9
The evening sky swallowed the twilight, inch by inch.
Standing in the deepening blood–red glow, I calmly replied.
**
<
“Yes.”
I said, “I got what I wanted, realized you’re nothing special. Boring.”
After a few seconds of silence, Jax Ryder spoke, his voice trembling slightly:
“I told you, don’t mess with me, Eve…”
“Just polite, unspoken adult games. Why would you take them seriously?”
I scoffed,
“I warned you, Jax Ryder. I’m just like Alex; neither of us is a good person.”
On his end, there was only dead silence.
A moment later, the call ended.
I pushed open the door and walked in.
A ceramic plate flew at me, smashing against my forehead.
“Eve, I told you to marry into the Thorne family, to appease Alex, to maintain a long–term partnership between the Hardings and Thorne Enterprises.”
“You couldn’t even do that one thing right?!”
My father stood in the living room, his face as cold as frost.
“To the study.”
In the study, there was a leather whip.
The crisscrossing scars on my back were from when I refused to marry Alex.
Back then, Alex’s original girlfriend was Isabella, my father’s daughter with his first wife.
Unfortunately, they had an argument, and Isabella, in a fit of pique, married someone
else.
Tue, 26 Aug
<
,4%由
In a rage, Alex threatened to cut ties with the Hardings.
My father, left with no choice, brought me back – his illegitimate daughter, who had grown up in the slums for twenty years.
Forty lashes, one after another, until I lay on the floor, my back raw and bloody, almost exposing bone.
Through the overwhelming pain, I heard my own voice:
“Okay… I’ll go.”
“I’ll find a way to make him marry me.”
Now, it was just like four years ago.
The whip cut through the air and landed on my body, only this time, I didn’t shed a single
tear.
Only surging ambition mixed with pain, growing rapidly within my flesh.
I met the bright light of the study, looked up, and smiled:
“Dad, I’ll find a way to make Thorne Enterprises continue its partnership with the
Hardings.”
