Chapter 4

I don't know how much time passes. Then the darkness fades.

I sit up eagerly, ready to find my mother—but someone slaps me across the face.

I fall to the ground.

"Bitch!" Doctor Father's voice snarls above me.

His face is twisted with anger. "All we asked was for you to do some light work at the camp. And the moment you see your Sir Father, you put on this act? Do you know he almost drowned because of you?"

Of all four fathers, Doctor Father and I were the closest. The others were too busy, so almost he raised me. He taught me to read, to write, to recognize herbs and practice medicine.

He was always gentle. No matter how badly I messed up, he guided me patiently. He never once punished me.

But the day Jade came back, he hit me for the first time.

Jade had brushed against one of his venomous insects and claimed I’d planted it on her.

He took a whip to my back.

"This is my fault for not teaching you better—treating lives like a joke?," he said.

Later, when Jade said I poisoned her again, Doctor Father fed me a pill that attracted insects and threw me into the Pit. Tens of thousands of bugs crawled into my body. they ate through my flesh and took one of my eyes. He tried to save me afterward, but I still lost one eye.

I don't say anything for now.

He thinks my silence means I agree.

His anger rises. He raises his hand to hit me again.

Sir Father stops him. "Silas, calm down. Today is Jade's enfeoffment ceremony as Princess of Mafia. Ivy can't handle it. She's already tried to kill herself three times in front of me."

I glance at Sir Father.

He has changed his clothes. His wounds are bandaged. But his face is pale.

I remember what Doctor Father said: "he almost drowned because of you."

He saved me again. Sir Father can't swim. He must have used every bit of strength to pull me out.

Doctor Father snorts. "Cedric, you were fooled. She’s used this stunt before—just to get attention.”

Sir Father hesitates. Then, as if relieved, he says, "So that's it."

Doctor Father looks at me again. "Ivy, today is Jade's birthday. Make a scene in front of us if you must, but don’t drag it up to the another fathers—you know how they are…"

Before he can finish, i have already lunged toward the medical case behind him.

I have lived with Doctor Father long enough to know exactly where he keeps the poisons.

I open the case. Find the deadliest one and swallowed it before anyone could stop me.

Doctor Father's face goes white.