'WHACK!'
Bella Highland's head slammed against the cool glass of the car window. The sting spread across her cheek like fire. From the tinted glass, she caught her reflection.
Her fat, stubby cheeks were blotchy and bruised. The red handprints from numerous slaps were visible, and it stung no less, but she swallowed the pain like she always did.
Pain was useless. It just made them laugh harder than they already did.
The only thing she regretted at this moment was not wearing any makeup. A little foundation, some concealer, anything. But she hadn't expected to need it. Not tonight. Not like this.
"You fat piece of shit!" Grace Highland screeched. "You embarrassed our whole family tonight! Made it seem like we're forcing you to marry into the Langford's! Forcing you!"
Bella curled her fists into her lap. They were forcing her. Everyone knew it, including the Langford's. She just wasn't supposed to say it.
"Our family has a chance to secure a future with the wealthiest family in the country. Yet, you want to ruin this by acting like an ungrateful fat brat?" Grace waved a manicured hand to her face and body with a sneer. "Look at you! Who in their right mind would want this? You should be grateful someone's willing to marry a cow like you."
Bella closed her eyes, trying to shut out the slaps and the insults. None of it was new. None of it should be surprising.
With the way she'd been treated all her life, she'd expected to be married off to a nobody.
But somehow, just when she thought nothing could surprise her anymore, they find a way to make her life more miserable.
How could they hand her to the eldest son of the Langford's? A full blown mad man?
Bella blinked back the tears that had started to form in her eyes. She couldn't shake off the pain from how hard he pulled at her hair during their introduction.
Her family had expected her to laugh alongside them despite the abuse, and because she didn't, she was an ungrateful brat?
"Goddammit!" Grace suddenly shrieked, running a frustrated finger through her hair. "Why the hell did Dad let you ride with me?!" She stared at Bella grudgingly, but suddenly smiled when an idea popped in her head. "Get out."
Bella's head snapped up. Her beautiful orbs that had tears in them widened. "Huh?"
"Are you deaf? Get. Out." Grace's eyes burned with fury.
Bella stiffened. "B-but G-grace, we're on a highway—"
"I don't care!" Grace shouted. She turned to the driver. "Stop the damn car!"
The chauffeur hesitated. "Young Miss... we can't stop here, it's dangerous—"
"Do you want to lose your job and your life?!" Grace snapped.
The man swallowed hard and turned off the engine.
More tears formed in Bella's eyes. "Grace, please—"
"Why are you still sitting there?" Grace's smile was sickly sweet. "Or do you want me to drag you out?"
"Please! Don't do this..." Her voice cracked as a tear escaped her eyes. "I-I-I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have spoken back! I'll do whatever you want, just—please, don't leave me here! It's the middle of the highway! What if I get hurt—?"
Grace scoffed. "So? Will it be the end of the world? If anything, the world will be happy it just got rid of another pollution."
Bella's chest squeezed painfully. "H-how? How can you say this?" She whispered. "We're... We're sisters—"
Before the word was fully out, Grace slapped her again, harder. Bella's head whipped to the side, and stars danced in her vision.
"I said GET OUT!" She screamed, then she turned to the driver. "You!" She barked, "Get her out of this car. Now!"
The chauffeur opened the door behind Bella. Immediately she felt the cold air hit her skin, her whole body paralyzed with fear.
This wasn't a joke.
They were going to throw her out of the car in the middle of the highway!
"Grace, please—!" Bella gasped as the driver grabbed her arm, trying to yank her out.
Grace didn't even look at her. She leaned back lazily in the leather seat like she was at a goddamn spa.
Bella fought back, grabbing onto the headrest. Her fingers burned with the effort. "No! No, please!"
Desperately, she turned to her stepsister. "G-grace... W-why? Why are you doing this to me? I said I was sorry, didn't I? I agreed—I said I'd marry him! Isn't that what you wanted?! Can't you just—just stop already?!"
"You useless idiot," Grace snarled at the driver. "Pull harder! She's not a tree. Rip her out!"
"I'm trying, Young Miss!" The chauffeur hissed, bitting his bottom lips. He was already sweating profusely. He was a 6"2 ft muscular man who frequented the gym and lifted lots of weights, but he seemed to be powerless against Bella.
"She's... heavy!"
Grace frowned deeply. "You can't even move her?" She screeched. "Are you even a man?"
The chauffeur tugged harder.
Bella's legs frailed as he tried to drag her out. While frailing her legs, one of her shoe flew off and smacked Grace in the face, making her scream in anger.
Enraged, Grace joined in, slapping at Bella's arms. She pryed her fingers loose one by one.
"Please!" Bella sobbed. "I'll do anything! I'll be good! I promise, just don't throw me out, don't—!"
But after one last hard shove, her grip gave out.
Bella flew out of the car like a rag doll.
She hit the gravel with her back first. A jolt of pain shot through her body, making her gasp. Her other shoe flew off, landing somewhere in the dark.
The chauffeur quickly got into the car. Grace didn't spare another glance.
Slam.
Vroooooooom.
The Bentley sped off into the night.
Bella lay there, dazed, staring up at the black sky. The stars in the sky started blurring through the tears she didn't realize were falling yet. For a second, she thought she might pass out.
But the roar of an engine jolted her.
She scrambled to her feet, barefoot and bleeding. Her elbow and the sides of her palm were torn up from the fall.
Around her, cars rushed past. They were so fast that all she could see and hear were the blur of colors, the swerving, the noise, and the honking. Some barely missed her by inches.
She spun around wildly as it hit her—where she was, what just happened, what they'd done to her.
She was on the busiest highway in all of Country Z.
Her heart was beating so fast it hurt. She tried to step off the road, but every time she moved, another car's headlights blinded her and she jumped back.
Tears slid down her face, hot and quiet. Her sobs didn't even make it past her lips anymore—her throat had closed up with fear.
She was shaking—shaking so hard her teeth chattered. Not from cold, but from terror.
She was twenty-five, but right now, she felt younger again.
Eight years old, bleeding on the kitchen floor after being pushed into a broken glass table.
Ten years old, shoved down the stairs and told it was an accident.
Eleven years old, crying in the backseat of a locked car under the afternoon sun while Grace and her stepmother giggled inside with the keys.
She survived it all. Somehow.
She survived every near death moment.
She survived when her stepmother fed her food the dogs refused to eat.
She survived when Grace pushed her off the roof of a building in a high school party because people got to find out they were related.
And each time, she always thought if she could just hang on a little longer, there'll be a light at the end. It'll get better.
But now?
Now there was no light.
Only darkness.
And death speeding toward her.
"Why can't I see it this time?" she thought helplessly. Was she going to... die?
She trembled at the thought, but was distracted by a blinding light ahead.
A truck.
Big. Fast. Loud.
Coming straight at her.
Bella froze. She couldn't move. Her legs were heavy, rooted to the ground.
The truck was coming fast without slowing. The driver didn't even notice there was someone there.
Time slowed.
And in that moment, vague memories flashed before her eyes.
The days she was beaten by her father on her hospital bed after each accident when he was told she tried to take her life.
The nights she cried into her bloody pillows.
She'd never admitted this to herself, not even once, but her harsh reality slammed into her mind: Nobody ever loved her. Not even a little.
She never even had a happy moment.
She closed her eyes, and a final tear slipped down her bruised cheek.
The last thing she saw was the terror on the truck driver's face—
—before everything went black.