken looked at her with tender concern before looking at me more viciously.

"Vegetarian and prayer-filled? If she's that devoted, she wouldn't have pushed you off that cushion three years ago!"

The incident from three years ago was mentioned again.

I straightened up, wiped the sour bile from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, and looked at Ken. "I didn't push her. My mom left me that cushion. She was the one who insisted on snatching it—"

"Shut up!" Ken grabbed a side plate and hurled it at me.

The plate grazed my temple and shattered against the wall behind me.

"How dare you bring up that slut? Your mother was nothing but a shameful mistress. How dare you call her ‘Mom’ under this roof?

“Anne was doing you a favor by using that cushion, yet you were ungrateful enough to lay a hand on her. It seems those three years on the mountain didn't teach you a thing!"

The blood trickling from my temple blurred my vision.

I did not wipe it away, only looking at him numbly.

"If the sight of meat bothers you that much, then don't eat it."

Ken sat back down and picked up his fork. "Go kneel in the family chapel. You can get up once you've sorted out your thoughts."

I was sent out of the dining room and into the cold family chapel, where I sat on the hard cushion as usual.

As soon as my knees touched the floor, the chill cut deep into my bones.

I curled into a ball, clutching my throbbing head tightly with both hands.

"How pitiful." Anne stood in the doorway, smiling down at me. "Jane, don’t you see? With just a word from me, Ken kicks you out. Do you know why he sent you to that convent?"

She crouched in front of me and lowered her voice. "It was my idea."

I glared at her. "You did it on purpose?"

"Of course." Anne covered her mouth and giggled.

"Coolwater Convent has a terrible reputation. Jane, your time there must have been... quite an experience."