I gaped up at Adelind, stunned that she had struck me in anger and I hadn’t even done anything!

“I can’t believe you,” she hissed in my face. I was tempted to wipe her spit away, but too scared to do anything. “You should be ashamed of yourself! You will be punished for this!”

“Punished?!” I exclaimed in disbelief. “You’re not my father!”

“No, I’m not. You’re father is dead!” She snarled and I flinched at the cold detachment in her tone. “I am stuck as your stepmother and yes, you will be punished.”

“What about her?!” I yelled and pointed at Margarete, sitting there with a “pity-me-I-just-got-abused-for-no-reason” sort of look in her eyes and I knew that that was the wrong thing to say.

“You dare insinuate that my daughter had something to do with your disobedience?”

“What disobedience?! I haven’t done anything wrong!”

“You didn’t do what you were supposed to and, when confronted about it, you harrassed my Margarete!”

“This is horse shit!”

Another slap and I shut up, simply glaring at Adelind.