Chapter 4

Jason tried to slap Silas, but Silas caught his hand and flung it away.

To his surprise, however, the force sent Jason crashing to the floor.

The moment the door swung open, Jason let out a perfectly timed cry.

"I told you to look after him, yet this is how you take care of someone?"

A tremendous force slammed into Silas, sending him sprawling to the floor. The back of his head struck the table and chairs with a sickening thud.

He hissed in pain and curled up into himself. Clutching the back of his aching head, he glanced up and saw Nadine cradling Jason in her arms, her face filled with concern.

"Silas, apologize."

Nadine looked up, and their eyes met. Her gaze, which had once been filled with love, was now nothing but cold.

Silas clenched his fists, his voice thick with barely restrained tears.

"He fell on his own! And he's the one who tried to hit me for no reason!"

Only then did Nadine notice the injury on his forehead.

She froze for a brief second, but her voice turned cold the next instant.

"If you hadn't been so immature, why would Jason have hit you? He's injured and upset. Of course he's going to be emotional. I've told you this countless times."

A sharp pain shot through Silas' chest as he forced himself to his feet.

"Everything is always my fault because I'm immature," he gritted out, fighting back tears. "He was the one who attacked me first, and I didn't even push him! Aren't I supposed to be the most important person in your life? Why do you always take his side?"

She'd promised to love him and protect him for the rest of their lives.

So why did she keep siding with other people, time and time again? Why did she always assume he was the one being unreasonable?

"How dare you talk back to me!" Nadine snapped, her eyes narrowing. "I must've spoiled you too much. That's why you've become so unreasonable! Guards, take him to the chapel and give him the family punishment!"

The Larson family's punishment consisted of 50 lashes, enough to leave a person fighting for their life. Nadine had once endured it herself to keep him by her side. Back then, she had lain on a hospital bed, barely clinging to life, yet she had still reached up to stroke his face.

"Even if the whole world tries to tear us apart, I will never let you leave my side," she'd told him.

Yet now, she was going to have him punished the very same way.

"Nadine, you heartless monster! You're the one who's being unreasonable! You're the one who betrayed me!"

The guards dragged Silas into the family chapel.

"Let go of me!" he cried. "You can't treat me like this, Nadine!"

The moment the words left his mouth, a whip cut through the air with a vicious crack and lashed across his back.

Silas screamed. His knees buckled, and he crumpled to the floor.

"Keep going. Don't stop until he learns to behave."

The second lash tore through Silas' clothes, leaving a long, bloody welt across his back. He cried out in agony, writhing uncontrollably on the floor.

By the third lash, blood had begun to seep from the corner of his mouth. The pain was so intense that his body was gradually going numb, cold sweat soaking through his clothes.

He looked up at Nadine, and she hadn't even spared him a glance. Instead, she continued soothing Jason in her arms.

That single glance shattered the last of his hope.

Silas' vision grew increasingly blurry, and his consciousness began to slip away.

Before long, darkness swallowed him whole, and he passed out.

When he woke again, he was lying face down on the bed in his bedroom, with someone sitting beside him. To his surprise, the person in his room was neither Nadine nor Jason, but Nadine's younger sister, Olivia Larson.

"Why are you here?"

"Obviously, I came to bring you some medicine. Now that you're awake, drink it. Don't waste my time."

Still dazed, Silas took the medicine and downed it in one go.

The medicine tasted strangely bitter.

A few months later, an itching sensation spread from his wounds, rapidly sweeping through his entire body.

Silas turned deathly pale. As he stared at the countless red welts covering his skin, the glass slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor.

"What did you put in this medicine?"

"I just added a little peanut powder," Olivia replied, laughing smugly. "What, don't you like my little gift?"

Silas grabbed his phone and tried to call for help, but she snatched it from him and tossed it onto the floor.

"Are you looking for my sister? She's with my real brother-in-law now," Olivia drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You still don't know, do you? Jason and Nadine have been together for ages.

"I knew there was no way she could possibly love an idiot like you. To think she even froze my credit cards for your sake back then. Let's see who's going to help you now!"

With that, she strode out of the room, her heels clicking against the floor.

Silas's vision began to blur. The chandelier above him dissolved into a hazy halo of light, and every breath he drew felt as though he were inhaling shards of broken glass that scraped painfully against his chest.

Desperate to get up and seek help, he tried to stand. But the moment his feet touched the floor, he collapsed. He struggled to crawl across the floor as a suffocating sensation surged over him like a rising tide.

When he was almost at the door, he suddenly heard Nadine's voice. He instinctively called out to her for help.

"Silas!"