Chapter 4
When the raindrops hit my back, the pain seemed to disappear.
The stones beneath my knees had worn through my skin, blood mixed with rainwater seeping into the soil.
I stared at the spreading ripples on the ground, a buzzing in my ears.
Before leaving, Finn kicked me, my forehead hit the edge of the fountain, and warm blood mixed with rainwater flowed into my eyes.
As my consciousness began to fade, I heard footsteps approaching.
“Adeline?”
Someone was calling me.
This voice…
Impossible!
I shook my head. It couldn’t be him. He found his family and left the orphanage before Auntie Lin adopted me.
I must be delirious.
I struggled to lift my head, seeing a dark figure rushing through the rain curtain.
A scorching palm pressed against the back of my neck.
I shivered violently; this heat was more searing than my fevered forehead.
“Don’t touch me…” I shrank back instinctively, my soaked nightgown sticking to the wounds, it hurt, “My brothers said… moving will increase the punishment…”
He knelt down and pulled me into his arms, his voice trembling, “How long have they made you kneel? Speak!”
I blinked, rainwater trickling from my lashes into his collar.
This face hadn’t changed much from my memory, the scar on his brow still there.
That winter in the orphanage, when he shielded me from the falling shovel, blood also trickled down his brow like this.
I wanted to say five hours, or six?
But my head hurt too much to think clearly.
“Ezra?” I reached out to touch his face, but my fingers flinched away as soon as they touched him, “Am I dreaming?”
He clasped my wrist to his chest, his palm scorching, “I’m real, Adeline, I finally found you.”
Dad walked over, frowning, “What’s going on here?”
I couldn’t stop trembling.
Dad had said he didn’t want outsiders to know I was his daughter.
Now that Ezra found out, he must be very angry.
The arms holding me tightened abruptly.
I heard Ezra coldly laugh, “Mr. Thompson, what exactly did Adeline do wrong to deserve this treatment?”
Finn rushed over, “Dad, this child broke my guitar. I told her to reflect here, she deserved it… Ah!”
A dull thud of bone on bone.
Ezra punched him in the stomach, his voice icy, “Say one more thing about her, and I’ll make sure you never play guitar again.”
I cried, throwing myself at him, “Ezra, don’t fight because of me.”
Declan supported the staggering Finn, “Ezra Bennett, you’re fighting over an unworthy child?”
“Unworthy?” Ezra lifted me, “Finn Thompson, is this how you treat your sister?”
“And she dares call herself my sister?” Finn sneered, “A child like her, letting her live with the Thompson family was already more than enough!”
Ezra held me tighter, “Fine, if the Thompson family doesn’t want her, I will!”