The Masked Vampire King's Accidental Bride
Chapter 369: Because pain was her only reality

Chapter 369: Because pain was her only reality

Marla looked at the girl, who stood with difficulty, tears flowing down her cheeks.

She knew that the wound wouldn’t be big enough to bleed, and thus no one would know she hit this bitch in the room.

She was sure this coward would never open her mouth against her, because at the end of the day, this bitch knows this palace is the only place she can return to when that leech will throw her out of his palace.

"Don’t forget your place, b*tch. I am sure you are not stupid enough to actually believe that leech will always take care of you. He will throw you out the moment you are useless to him," Marla snarled at Elliana.

"Do you think I didn’t notice? Your turtleneck dress can’t hide the wound on your neck.

I bet the only reason he is good to you is because you are just like your mother. You probably open your legs for him and bare your neck for him to drink from. Don’t act so high and mighty when you are nothing more than a whore we traded for the peace treaty," Marla scoffed in plain mockery.

It hurt Elliana.

Though what her stepmother was saying wasn’t true, it still hurt.

It hurt because she was so helpless in this palace.

She wanted to shout. Mr. Ambrose was downstairs and she was sure he would come at her first scream to protect her. However, no matter how much she tried, no voice came out of her mouth.

Her body was going into rejection of her commands. It was just like always. The memories of the past started resurfacing as she looked around her room.

It was the same bathroom where they drowned her multiple times to teach her a lesson to never open her mouth in front of the King. The same nightstand that was home to the multiple ointments for her wounds.

The steel vase on the table that she has lost count of how many times it was used to hit her head to knock some sense into her.

As they quoted - "she deserved this beating to atone for her mother’s sin,"

Elliana’s hand trembled when she saw her stepmother walking towards the balcony.

Her room was on the second floor, but it didn’t stop them from throwing her from the balcony to the ground into the bushes time after time because it was fun and punishment for something she didn’t even do.

She survived.

She always survived and was never scarred, which was one of the reasons why they kept tormenting her without the fear of ever being caught.

And every time she was caught wounded, the excuse was the same. That the girl was a klutz who kept falling here and there.

A few tears rolled down her cheeks as she bit her lower lips to control the sobs that were itching to release from her mouth.

She was trying.

She was trying so hard to keep her emotions inside because she didn’t want to offend anyone and most importantly let Mr. Marino know how pathetic she was, but one snap and she was already breaking again.

Elliana promised herself she wouldn’t let anyone walk over her ever again, but why wasn’t she able to move or do anything? Why was her mind locking herself inside once again?

Her heart was beating at a fast pace, and her throat was clogged from the build-up emotions as she looked at the back of her stepmother who was standing near the balcony now looking at the garden.

It wasn’t good. Every time she used to go to the balcony of her room, it was to check if anyone loyal to the King was in the garden who might report what she did to her.

The memories of the times when her mother and Madeline laughed in her face before throwing her from that railing resurfaced and Elliana scratched her hands subconsciously, her mind going in denial of what was happening to her.

Was this really her destiny? She was wary of coming here. She didn’t want to. However, she remembered King Abramo talking to the Prince about taking her to the human kingdom.

She didn’t want to be a reason for her prince to get any scolding from the grandpa and thus she agreed to it when her father invited them again, not to mention how the Prince had also asked her and said he would take her once the king was back.

Elliana knew nothing good would come out of it when she came here and no matter how loving her father was, he wouldn’t be able to protect her from her stepmother. He never was.

But a little hope was there in her heart, the hope that her stepmother or Madeline wouldn’t do anything to her in the presence of the vampires.

She didn’t know she would be so wrong.

Her stepmother still found a way to torment her in a way no one would know what transpired in these closed walls.

Elliana dug her nails in her arms so harshly that blood started seeping out of them, the pain in her arms, taking away some of her attention from those harsh memories and thoughts.

This wasn’t the first time she had done it, bleeding to ease the pain in her heart.

She used to find empty glass bottles in the kitchen when no one would be around in the middle of the night and use their broken glass to cut her inner thighs sneakily. Luckily the wounds always healed without leaving a scar, and to date, no one was able to find them.

She wasn’t a coward, but it was the easiest way for her to cooperate with her pain apart from all those training sessions in the cave she used to do with the sword she stole from her father’s practice room.

Elliana dug harder, shivering at the unfamiliar feeling of disgust towards herself traveling in her body.

She knew why she was feeling like this. All those powers were locked inside her, and she was still harming herself rather than retaliating, just like the useless scared pathetic girl she always turns into when it comes to her stepmother.

Maybe it was the trauma that she got when her stepmother stripped her naked in front of all the female maids and pushed her into hot water when she was barely eight years old.

Her entire body felt like someone was boiling it. She had received quite some good burns and her skin had those blisters that remained there for more than two weeks.

In her defense, her stepmother told her father that she was impatient enough and jumped into the hot water bathtub herself.

She knew no one in this palace had the power to speak against her stepmother, and maybe that’s why she never tried going against her stepmother.

She took all those beatings and blaming quietly with her head bowed down in respect, just like how Marla liked it.

Marla, who was ensuring no one was around so that she could go ahead with her plans of telling Elliana to sneak into Sebastian’s office and get some information, turned around, her pupils dilating when she saw the blood on the girl’s arms.

"What the hell do you think you are doing, you freak!" Marla walked to Elliana and grabbed her hair in a fist, yanking her out of the bed and slamming her on the wall so her body was pressed against the wall.

"Do you want to get me into trouble? You little piece of shit!" Marla shouted, pressing Elliana’s face further into the wall, making Elliana flinch and cry in ache.

"I... I didn’t mean any of that, stepmother. Please, it hurts," Elliana winced in pain as her mother pinched her waist harshly.

"It hurts? You don’t even know what pain feels like, you b*tch. I have been too easy on you, haven’t I? Do you think just because I don’t want them to know what I did with you, I would go easy on you?

Just wait. I will hurt you in a way no one will know what happened to you," Marla walked out of the room to the janitor and brought back a stick.

Elliana looked at the stick in horror.

She knew that her stepmother wouldn’t beat her with the stick or everyone would know what she did.

Then what exactly was she thinking of doing? Elliana gulped when Marla broke the stick.

She pushed Elliana on the ground, opening her legs forcefully.

Elliana’s eyes widened when realization dawned upon her.

"Stepmother! What are you doing?!" She nearly shouted in horror.

Was she... Was she thinking of rap -

Elliana couldn’t even complete her thoughts.

"Since you and your mother like to open your legs so much, let’s see if you will enjoy this punishment. This is for slapping my daughter, trying to insult me downstairs, and pulling this bleeding stunt. Do you want to bleed so badly? Let me help you with it!" Marla smiled at Elliana evilly, before she lifted Elliana’s dress, exposing her panties.

"Bloody slut," Marla snarled.

Elliana struggled to get out of her mother’s strong grip, sobbing now.

"Mother, please don’t do this. I haven’t..."

She was still a virgin. She wanted to tell her stepmother, but was it of any use?

Hot tears spilled from the corner of her eyes as she tried to break free her legs from her mother’s steel-like grip.

"I beg you, please. Fear the god, Mother. What you are doing is inhumane! Please, leave me alone! Mr. Marino!" Elliana screamed as loudly as she could, making Marla widen her eyes before she placed her hand on Elliana’s mouth to muffle her screams.

"You better stop screaming b"tch," Marla shouted at her.