My First Love Died, Now My Step Uncle Wants Me-Chapter 24: Mysophobia

Lana Shaw glared at her. "What nonsense are you talking about? I said I’m having a son, so it will be a son. If I end up having some little girl, it’ll be because you jinxed it! A woman has to give birth to a son. If you had been a boy, your father wouldn’t have gone out messing around, and your mother wouldn’t be dead. This is all your fault, you understand?"

"And another thing, Crystal Rhodes is back. If she hits you or curses you out, you just take it. You’re a tough little brat; a few hits won’t kill you. Just don’t make a scene, or you’ll make my life in the Rhodes Family impossible."

Lana Shaw droned on for a few more moments, never once asking Nina Wynn where she had been staying, what she had been eating, or whether she had any money.

Nina Wynn simply listened, not offering a single word of rebuttal.

After a moment, they went out.

The moment she stepped out, Nina felt a cold, heavy gaze cast upon her from afar.

She kept her head down and slowly walked to a stool that had been added to the table.

At the enormous table, everyone else sat on matching mahogany dining chairs. Only Nina was given a small, worn-out round stool.

And this seat happened to be right next to Crystal Rhodes and several of her friends.

She had just sat down when an incredibly gentle voice drifted over. "Caleb, is this the little niece we ran into at the coffee shop the other day?"

Only then did Nina Wynn notice Rosalind Lowell, who was seated next to Caleb Rhodes.

Dressed in white with jet-black hair, she had delicate, sweet features and an air of elegance—the very image of a well-bred lady from a prominent family. She and Caleb Rhodes looked like a perfect match.

Her eyes curved into crescents as she looked at Nina. "Little niece, did you happen to arrive in Caleb’s car just now?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The moment she spoke, everyone at the table turned to stare at Nina in astonishment.

Caleb Rhodes had a well-known obsession with cleanliness. No ordinary person was ever allowed in his room or his car. In fact, aside from his driver and Rosalind Lowell, not even his own mother had ever ridden in his car.

Caleb Rhodes frowned, and just as he was about to speak, Nina murmured, "I happened to run into Uncle on the road, and he gave me a ride since he was heading this way."

Rosalind Lowell smiled sweetly and linked her arm intimately with Caleb’s. "Oh, so that’s what happened," she cooed. "Caleb’s germaphobia is quite severe, you know. I’m always telling him he should try to interact more with people—let them ride in his car, enter his room, that sort of thing. I can’t believe he actually listened! It looks like he’s finally getting over it."

Only then did the others avert their gazes from Nina.

Just then, Caleb’s phone rang. He shot Nina a heavy look before stepping into the tearoom to take the call.

Nina breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, Rosalind spoke up again with a smile. "Little niece, that dress you’re wearing is lovely. It’s a couture piece from ’C,’ isn’t it? There are only three in the entire world. Two of them are owned by princesses in the Royal Family. Yours must be incredibly valuable."

The gazes that had just moved away instantly snapped back to her. Nina felt as if she were suffocating. She lowered her eyelids and bit her lip.

Just then, a few soft snickers erupted from nearby. Though quiet, they reached Nina’s ears with perfect clarity.

’She knew what they were laughing at—her dress. They thought it was a knockoff. After all, how could an orphan like her be wearing the same design as a princess?’

But everyone was staring at her. She couldn’t remain silent.

Her gaze fixed on the floor, she answered in a voice as thin as a thread, "It’s a knockoff."

Three simple words, yet they landed like heavy hammers, shattering the last pathetic shred of dignity she had left.

Rosalind Lowell’s eyes widened, her expression the very picture of innocence. "Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know... I just thought, since you’re the Rhodes Family’s Little Princess, that a dress would be nothing..."

Even nastier, whispered insults, audible only to Nina, followed. "So it really is a knockoff. I was wondering how she could afford something so expensive."

"Haven’t you heard? She slept her way into a guaranteed spot in the graduate program at Teacher’s College. She probably got this dress by climbing into someone’s bed, too."

"Hilarious. She sleeps around just to get her hands on a knockoff."

"Disgusting. She’s so filthy. Seriously, what was Nanny Collins thinking, putting a piece of trash like her right next to us? It’s so irritating."

...

Nina clenched her fists, her nails digging so hard into her palms they nearly broke the skin.

She looked up at Crystal Rhodes and saw the utter disgust and contempt on her face.

Suddenly, she felt her stool yanked sharply backward. Before she had time to react, she was sent sprawling to the floor.

Two large, full glasses of juice from the table came crashing down with her.

The red beverage soaked into her dress, leaving a filthy stain.

All eyes fell on Nina once more. Her face was ashen as she fought back the sharp pain in her knees, her head instinctively snapping up to look at Crystal Rhodes.

Crystal mouthed a word at her: *Bitch!*

Then she gave her the middle finger.

At this, Madam Rhodes, who had been silent all this time, spoke with a look of revulsion. "Why are you still on the floor? Go and change your clothes. How can a child be so clumsy all the time? Lana Shaw, you’ve been married into this family for years. How is the child you raised still like this, always doing such stupid, disgraceful things?"

Lana Shaw’s face flushed crimson. She strode over, pulled Nina to her feet, and hissed, "Scram. Get back to your room and change. And don’t you dare come back out here. You’re a complete embarrassment!"

Biting back the excruciating pain in her knees, Nina limped out of the dining hall.

But just as she reached the door to her room, someone grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the storage closet behind the stairs.

The door slammed shut with a BANG. She was thrown to the floor, and before she could even scramble up, two hard slaps landed across her face. Her head buzzed, and the stinging pain quickly turned to numbness.

"You bitch! Who let you come here? And you dared to ride in my uncle’s car? You’re so shameless, just as trashy as your damn aunt!"

Nina struggled, trying to push herself up, but Crystal stomped a foot onto the back of her hand.

The sharp point of the stiletto heel felt as if it would pierce straight through her hand. Pain exploded through Nina’s senses, her vision blurring as she teetered on the verge of fainting.

But Crystal wasn’t finished. She gave Nina’s hair another vicious yank. "Talk! Who told you you could ride in my uncle’s car?"

Nina was in too much pain to speak. She tried to move her hand, but Crystal only ground her heel in harder. A wave of agony shot through her, and Nina reflexively swatted at Crystal’s leg, which only served to enrage her tormentor.

Crystal grabbed Nina’s hair and gave it a savage upward rip. A clump of hair tore free, taking a patch of scalp with it.

Nina let out a piercing scream and finally passed out from the pain.

Even Crystal was startled. She hastily dropped the hair and kicked Nina twice. "Bitch. Playing dead?"

Nina remained motionless, showing no reaction at all.

Crystal bent over to check if she was still breathing. Then, she gave Nina one last vicious stomp before walking away, muttering curses as she went.

Not long after, Nina awoke to agonizing pain.

In the dim light, she braced herself against the wall and slowly fumbled her way to the door.

The pain made her dizzy, and she couldn’t stop herself from dry-heaving. She had to lean against the door for a long while before she could finally grope her way back to her room.

’Aside from the shabby furniture, the room was tolerable. After all, it wasn’t as if the Rhodes Family had any worse rooms to put her in.’

Nina collapsed onto her bed and lay there for a long time before she could finally force herself to get up and change her clothes.

The back of her left hand was deeply indented where the heel had crushed it. The skin was broken, revealing a small, bloody, mangled wound.

The patch of torn scalp was still bleeding, the blood trickling slowly down her hair to stain a small section of her collar red.