Chapter 126 Rigid and unfeeling
Chapter 126 Rigid and unfeeling
NANCY’S POV
I don’t know how long I slept for, but when I woke up, there was not a single part of me that wasn’t aching.
It felt like I had been thrown into a mill, but none of that compared to what had settled in my chest.
Fear.
Not the panicked kind, it was the kind that sat heavy in your bones, riddled with uncertainty.
Yawning, I pulled out my hands to stretch, momentarily forgetting that my hand hurt, and the sudden tug made me wince.
Hissing, I cradled my hand back and slowly crawled over the bed, swinging my feet off of it. They landed quite steadily on the ground, and against my expectations, I didn’t wobble when I got up.
My gaze snapped to the window, and I realised I didn't know what time it was or what day it was. All I knew was that I’d been here for about two days.
Two days since I last saw Diana or anyone else besides Hudson.
I couldn’t help but wonder what Nathan was doing now. Surely, he must know where I was by now.
And then, there was Mr Landon.
As quickly as that thought emerged, I pushed it away. It hurt to think about him, and I wasn’t about to mentally torture myself again after just experiencing physical pain.
My gaze shifted to the mirror in the room, and I wobbled towards it.
Right now, I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me that I looked filthy. My breath stank even to myself, and I needed to wash the filth off of me, but couldn't actually bring myself to step into the door next to the wardrobe that I knew was the bathroom.
I already felt guilty enough falling asleep, and cleaning myself felt oddly symbolic to me. Like I was preparing myself to bend to his wishes.
My reflection in the mirror stopped me cold. Only now did I understand the words looking like a shadow of one’s former self because that was exactly how I looked and felt.
My cheeks were swollen and bruised, already turning a dark purple against my pale skin. Speaking of pale, my face looked as white and thin as paper.
Dark circles lined my sunken and red eyes. There was a faint split at the corner of my lips, which I already figured was there from the sting I felt when I licked my lips earlier.
My gaze dropped to the finger marks along my arms, and my lips curled.
“You look horrible,” I muttered to myself, letting my lips curve higher.
I looked and felt crazy, barely recognizing the woman staring back at me in the mirror, and I hated to remind myself that it was just two days.
“You either learn, or you suffer.”
Mr Hudson’s words returned to me, echoing in my head for a couple of minutes.
Sighing, I pulled my palm up to my face, the good hand, hovering over my cheek slightly before touching it.
The pain made me wince again, and I blinked back the tears that emerged.
Just then, I heard a sound that made me stiffen.
The door was opening.
My heart slammed violently against my ribs, and my entire body tensed.
He was back, here to make my life hell as he’d promised.
I turned sharply, with every instinct telling me to brace myself, to prepare to fight, but when the door finally opened fully, everything I had been preparing and thinking of doing was wiped out of my mind like a slate wiped clean with a rag.
I couldn’t even formulate words, and the only reaction I could manage was my eyes that widened in shock.
“Mom?”
“Dad?”
Those words weren’t accompanied by relief at the sight of my parents, whom I hadn’t seen in months. For a long while, I just stared at them, dumbstruck, then everything came flooding back.
Different emotions coursed through me all at once, anger particularly.
My eyes hardened.
“What are you doing here?”
They had both stilled when I did, but as soon as I spoke, my mother reacted, rushing over to me. “Nancy…”
“Don’t…” I stepped back quickly, snapping. “Don’t touch me.”
She paused, fingers still hovering mid-air, uncertainly.
“Nancy…”
My father stepped forward, but instead of the hint of concern my mother had shown, there was nothing in his eyes save for fury.
“Why the hell did you run away? Do you have any idea what you’ve cost me?”
“You almost destroyed this family with your actions!”
To be frank, I expected nothing less from my Dad, but it still stung.
He hadn’t seen me in ages, and the first thing he had to say to me was centered on what I had cost him with my escape.
Not even a single ‘how are you’ Or ‘how have you been’ or something that would actually show concern.
Standing there faced with him, I doubted if he was actually my Dad.
My mother's gaze flitted between us, but like always, she didn’t say anything.
“What the hell happened to you?” He finally asked, but it was phrased more like questioning than actual concern.
A cold laughter slipped out of me. “What does it look like?”
His jaw ticked, like he was trying to hold himself back from hitting me.
“This is exactly why you shouldn’t have run away.”
My brows furrowed in disbelief.
“Excuse me?”
He paused for a second, like he was debating if he should actually proceed with what he wanted to say, but then he proceeded with a voice devoid of emotion.
“This is why you should have stayed put and listened to me. If you had stayed where you were supposed to be and followed the arrangements I made for you, none of this would have happened.”
I had no idea why I was surprised, but genuinely, I was.
A hollow laughter escaped me.
“You’re blaming me.”
“Who else should I blame if not you, who created this mess?” He shot back.
“Wow.”
I shouldn’t have expected less of my Dad. I should have known he would paint himself as a saint and try to blame every one of his actions on me.
He was unapologetically as rigid and unfeeling as he was before I left.