3: 3
"Haha, I've got to film this."
Someone shoved to the front, phone raised, the lens pointed straight at me.
The others laughed and called out, "Now Gabriel's got the new bride tied down for good."
"That's right. Once the wedding night's been had in front of everyone, they all know she's been pawed over. No man would take her after this. She'd be filthy goods."
"Gabriel, stop standing there. Get on with it."
Tears running down my face, I looked at him. "Are you really willing to let them humiliate me like this?"
Something flickered across his face. Hesitation.
It didn't last. The hesitation hardened into something cruel.
He said, cold, "You won't eat the slop because you look down on me. On my whole family. That's it, isn't it?"
"Renata, you're the one who insulted me first, in front of all these relatives. Don't play the victim now."
Everything in me went dead and hopeless. "Fine. I'll eat it. Make them go away."
He watched me, suspicious. "You'll really eat it?"
I gave a bitter smile. "I'd rather eat slop than be humiliated in front of all these people."
He nodded. "See, wouldn't it have been easier to just do this from the start?"
"Renata, you just never listen. If you had, this would've been over long ago, and we'd still be one happy family."
He drove the others back and told his mother, "Get her some slop. She's willing to eat now."
Selma slapped me hard across the face. "One minute you'll eat, the next you won't. You messing with me?"
A few minutes later, someone carried in a bowl of slop.
Selma grabbed a fistful of my hair and hissed, "This is what you get for turning down the nice way. Now you take the hard way."
"You're finishing this slop today. No putting on a show. I want to see you mean it."
I took the bowl in my hands. Everyone stared, waiting to watch me eat.
Then I lifted the bowl high and smashed it down on Gabriel's head.
He screamed, blood pouring down his head, the big porcelain bowl shattering.
Alden and Selma shrieked curses and lunged to hit me.
I snatched up the biggest shard and swung it around like a knife, wild.
I cut Selma across the arm. Blood ran everywhere.
I caught Alden across the face and nearly opened his throat.
I put on a look that said I had nothing left to lose, and it scared them off.
The Hensons stumbled back, shoving each other out of the way as they fled the room.
I threw the bolt behind them.
Out in the hall they kicked at the door and screamed curses. I ignored them.
I pressed my back hard against the door and pulled out my phone.
My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I could barely hit the keys.
I dragged in a breath, forced myself calm, and called my father. "Dad, come save me, I'm at—"
I didn't get the words out. The door came down.
The whole thing toppled and pinned me to the floor.
The pain took my breath away. I felt bodies stepping on me, so many that my ribs felt ready to snap.
"She's here, under the door," a villager shouted, giddy with it.
Then a hand seized my hair and dragged me out from beneath the door.
The phone had fallen beside me, the call still going.
Through the pain I called out, "Dad, I'm at Gabriel—"
Crack!
A foot in a leather shoe came down hard on my phone, and it shattered.
I looked up. It was Gabriel.
He had a stool in his hands, and he brought it down on my head without mercy.
Everything went black, and I passed out.
