Chapter 5
Bianca's POV
The bus stopped at the edge of the human district. I stood up, my legs numb from nearly an hour curled in a hard plastic seat, and had to brace myself on the seat back before I could move properly.
Two more alleys and I'd reach the little apartment. To be honest, I could have not come. But at the thought of Helen—my adoptive mother, the one who had picked me up from the roadside and given me a home—my feet carried me that way on their own. I owed her a debt I could never repay.
Still, the deeper I walked, the more that anticipation was pressed down by something else. No one else welcomed me, all because of my silver hair and green eyes. People there were used to black hair and brown eyes, and an oddity like me stood out. The things they said behind my back had gotten uglier and uglier. They said too much. I had gone numb and couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
At that thought, my stomach tightened.
I stopped at the apartment door. A sharp shout inside cut through the walls—Grandma Ruth's voice, then the sound of something shattering. Part of me wanted to turn around and find somewhere else to spend the night. But I had come all this way to see my adoptive mother.
I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
The scene before me turned my blood cold. Helen was kneeling in the living room, her head lowered. Grandma Ruth stood over her, furious, her face red as if it were about to burst. Broken ceramic shards were scattered around Helen's knees.
"Look at these spots! Are you blind and stupid?"
"You call this clean?" Grandma Ruth screamed, throwing more shards of what had been dinner plates at Helen's face. Helen didn't look up or defend herself. I saw a purple bruise on her forehead. How long had she been kneeling there?
I dropped my bag and rushed forward, kneeling beside her.
"You don't have to hit her!"
"Grandma Ruth, please," I begged, wrapping my arms around Helen's trembling shoulders. "Helen just missed a few spots."
Grandma Ruth's attention immediately turned to me, her eyes narrowing. "Look who finally decided to visit!"
I bit down on my tongue. I couldn't tell her I had just gotten off work, exhausted and heartbroken. I absolutely couldn't mention Nicholas Rayne. A memory flashed through my mind—his amber eyes, the heat of his skin—and my face went hot. I pushed it away.
"I'm sorry," I said softly. "Work's been busy. I live far away, so it's not easy to come back."
"Work?" she snorted. "That pathetic job in the human district? I bet your salary this month can't even cover the rent on that crappy little rental of yours. And you still have the nerve to say you're busy."
I lowered my head and said nothing. She thought I still worked at that crappy little company in the human district. I didn't correct her. I hadn't had time to tell the family about the job change, let alone what kind of storm the words "Rayne Group" would stir up if they were said in this house.
Helen tried to speak. "Bianca works very hard—"
"Shut up!" Grandma Ruth snapped. "No one asked you."
I felt Helen flinch beside me, and I held her tighter. "Please stop yelling at her."
Grandma Ruth leaned in, her face only inches from mine. "You ungrateful thing. If I'd had my way back when Helen picked you up from the side of the road, I would have told her to throw you back."
Her words went in like a needle, straight into the deepest wound I had. Being abandoned by my biological parents and left by the roadside was the pain I least dared to touch. My throat tightened, my eyes stung, and I dug my nails into my palm so I wouldn't shake.
She wasn't done. "Ungrateful. We raised you this big—what have you ever done for this family? You're never around, you live out there and never bring money home, and when you come back you don't even help with the housework. Your adoptive mother spoiled you rotten!"
The injustice of it burned in my chest. I worked longer hours than anyone in that house and lived in the cheapest place I could find, saving every penny I could, and yet I came home to this humiliation. But arguing would only make things worse.
"I'll help with the housework now," I offered quietly. "Let me clean up this mess."
Grandma Ruth snorted. "Too little, too late. You're just like your mother—useless!"
She snatched a teacup from the side table and hurled it at Helen. On instinct, I moved to shield her. The cup shattered against my back, and the hot tea soaked into my already stained shirt. A sharp pain shot through me as the ceramic shards cut my skin.
Helen gasped. "Bianca!"
I gritted my teeth against the pain. "I'm fine."
The front door suddenly opened, and my cousin Lily bounced in with shopping bags. Grandma Ruth's expression changed instantly. "My dear girl is back!" she said softly, her anger vanishing as if it had never existed. She hurried toward Lily, completely ignoring me and Helen, who was still kneeling on the floor. "Darling, what did you bring?"
Lily shot me a small smirk from behind Grandma's shoulder, then took snacks out of her bag. "Look what Taylor bought me today, Grandma. He says his boss in the mixed district might have another job opening soon."
"Wonderful!" Grandma Ruth beamed, stroking Lily's hair. Then she turned and glared at us. "See? Lily found a boyfriend with connections to a werewolf employer. That's how you get ahead in this world! Not like you two, settling for scraps."
It had always been like this—Grandma Ruth favored Lily to the bone, praising her to the skies for barely passing a test while not even lifting her eyes when I brought home a certificate.
The door sounded again, and my adoptive father, Derek, slipped in quietly. He looked around—the broken dishes, Helen's bruises, the blood seeping through my shirt—then looked away and glanced nervously at Grandma Ruth.
"Mom," he began cautiously, "that's about enough. There's blood now..."
I looked up at him. For a moment, a sliver of hope rose in me.
But then he licked his lips, looked away, fixed his eyes on the pile of broken porcelain in the corner, and his voice dropped lower with every word. "Besides, if Helen's hurt her hand, who's going to cook tonight? It's full-moon week—humans can't go out to buy food after dark. We can't just let the whole family go hungry..."
I stared at him in disbelief. That was his concern? Not that his wife and daughter were being abused, but that dinner might be delayed?
Grandma Ruth shot him a look, her tone softening quite a bit, with a touch of motherly protectiveness. "Where've you been? The lights are on at the card room downstairs. Were you playing cards again?"
Derek gave a sheepish laugh and fumbled in his pants pocket. "Just a bit of bad luck, but don't worry, Mom. I've figured out the pattern. Next time I'll definitely win it back—all of last month's losses too."
"Win it back, win it back. What's the use of telling me that?" Grandma Ruth scolded, though her voice wasn't sharp, and she sighed. "All right, all right. As long as you're back. Sit down and wait for dinner."
Derek said nothing more, shrinking back against the doorframe, reaching into his pocket for a cigarette.
In that moment, something clenched hard around my chest. I couldn't tell if it was anger or cold disappointment. That was him. It was always like this. No matter how viciously Grandma Ruth yelled, the most he would do was mutter "all right, all right."
I tightened my grip on Helen's hand—her hand was cold and trembling, her nails digging into my palm. I couldn't stand another second in that place.
"We're leaving," I announced. "Come on, Helen. We don't have to stay here."
Helen's eyes went wide with alarm. She yanked her hand out of mine and rushed to the stove. "No! I'll cook! I'll start cooking right now."
She grabbed the knife and started chopping frantically. Her hands were shaking so badly I was afraid she'd cut herself. "See? I'm cooking. It'll be ready soon."
Seeing her desperate to please Grandma Ruth broke something inside me. She was too afraid to leave, too used to it, unable to believe this was all she deserved.
"Helen, please..." I whispered.
But she shook her head desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks, and kept chopping. "I'm sorry. I'll be better. Please don't be angry."
That was when I knew I wouldn't be able to convince her to leave tonight. That mental prison was too strong. It had been built over decades of abuse.
I decided to pick up my bag and leave. As I passed through the living room, Derek was still by the doorframe, almost done with his cigarette. When he saw me heading out, his lips moved, and he mumbled, "Be careful on the way."
I didn't answer. I pushed the door open and walked out into the night. Behind me came Grandma Ruth's cursing: "Good, go! That's one less mouth to feed!" Lily laughed, a sharp, brittle sound like glass shards scraping the floor.
On the bus back downtown, I watched the boundary between the human district and the mixed district slide past the window. The streetlights grew brighter, and the buildings newer. My phone buzzed with a text from Jason.
"Bianca, what's wrong? Why aren't you answering my calls? Everything's fine here. Call me when you get this. Love you."
Then my screen lit up. He was calling. What was I supposed to do?
My finger hovered over the answer button, but I couldn't bring myself to press it. What was I supposed to say? "Hey, I slept with my new boss, Nicholas Rayne—the Alpha werewolf CEO of Rayne Group"? And the scene of Jason's mother humiliating me with money, trying to get me to give Jason up, was still stuck in my head. I was a mess, and my head hurt so much it felt like it was about to explode.
Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, I put the phone away. Hiding was easier than facing the truth. Pretending I hadn't seen the call was easier than saying the words that would make everything real.
I muted my phone, pressed my forehead against the cold glass, and watched the city lights blur through my tears. One day, I promised myself, I would earn enough money to take Helen out of that house.
But first, I had to survive.
