I had to keep working nonstop, or I'd face my aunt's scolding.
"Lazy girl! Are you still that pampered rich miss who never had to lift a finger?
"Mr. Phillips told me to make sure to toughen you up. If you drop dead from exhaustion, that's your problem!"
She raised the thin bamboo stick in her hand and struck me hard.
The old wounds that hadn't yet healed tore open, staining my ragged clothes with blood.
The pain made me shiver, but I didn't dare utter a single complaint.
When Dylan threw me back to my rural home, I naively thought he was angry at me for disgracing the Phillips family.
I believed that once he calmed down, he would definitely come to take me back.
When I stepped into my aunt's house, I first got a loud slap across the face.
"You useless thing! You managed to get into a wealthy family and couldn't even keep a man. And here I was, counting on you to help your cousin in the future!" she snapped.
My aunt took everything valuable from me, even the clothes on my back.
She then tossed me some old, moldy-smelling clothes.
"Clean the yard, then go make dinner. I don't need freeloaders!"
My aunt worked me to the bone.