I cleared my throat, straightened up, and spoke in a voice gone cold.
"Dad, I never wanted to fight for anything. A life of silks and luxury, I can give myself—"
"Mom, Dad, my head is spinning so badly. Am I dying? I'm so sorry, I haven't repaid you for raising me—"
Madge collapsed neatly into our brother's arms, and every face in the room went pale as they scrambled to hold her up and rush her out of the mansion.
Denys carried Madge, and just as he crossed the threshold, he glanced back, a flicker of murderous intent in his eyes.
"Zoe, if anything happens to Madge, I won't let you off."
My gaze darkened as I watched the whole cluster of them vanish hurriedly into the night.
The courtyard glowed warm and bright, yet a chill radiated from every part of me as I stood alone in the middle of the living room.
I don't know how long it was before I came back to myself and walked, step by step, toward the guest room they'd hastily prepared for me.
The room was genuinely tasteful and immaculate, snow-white sheer curtains pooling on the floor, a plush cashmere rug underfoot, soft and comfortable beneath my feet.
Compared to Dragon Bay, where I'd toiled growing medicinal herbs and slept exhausted in a straw shed, it was a far better thing.
But I knew perfectly well that Madge's room was the best master suite on the second floor, cashmere carpet running the length of the entire hallway, her private walk-in closet larger than this guest room of mine.
To them, being given a room like this was already generous. They hadn't shortchanged me.
I wasn't blaming them, really. But it was family I'd longed for over twenty years, and my heart still sank with a quiet disappointment.
I lay on my back on the soft, wide bed, staring wearily at the lush silk tree beyond the courtyard, its pink petals drifting down.
In a daze, I remembered my mother holding me under that tree when I was small, murmuring softly,
"Our little girl is Mommy's prettiest treasure, Mommy's most beloved little princess."
My brother came running over and pressed a cotton candy into my hand, his childish face all seriousness.
"Baby sister, when you grow up I'll give you all the best things to eat. From now on I'll protect you. Anyone who bullies you, I'll beat them to death."
That hazy memory circled through my mind again and again, the reason I'd yearned for twenty years to be reunited with them.
Yearned to throw myself into their arms and say,
"Mom, Dad, big brother, your baby sister is home."
"Mom, Dad, big brother, I missed you all so much. I dreamed of finding you."
Half asleep, it seemed a silk-tree flower had landed on my face, a cool, wet touch.
Then a searing sting tore across it, and I bolted upright with a jolt, clutching my face, a shrill scream ripping out of me.
The scalding pain swept over my whole face in an instant, every ache in me gathering there at once, then spreading out through my arms and legs.
I sprang up from the bed, hands clamped over my cheeks, and rolled to the floor, howling in agony.
Beside me, my brother Denys Hughes's voice came, cold.
"You brought this on yourself." His voice was that piercing, that frozen.
"I wasn't going to do anything to you. But you just couldn't behave, going against Madge at every turn, fighting her over everything."
"Madge is kind. She couldn't bear to see Mom and Dad hurt and torn, so now she's at the hospital refusing treatment. She'd rather die than not hand the position of eldest Hughes daughter back to you."
He crouched down, wrenched my hands away from my face, and looked at my raw, ruined cheeks with not a trace of pity in his eyes, only the satisfaction of a grudge settled.
"Zoe, with your looks destroyed today, hideous beyond recognition, do you still dare to covet what was never yours?"
"Let's see how you fight Madge now. Do you still dare to bully her?"
