Chapter 2: No More Hunger

Elena woke with her wrist sealed beneath the bloodstained cloth.

The cut remained tender, but the bleeding had stopped far too quickly to be natural. A faint current moved beneath her skin, warm and responsive. Relief almost made her laugh.

Then her stomach cramped.

She had been unconscious for a day, and no one had brought her food or water. That was normal in the Ward household. Agnes called her a burden, and Uncle Calvin's family treated every mouthful Elena ate as theft.

In her first life, Elena had accepted that judgment. She cooked every meal, fed the animals, hauled water, worked the fields, and waited in the kitchen until everyone else finished. If Vanessa and the others left scraps, Elena ate. If they did not, she went hungry.

What a dutiful fool she had been.

She pushed open the warped door and stepped into the yard. Her knees shook, but the warmth inside her kept her upright.

Vanessa crossed her path wearing a clean floral blouse. She was only a month older than Elena, yet good food and easy living had made her soft and healthy.

"You're finally awake." Vanessa looked Elena over without concern. "Go make lunch. Grandma will beat you again if she comes home and finds nothing ready."

Agnes had ordered Vanessa to cook that morning. Vanessa had burned the porridge, then waited for Elena to wake so she could hand the work back.

Elena watched her cousin stroll toward the brick house for a nap.

In her first life, she had not learned until much later that Thomas and Margaret Ward were her adoptive parents. That fact had never mattered to them, or to Daniel and her sisters. They had loved Elena as their own.

Agnes and Calvin had used it as an excuse to exploit her.

Daniel sent fifteen dollars from his military pay every month. Grace and Rose each contributed what little they could. Nineteen dollars should have covered Elena's food, clothes, and schooling. Agnes took every cent while Elena starved, and Elena had helped preserve the lie by dressing neatly whenever her siblings visited.

No more.

She entered the kitchen and went straight to Agnes's flour jar. She knew every hiding place in the house. Within minutes, water boiled. Elena dropped noodles into the pot, cracked in two eggs, and added pickled greens and scallions.

The smell made her dizzy with hunger.

She ate one bowl, then another, slowly enough not to make herself sick. Strength returned to her hands. The healing force steadied into a quiet pulse.

Elena washed only the bowl she had used. She left the pot empty on the stove.

For years, this family had eaten the food bought with her money while denying her a place at the table.

From now on, she would feed herself first.

And she would recover far more than the price of two eggs.