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Chapter 3

Author: Alyonushka
I thought obedience might buy me a quiet month.

I was wrong.

A few days later, a supposedly low-risk inspection sent me back to the clinic.

My arm hadn’t healed. Now my calf was burned, too.

Darian sat beside me for half the night.

While the doctor tested the sensation in my leg, he held my hand and asked detailed questions.

“Will there be permanent damage?”

“Will she walk normally?”

I kept my eyes closed.

When the doctor said we needed time to assess the injury, Darian kissed my forehead.

“It’s all right. I’ll get you better.”

His hand moved gently through my hair.

I knew that same hand would sign the next assignment without hesitation.

After he and the doctor left, Vera came in.

She checked the corridor before approaching my bed.

“He stayed with you again last night.”

I said nothing.

She picked up my care sheet. Darian had written several reminders in the margin.

Her smile disappeared.

“I asked him to have dinner with me. He said he was busy.”

She dropped the sheet.

“So this is what he was doing. Looking after what’s left of you.”

“What do you want?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“You told him I was hurting you. What happened?”

I reached for the call button.

She tore its cord free before I could press it.

“Did he punish me? Remove me from my position?”

She leaned closer.

“No. Your fingers just got broken again.”

My chest tightened.

At last, she saw the reaction she wanted.

“You think finding doctors means he loves you?”

“He just isn’t ready for you to break beyond repair.”

She opened the cabinet where the enforcers had temporarily stored their equipment.

I pushed myself backward.

“This is a clinic.”

“So?”

She lifted a pair of dismantling pliers, slowly opening and closing them.

“He doesn’t want you dead. Neither do I.”

I tried to shout.

She grabbed my injured hand and dragged me back across the bed.

Pain tore through the healing tissue.

I shoved at her. My nails caught her hand, leaving a faint red scratch.

She looked down.

Then her expression changed.

“You hurt me?”

A blade sliced through the fabric of my hospital gown.

I threw a pillow between us and tried to reach the other side of the bed, but my injured leg wouldn’t support me.

Vera picked up the heavy rubber baton.

“Let’s see how much longer you can keep making him feel sorry for you.”

She brought it down toward my foot.

Everything went black.

When I woke, my right foot was in a cast.

Darian sat beside me, holding a document.

“It was Vera,” I whispered.

“I know.”

For one foolish second, I thought that meant he understood.

Then he placed the papers on the bed.

A settlement agreement.

The signature line had already been marked.

“She’s being held by the enforcers. Sign this, and we can bring her home today.”

I read the description.

*A private disagreement.*

*Both parties became emotional.*

*A voluntary settlement.*

“Both parties?” I looked up. “She broke my foot with a weapon.”

Darian rubbed his forehead.

“Her hand was injured, too.”

I remembered the scratch.

“Did her injury require surgery?”

“Leah, she’s frightened.”

“So am I.”

He ignored that.

“You’re her sister-in-law. Do you really want this spread through the pack? How is she supposed to hold her position afterward?”

I pushed the agreement away.

“She can figure that out herself.”

“I’m not signing.”

The room went quiet.

Darian studied me.

Then he nodded to the man behind him.

“Make her.”

My wrist was seized.

A pen was forced between injured fingers.

The harder I struggled, the tighter the grip became.

When they finally released me, something resembling my name lay across the page.

Darian checked it.

Then he took out his phone.

“There’s something else.”

I looked up.

“Vera says you attacked her first.”

“You believe her?”

He opened the camera.

Beside him, the enforcer unfolded a thick leather belt.

Only then did I understand why they had closed the door.

“Darian.”

My voice broke.

“My wounds were just treated.”

“I know. The doctor’s outside.”

He adjusted the angle.

“You need to apologize. Then this can be over.”

The first strike folded me inward.

I reached to protect my injured leg. Someone pinned my shoulder down.

Darian stood behind the camera.

Once, he had held me when I hurt.

Now he watched.

When his phone chimed, he raised a hand to stop the enforcer.

For a moment, I thought he had changed his mind.

Then he looked at Vera’s message, typed a reply, and said:

“Continue.”

I stopped calling his name.

Forty-nine lashes.

By the end, I had twisted the sheet into a knot beneath my hand.

Darian put away his phone and wiped the blood from my mouth.

“I’m doing this for you.”

“Once she sees the video, she’ll calm down. She won’t bother you again.”

A little of my blood stained his cuff.

He frowned and wiped it off.

Before leaving, he instructed the nurse to change my sheets.

Three days later, Vera sent me a photograph.

She sat beside him, a neat dressing covering the scratch on her hand.

*I watched the video.*

*Be sensible next time. You’re making this exhausting for him.*

The recording arrived in the same conversation.

I didn’t answer.

I saved everything somewhere Darian couldn’t reach.

#
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