Chapter 6

The blade cut through the lace bodice of Grace's dress. Blood spread across the fabric.

Before Olivia could react, hands seized her and slammed her to the ground. Someone wrenched her injured wrist behind her back, twisting until she thought it would break.

Four men held her down. She couldn't move.

Footsteps pounded out of the ballroom. Olivia looked up, already knowing who she would see.

"Grace!"

Henry rushed over and gathered her into his arms, his face tight with fury.

"Get a doctor! Now!"

Grace clutched him, tears running down her face. "Henry... She tried to kill me."

He pulled her closer and rubbed her back. "It's alright. You're safe. I've got you."

Only then did he look down at Olivia. There was no warmth in his eyes.

"Olivia, I'm very disappointed in you."

His men hauled her onto her knees but kept her pinned there. Hair hung across her face as she looked up at him, her expression blank.

Henry carried Grace toward the exit. He gave the order without looking back.

"My men know what happens when they break the rules. My wife doesn't get a pass. Take her away and give her the water treatment. Don't let her out until she admits she was wrong."

The garden went silent. Even Henry's personal guards, men accustomed to brutal violence, went still.

They used water torture to break enemies who refused to talk and punish men who betrayed them. Now, Henry was ordering them to do it to his wife.

-

The guards took Olivia to an old waterfront warehouse converted into an interrogation room.

Their rough handling tore open the wound on her wrist. Blood seeped through the broken skin, sending a sharp pain up her arm.

In the middle of the room stood a large tank filled with freezing seawater. They tied Olivia's hands behind her back and hoisted her above the tank, the rope creaking through a pulley.

Then they let her drop.

Freezing seawater closed over her head. It flooded her nose and mouth as she thrashed, unable to reach the surface.

Her lungs burned. The need to breathe became unbearable, and panic took over as she felt herself drowning.

She remembered the tank Henry's enemies once trapped her in. She was just as helpless then, just as terrified. But that time, Henry was outside, fighting to reach her.

The rope jerked tight and hauled her out. She broke the surface coughing, her body shaking so hard that she couldn't stop.

"Mrs. West, just tell him you were wrong," one of the men urged.

Olivia raised her dripping face and managed a smile. "In your dreams."

They dropped her again.

After that, she lost track of time. Each breath above the surface felt like a last-minute reprieve, and staying conscious grew harder with every plunge.

She didn't know how long it went on before the warehouse doors finally swung open.

Henry walked in and stopped to look at her.

Her head sagged, wet hair hiding her face. Water streamed from her clothes into the tank below.

One of his men approached and spoke quietly. "She still won't admit she was wrong."

Henry frowned. Something flickered across his face before he walked to the edge of the tank and looked up at Olivia.

"Just apologize, and I'll let you down."

Olivia slowly lifted her head and stared at him. Her throat was so raw that she could barely speak.

"You want me to say I was wrong? Sign the divorce papers. Otherwise, you might as well kill me. Because if I get out of here, I'll kill her. Sooner or later."

Henry went still. Even after everything he put her through, she refused to give in.

"You're impossible!" He flung a hand toward the tank. "Put her back in. Maybe this time she'll learn!"

They released the rope again.

Seawater closed over Olivia's head. Her chest tightened as she fought the desperate urge to breathe.

As her awareness faded, pieces of her past drifted through her mind.

The cage at the black market in Vesperia. Henry's bloodstained hands, so gentle against her skin. The flickering candlelight as he kissed her closed eyelids and whispered, "You were worth it to me. That's all that matters."

The last of her air slipped away. Exhaustion settled over her, and the cold sank deeper.

Then everything went quiet.