Making The Most Out of A Second Chance in Life!!!

Chapter 3: Cast Out

Chapter 3: Cast out

Ciara’s POV

I walked with a slow pace towards the dining room. The door was open and I could hear small laughter coming from inside the room.

As I reached the door, I could hear mother and father were giving praises to Jenny.

“We have such a beautiful and talented daughter. I am so proud of you my baby,” Father said while mother giggled alongside. My heart was beating hard. I took a deep breath before going in.

“Oh, sister’s here!” Exclaimed Jenny. She looked so excited to see me. She pointed to a seat in front of her while smiling.

I only took two strides and stopped.

“Father, may I know what’s the occasion?” I asked while faking a small smile. My eyes darted to the exquisite dinner, but I had lost all my appetite.

“I heard that Eric is cutting ties with you. He fell for Jenny instead. I mean, what have you done that made him become like that. We can’t afford to offend the Willies. We’re so lucky to have Jenny with us.” Mother started the conversation and stroking Jenny’s head.

Jenny made a small gesture of gratitude to mother and looked at father with beading eyes.

“I feel sorry for sister. Eric told me that he never loved sister. He doesn’t want to say it for his mother’s sake. But, now he had to say it. After all, his mother had passed away.” Jenny made a sad face and looked down at her plate.

Father never looked me in the eyes, however now he actually made the effort to do so.His eyes were showing an unpleasant expression. Never have I ever locked eyes with him, let alone talking to him one on one. However, my face was not in the slightest flinching nor cringing.

Inexplicably, it was complicated and suffocating. My feelings were locked and were not on display. After years of crying my heart out and waiting for Eric, it was all for NOTHING. My face was called as ‘stone’ behind my back by the maids. Heartless, they called it.

“You always made that face. Like you never care.” father replied to my face.

“I’m sorry, father.” I replied in a low voice.

“As soon as you signed the agreement and the blood oath, you will be taken to Quisha. It’s a land of mine where people are scarce. We don’t need any more rumors of you going around in this town,” he continued eating while mother also looked my way.

“I hope you will take care of yourself there, we will miss you,” she flashed a tiny smile. Jenny grinned happily hearing mother. She nodded to mother’s words and continued eating.

“Would you like to join us for dinner?” mother asked. Her eyes landed on mine for a while before clearing her throat.

“I am not hungry. Thank you, mother.” I said without batting an eye to mother. However, I noticed her wavering eyes whenever I mentioned ‘mother’ to her. I smiled a little and excused myself.

My head was dizzy after the process of the blood oath had taken place. It was my first time seeing a book-eating blood. As soon as my blood was spilled on top of the first page, my body felt lighter.

However, no one told me to be careful of the process of blood oath. Little did I know that I could experience heavy headaches and losing balance of my body. The aftermath was quite extreme.

I puked blood the next day. I heard Eric was also experiencing the same thing, but he had the neutralizing liquid extracted from the Big Northern Tree to save him. I could only lay on my bed for a week to recuperate.

Three knocks were heard from outside my room.

“Come in,” I said in a weak voice. My chest was tightening hard from abstaining to cough blood.

“Sister, can you write me essays for my History subjects? As usual, you can pass the essays to my maids later tonight,” Jenny entered and looked at me for a while before putting the question papers for History on the table.

“A little gift you can give to me before you depart for Quishan, erm…. Quishas? Well, whatever. Anyway, thank you sis.” She left as soon as I made eye contacts with her.

I coughed hard. My right palm covered my mouth and I could feel blood dripping. I reached out to a white cloth near my bed to wipe the blood.

Jenny never studied for anything. All of the tests she took was not from her own effort but mine. Her teachers turned a blind eye to her actions of not taking the tests directly. She would pass the paper the next day to them and they would praise her in front of mother and father during their brief meetings.

My teachers stopped coming to my room as soon as they filed a complaint saying that I was too picky with my subjects. They added that they would rather teach Jenny than me because she listened to them very well. My heart sank as soon as my privilege to study was stripped away from me.

However, Jenny unintentionally gave me opportunities in learning. She gave me every book she had to score the tests well. She always passed with flying colors, but it was all my effort to begin with. It didn’t stop me from continuing study because that was the only thing that could keep my heart at bay.

I often dreamed of becoming a good mother to my children and teaching them things that I had gained. My chest tightened at the thought of Eric.

“How could you do this to me?” I shut my eyes when Eric’s face appeared in my mind. I reached out to my forehead and rested my elbow to the table. My head was pulsing like crazy, and the heat did not die down.

I went back to bed and tried to close my eyes. My chest suddenly tightened and I coughed hard. I had to clench the bed sheets to ease the pain away, but I started losing consciousness. All I could see was my white ceiling before closing my eyes.