Jenna's palm connected with Hazel's face. The cousin didn't see the slap coming. She didn't even think that Jenna would ever dare.
The sound was so loud it traveled down the hallway, bouncing around the walls.
Hazel's eyes blurred for a moment as she staggered sideways, simultaneously tumbling off the bed and crashing onto the plush carpet with a yelp.
She clutched her cheek, eyes wide with disbelief. "Y-you—" she didn't get to finish when she tasted blood in her mouth and felt the ache on her face.
And she wailed so loudly the house could have shook.
Jenna was stunned.
She didn't expect to be so heavy handed. The slap felt like it carried the weight of two men.
But her surprise left as quickly as it came.
'Hazel had always been physically weak,' she thought.
Forgetting that even she was weaker than Hazel previously.
Jenna had never resorted to violence in the past. She never had the guts nor the physical strength. Whenever her siblings were hurt, she threatened her uncle, who in turn, made things right. But in the end, she'd pay in other ways for threatening her uncle.
Even though her uncle seemed to have taken over everything her parents left behind, her uncle couldn't access her parents' connections except with Jenna's help. So for that reason, the man still had slight reservations. Otherwise, he would have sent Jenna and her siblings out a long time ago.
"You want to play an evil heiress in my house?" Jenna said coolly, crouching beside Hazel, eyes gloomy like dark cloud. Her tone was all honey and daggers. "Then learn what real power feels like."
She yanked Hazel's hair, forcing her neck to the side. Hazel whimpered. Her attempt to fight back was futile. Most importantly, she didn't know when Jenna became so strong.
Hazel trembled. Her neck ached. Her scalp burned. "Le—let go!" she cried.
"Next time you think of touching my siblings, remember this moment. Remember the taste of the blood in your mouth. And remember that people die by accident everyday."
Hazel's face morphed with terror and dread at the threat to her life. 'This girl has gone crazy!' she thought.
Satisfied with the fear on her face, Jenna pushed her head and rose with a malicious curve of her lips.
Hazel hit her head on the bed stand, crying out in pain.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway. It must be her uncle's wife, Aunt Mary, no doubt coming to check the noise.
Jenna turned and walked past the threshold, closing the door behind her with eerie gentleness, just in time to see her aunt, who was panting and half-dressed in a housecoat.
"What happened? I heard Hazel screaming."
"She slipped," Jenna said, eyes dead calm. "It must be hard living on stolen property." With that, she walked off, leaving her aunt stunned and dazed.
Since when?
Jenna had never spoken to her like that before.
Just then, Hazel showed up at the door, one hand bracing the frame, the other still cradling her swollen, red cheek. Her eyes were red and wild, lips bloodied, and tears streaking her face like war paint.
"Mother!" she wailed, voice trembling with pain and humiliation. "That bitch hit me."
Aunt Mary turned sharply, her face twisting with fury at the sight of her daughter's bruised face.
"Stop right there!" the woman bellowed at Jenna.
How could she let Jenna leave like this after what she'd done to her precious daughter?
Jenna halted mid-step.
Behind her, Aunt Mary stormed down the hallway, slippers slapping the floor with indignation.
"You dare lay hands on my daughter?!" she screeched. "Have you become too comfortable living in this house!?"
Jenna slowly turned her head, eyes glinting like sharpened glass. Of course, she'd never forget what this woman did to her prior to the apocalypse and when it struck.
And she would pay her back in her own coin.
"I wanted to confirm if your daughter was made of steel. Turns out she's just flesh and bones like everyone else."
"You…" the woman choked, shocked that Jenna retorted, and in this manner. "How dare you!" she swung a hand towards Jenna's face but before the slap could land, Jenna's hand shot out and gripped her wrist lightly.
However, the woman wailed, as if her bones were being cracked.
"Keep your claws to yourself!" Jenna flung the woman's hand. She was gentle, yet her aunt stumbled and fell.
Jenna froze. Glanced at her hand and shook her head. It couldn't be her.
"Mother!" Hazel cried and rushed forward. But recalling the slap that almost killed her, she halted mid-step. "Jennifer! Have you lost your mind?!"
Jenna didn't speak. Instead, she smiled cruelly, sending a chill down Hazel and her mother's spine.
Aunt Mary didn't believe that Jenna could make her fall. She convinced herself that she slipped. Gritting her teeth, she rose with the help of her daughter, wondering what had gotten into Jenna, to make her so violent today. But recalling what Hazel did yesterday, the woman finally understood. She admitted to herself that her daughter was at fault but would never say it out loud.
Instead, she changed her approach, her voice softened slightly, but doubled down on her shamelessness.
"Hazel is your cousin. She's only seventeen, how could you hit her like that?"
"You mean three months younger than me?" Jenna scoffed. This woman was still as thick-faced and shameless as ever.
"I expected her to posses the sense of an adult, however, you're telling me she can't even boast of a ten year old child's thinking ability? Aunt," she paused, "are you admitting you gave birth to an idiot?"
"You—"
"Because only an idiot would do what she did!" Jenna cut her off. "She never used her head, reason I gave her a brain resetting slap." She continued, smiling at the way her aunt opened her mouth in shock. "So, the next time any of you think of hurting my siblings again, then remember I can do worse."
"You—you—you...!" the woman choked, and held her aching head. It felt as if she'd received the biggest blow of her life.
Jenna and her siblings had always been sharp-tongued when pushed too hard, but this time, it was too much. Aunt Mary had never felt so humiliated in her entire life.
She could have the guards throw her and her siblings out, or better still, lock them up in the attic like she always did, but recalling her husband's warning, she clenched her teeth and her face turned purple with rage. "You insolent girl! Just you wait, when your uncle returns from his business trip, he'll surely put you in your place!" With that, she scoffed and stormed off.
"Jenna, you'll pay for this!" Haze followed, already planning how to make Jenna suffer in school.
Jenna sneered.
By the time her uncle returned, he'd be declearing bankruptcy instead of punishing her. She thought.
Meanwhile, Stanley and Mimi had crept behind her earlier. Seeing how their docile older sister dealt with the mother and daughter without breaking a sweat or waiting for their uncle to handle his family, like she always did, they were stunned.
"How did she become so fearless and resolute?" Stanley mumbled.
...
Few hours later...
After taking her siblings to school, Jenna didn't go to her school right away. She found a secluded alleyway behind the dumpling shop near her school and flashed into her space.