Chapter 13
Alexander waved a hand, and his bodyguards surged forward. They grabbed Sophia, pinning her wrists and slapping her lace from both sides.
Within seconds, her cheeks ballooned, her teeth loosened, and blood trickled from her split lips. Her carefully maintained mask of haughty composure shattered. Tears streaked down as she croaked, voice thick with pain, “Please stop…!”
Alexander leaned back in an ornate chair, one leg crossed over the other, his tone deceptively casual. “Do you understand now?”
Sophia’s body convulsed with each blow. Through ragged breaths, she sputtered, “1-1 went after Emily because I love you. I thought you loved me too. I wanted to clear the way.”
A bitter laugh escaped Alexander. “You still don’t get it, do you? To me, you were nothing more than a diversion. From the start, I’ve only ever loved
Emily.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “No–that can’t be. You love me. You’d never have divorced Emily otherwise…” Confidence drained from her voice under
his unyielding gaze
In truth, Alexander hadn’t intended a final divorce, he’d sought only to punish Emily for defiance. He’d never foreseen that mercy would be twisted into this women’s excuse to harm the one he treasured.
The memory of Emily’s hollow, wounded stare gnawed at him like acid. His face went ice–cold.
He flung the papers to the floor. “Every wound she suffered I want it returned tenfold ”
No, please! Alexander, this is criminal–assault! I was wrong, I confess!” Sophia thrashed on the floor. “I know I was wrong!”
She screamed, “Don’t touch me! Stay away!” but the guards paid no heed. They forced her to kneel, bare skin pressed against blocks of ice pulled from the freezer. Shivering uncontrollably, she blacked out within minutes.
When the freezing water splashed over her, she jerked awake, gasping. They let the cold torment continue until Alexander’s signal, then hauled her to the grand staircase. Over and over, she tumbled down the steps–ten times–before being dragged into the hall. There, she endured sixty lashes, the cruel ritual of Harrington family justice.
She lay barely conscious afterward, broken and bleeding. The doctors Alexander sent patched her up–just enough to keep her on the brink, alive for
whatever came next
Day after day, the cycle repeated. No mercy, no end.
At the same time, Alexander dismantled her public image: every photo, every charity event, every achievement exposed as fraud. Overnight, she became a t
target of scom.
Then he moved against her family. After they accused Emily of sending thugs, Alexander unleashed a dozen mercenaries to terrorize them. Sophia’s father collapsed from a heart attack under the strain, when he was rushed to the hospital, Alexander’s orders ensured no one would help him. He died. alone.
Sophia’s mother insisted Emily had pushed her. Alexander arranged for her to be hurled to the ground repeatedly until her tailbone and legs
shattered
swere
Next, he turned those who’d aided Sophia against one another; the women who’d attacked Emily and the medical staff Sophia had bribed. His rule was simple: only the last woman standing could
free.
Driven by sheer desperation, they clawed at each other, tore our hair, slapped, kicked, and spat the vilest insults no mercy, no pause. Yet Alexander made sure there would be no victor to walk away.
“This is only the beginning,” he murmured, voice flat. He watched with detached calm, though his heart felt hollow.
They had paid for hurting Emily, but his debt to her was far greater he owed her a life. How could he ever make that right?
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