Chapter 18
Lydia begged desperately for forgiveness, but Harry had no intention of letting her go.
The next second, a sharp pain tore through her scalp as a bodyguard yanked her hair and dragged her toward a wooden frame.
The iron chains clanked as she was forced up, and her wrists were shackled above her head.
“Samantha was so kind to you and treated you so well, so why did you frame her?” Harry asked. Then, he watched coldly as he ordered the bodyguard to begin.
A moment later, the bodyguard pulled a red-hot branding iron from a charcoal brazier and pressed it against her collarbone.
The stench of burning flesh filled the air as Lydia let out a painful scream. She writhed in agony, and the chains ground into her skin until they cut into her flesh.
“It’s not true. She’s the one who set me up…” Even as she was being tortured, Lydia still refused to admit anything.
“I see, you won’t confess.” Harry took a bowl of salt water from the bodyguard and slowly poured it over her wounds. Then, he flung another cup of it on her face. “There’s surveillance footage of everything you’ve done. The proof is clear as day.”
Lydia’s eyes widened as the pain made her scream again. Her cries echoed in the basement.
Harry said, “You made her suffer so much. Now, you’ll feel the same pain she did.”
He ordered the bodyguard to pick up a syringe from a tray.
Lydia stared at the murky liquid inside, and she frantically tried to retreat. “No, no. Don’t…”
The needle was plunged into her arm, and salt water was slowly injected into her body. Her body grew weaker and weaker. Saliva and flecks of blood started spilling out of her mouth.
Even after she had been chained and covered in tears and blood, Harry still had no intention of sparing
her. He toyed with a sharp knife as he looked at her coldly.
“I was wrong. I know what I did was wrong now. I’m begging you…” Lydia trembled as she knelt on the floor and begged for her life.
Harry merely let out a cold laugh. He slid the knife’s tip lightly across her cheek, leaving a shallow cut that blood oozed out of.
“Didn’t you like pretending to be sick?” Harry said as he looked down at her. Then, his mouth curled up into a cruel smile. “Then, stay here and ‘recover’ properly.”
With that, Harry turned to leave. But just before he did, he stopped and turned back, instructing the bodyguards, “Keep her here. You can do whatever you want to her as long as you don’t kill her.”
Chapter 18
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The iron door was slammed shut, and darkness swallowed Lydia’s cries. “Harry! You’ll pay for this!”
Harry stood in front of the window in the villa with a file in his hands.
It was a report he’d ordered that detailed everything Samantha had done for the family in the past five
years.
Samantha had secretly sold her jewelry to cover the company’s financial needs. She had stayed up countless nights caring for his sick parents. And every time he came back from a business dinner drunk, she always had hangover soup and stomach medicine ready.
And in return, all he gave her was coldness, neglect, and betrayal.
Every time Harry was with Lydia, Samantha would bear with everything all on her own.
Just that thought alone felt like a stab in his heart.
Harry went upstairs and happened to see Joseph standing in the doorway. “Daddy…”
Joseph stood there timidly, clutching the little teddy bear Samantha had once sewn for him. “I miss Mommy. When will you bring her back?”
Looking at Joseph’s reddened, tear-filled eyes, Harry crouched down and pulled him into a tight embrace. He choked up, “I miss her, too.”
But he knew that some mistakes could never be undone.
