공유

Chapter 15

작가: Danielle
last update 최신 업데이트: 2025-03-18 02:37:34
Silva's knees struck the unforgiving ground as Rebecca pushed her ahead. Three days had gone by since the dark alley incident, and the storage closet punishment had merely marked the start.

"I want this whole floor sparkling clean before Ralph gets back," Rebecca commanded, placing a bucket of soapy water next to Silva. "And I’m talking about flawless. I want to be able to view my reflection."

Silva nodded quietly, every muscle in her body feeling the strain of fatigue, stress and exhaustion. Her stomach protested noisily.They had given her barely enough to live—small quantities of cold remains and just enough water to stave off collapse.

Her body tired, her belly empty of food, she lost track of each passing hour and of the number of evenings she had spent stuck in this wretched place. For how long more would she be able to withstand?

"Did you hear me?" Rebecca snapped, roughly grasping Silva's chin.

"Yes," Silva murmured, her voice raspy.

"Yes what?" Rebecca's fingers delved fur
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  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 16

    As Silva knelt beside the fountain, the setting sun behind the clouds dyed the sky in dancing shades of orange and pink. Hours of kneeling in the sun had numbed her legs and parched her throat. She didn't even have the energy to look up when Ralph's shadow cast as far as she knelt."Come on," he ordered in a monotonic tone.Silva attempted to walk but her legs didn't coordinate. Her knees buckled and she stumbled forward, then quickly steadying herself on the edge of the fountain.Ralph repeated irritation edged into his tone, "I advise you to get up."Silva muttered, her voice cracking from dehydration, “I cannot feel my legs.”Reaching down, Ralph groaned as he yanked her up. Silva gasped at the blood flowing back into her legs; pins and needles shot up from her knees."Go clean yourself up," he snapped and jerked her arm down.Silva nodded dazedly. "Yes, sir."As Ralph walked away, Silva steeled what little bravery remained to her. "Sir?"He halted, not so much as turning around. "W

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-19
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 17

    Silvia awoke the next morning with her head spinning. The green dress was draped over her closet door—proof that last night hadn't been a dream. For an evening, she'd sat as a guest at Ralph's table, not as his servant. She touched the silver necklace still fastened around her neck, wondering what the day would hold.Lost in her daydream, she was suddenly jolted back to reality by a loud, insistent knock at the door."Get up! Now!" Rebecca's voice cracked like a whip.Silvia opened the door to find Rebecca flushed, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms."Did you imagine one dinner would make a difference?" Rebecca spat, shoving past Silvia into the little room. Her eyes landed on the emerald dress. With a snort of disgust, she ripped it from the hanger. "This little pretense is ended.""Don't," Silvia whispered, extending a feeble hand toward the dress.Rebecca slapped her hand away with so much force the sound echoed through the room. "Nothing in this house is yours.

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-19
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 18

    After Silvia was done cleaning, it was already past midnight. Her fingers ached from all the work whilst her back throbbed intensely. The pains of hunger had transformed into a constant, gnawing discomfort. She entered the kitchen hoping to find something, anything, to eat before getting into bed. The kitchen was dim and quiet. Silvia switched on the little light over the sink, trying to remain quiet. She pulled open the fridge, the gentle light casting shadows on her weary face. There were dinner remnants, but she didn't dare to take them. Rebecca would notice. She looked and found a crust of bread and a little bit of cheese concealed behind the dishes. That would need to suffice. A sound on the door made her start as she shut the refrigerator. Ralph stood there swaying a little, his tie undone about his neck and his eyes red."What are you doing?" he mumbled, holding onto the doorframe for balance. Silvia swiftly concealed the bread behind her back. "Not a thing, sir." "Simply ti

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-20
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 19

    Silvia's eyelids slowly shifted to the sunlight pouring in through unusual curtains. Her body felt heavy, and her mind was filled with tiredness. The sheets beneath her seemed gentle, excessively gentle. This wasn't her mattress. She jerked up, her heart racing. She noticed...the luxury, crystals on the nightstand. This was Ralph's bedroom. How had she ended up...Her last memory was tucking Ralph in, discovering the picture, and going to her own bedroom. Was she so exhausted that she fell here instead? Definitely not. She would not have made that mistake. A gentle groan from beside her made her pause. Ralph was lying on the other side of the bed, completely dressed, with one arm covering his face. His breathing was consistent and peaceful, his expression tranquil in sleep. Silvia carefully shifted to the bed's edge, wishing not to disrupt it. She had to go before... The door suddenly burst open, slamming against the wall with a loud thud. Rebecca stood by the entrance, dressed in

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-20
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 20

    Three days without nourishment seemed like forever. Silvia's stomach had transitioned long ago from sharp hunger pains to a void that caused her limbs to feel heavy as lead. She had been allowed water and slight comforts, but even that made her feel queasy as she drank it gradually from the bathroom faucet. On the morning of the third day, Silvia pulled herself out of bed, her uniform fitting more loosely than earlier. The mirror showed hollow cheeks and shadows under her eyes. Spraying cold water on her face, she tried to brighten herself for the day's activities.On that day, Silvia was especially cautious with her work: arranging the heavy bottles in the wine cellar, and dusting off the Persian rugs on the front porch. These tasks kept demanding energy that Silvia no longer had."You look terrible," Rebecca remarked with glee as Silvia entered the kitchen for her instructions. Savoring her morning espresso, she sat at the counter, the strong, rich smell causing Silvia's hungry be

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-21
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 21

    The sunlight streamed in between the curtains, waking Silvia from her the slumber she had experienced months ago. With her body still frail, she felt relieved after the broth sha had yesterday.Silvia rose gradually, gauging her energy. Her head had stopped spinning, but her limbs still felt unsteady. A rap at her door surprised her. "Y-yes?" she shouted, her voice more assertive than the day before. Then the door swung open...before Ralph entered, dressed in a tailored suit, with a perfectly shaped beards. He stood uncomfortably at the entrance, hesitant to step in."You're awake," he noted, his voice calm. "How do you feel?" Silvia wrapped the lightweight blanket around her shoulders, experiencing a feeling of consciousness. "Improved, sir." "I appreciate the meal." Ralph replied with a decisive nod. "Put on your clothes and join me in my study in fifteen minutes. We have to discuss an issue." Before she had a chance to reply, he shut the door, leaving Silvia looking at him in b

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-21
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 22

    Her breath stalled as she touched her swollen lips. He had kissed her. Silvia considered herself resilient and strong, she knew she could endure anything as long as it was for a good cause, but this was levels above what she expected would happen to her in this cursed place.Hunger, thirst, being overworked, beatings. They were all bearable as long as she still had her body and her soul to herself. But he had kissed her like he wanted to suck out her soul.Silvia had never felt so helpless in her life. A tear slipped down her cheeks and she blinked, snapping out of it. She wiped it, she still had her life, it was a one time thing. It would never happen again. She hoped.A part of her was curious about who this Alexander was. If he truly was Ralph’s brother, why had Ralph kissed her? Did he have non-brotherly feelings for this Alexander? She found it highly unnatural. She found everything that went on in the house highly unnatural. They were so rich but they appeared to be suffering ev

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-22
  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 23

    “Do your vocal cords suddenly stop working? Is that enjoyable?” Ralph asked again, his eyes flashing with an emotion Silvia couldn't name.“I don’t understand sir”.“You’re smiling”, he said, pointing to her lips and sitting on a stool. She had no idea Ralph Spade knew how to sit on a stool. Wasn’t he only accustomed to the finest things? What was an old wooden stool even doing in a mansion as fancy as this? She adjusted her smile, making her expression serious. Was smiling grounds for a punishment?“Forgive my manners sir”, she bowed her head. Sometimes she felt like she was in an ancient drama. Slave to the evil emperor. Except this time the emperor had kissed her. He was a foolish emperor.“How dramatic. I’m not asking you to stop”, Ralph’s face hardened. Silvia stretched her lips into something that resembled more of a grimace than a smile. It reminded her of the times where her mother would scold her and force her to smile. Her mother that she couldn’t see, because of this man.

    최신 업데이트 : 2025-03-23

최신 챕터

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 76

    "Did you hear that?" Silvia's hold on Ralph's arm tightened as she stared down at the dark hallway in their country house. The lights had flickered a moment, leaving the old house with an eerie half-darkness lit only by the dim brightness of backup lights.Ralph's voice faded away, his senses immediately on high alert. The tranquility of their weekend escape had been abruptly disrupted. "Listen to what, sweetheart? Just the wind, I guess. The old house creaks with every breeze." He tried to sound soothing, but a trickle of nervousness had started at the back of his neck."No, it wasn't the wind," Silvia insisted, her voice little more than a whisper. "It sounded. nearer. A footfall on the landing."He listened attentively, the only noise the constant ticking of an old grandfather clock in the distance. "I don't hear anything now." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Most likely just the house settling. It's an old house, keep in mind?""But I'm sure of it," Silvia insisted, her gaze f

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 75

    Time became a salve, soothing the rough edges of their shared trauma. The trial was over, Rebecca's sentencing a brutal ending to that dismal episode. The mansion shed its final trappings of ominous presence, supplanted by a warmth that radiated from Ralph and Silvia's remade existence.Ralph's memory kept its gradual, inexorable return, here and there by way of the most unexpected sensory details – rain on dry ground evoked by a covert mid-day walk, a whiff of a particular spice evoking a recalled taste at an impromptu, laugh-soaked community meal. Each fragment regained was precious, laboriously interwoven into the tapestry of their past.Their bodies approached one another, unguarded now but filled with tender depth and revived passion. Whatever pretenses still existed were erased by reciprocal exposure, and an unmixed, unvarnished connection was all that was left. There was a raw chemical reaction to every touch, an unspoken vocabulary of yearning and remembrance. Every touch h

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 73

    The initial days with Rebecca's detention were a blur of legal hearings, police interrogation, and the agonizing, painstaking process of attempting to reconstruct Ralph's fractured recall. The mansion, once the background against which Rebecca's lies were enacted, felt stifling in its quiet, its immensity filled with the unwilling reappearance of Ralph and Silvia's collective past.Overjoyed to have Silvia back, Ralph was plagued by the deafening silence of the empty areas in his mind. Months of unfulfilled days stretched like a chasm between the man he once had been and the one he still sought to reclaim. With each passing moment of bliss spent with Silvia, however, came nagging reminders of the man he had become when he was under Rebecca's control and his attempt to bridge the soul gap that had formed during her absence.The memories didn't return in a rush of recall, only disjointed flashbacks – a witticism spoken, his burning palm where her palm had rested, her perfume in his no

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 72

    The air in the library was electric with a new tension, the heavy weight of Ralph's increasing awareness pressing down on Rebecca like a physical force as Ralph's fragmented memories struggled to see the light.Rebecca's eyes protruded in terror as the mask she had built so carefully disintegrated, and she could no longer hide.She trembled as she tried to reach out to Ralph, her voice ringing in a desperate cry. "Darling, you're not thinking. This woman...this woman means nothing to you. I am here, I have cared for you, loved you."Ralph withdrew from her reach and gazed steadily at the silver locket he held. The smile of Silvia, whose face shone out at him with joy, seemed to give off a glow that pierced through the icy smog of his loss of memory, as the light of a lighthouse calls a man home to a world out of which he had unwittingly strayed."Loving me?" Ralph repeated, his voice laced with increasing doubt. He looked at Rebecca, his eyes challenging, questioning. "Or controlling

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 71

    The tarnished silver locket, clenched tight in Ralph's fist, was physical proof of memories Rebecca had callously tried to bury. The smiling faces on its diminutive borders were constant reminders of an erased past, a tug on the fragile strands of his amnesia.Rebecca's attempts to brush off the locket as belonging to "old friends" sounded insincere next to Ralph's mounting sense of recognition brewing in his mind. The falsehood clung to her voice like oil on water.He was taken with the little photo, studying her face, her laugh humming at the back of his mind. The tiny photograph smiled up at him—two faces, one unmistakably his, the other a woman who stirred echoes in the hollow spaces of his fractured memory.He would run his thumb over the line of her smile, feeling loss and regret engulfing him, a sense of yearning for something he couldn't quite identify."Who is she, Rebecca?" Ralph would ask again and again, his tone growing more insistent. "Why does she mean so much?"Her re

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 70

    The doubts sown by Silvia and Burke were beginning to sprout in Ralph's mind, creeping like ghosts into the darkness of his thoughts.He was increasingly plagued by the lingering feeling, a feeling something was terribly amiss in this laboriously built world provided by Rebecca. He would find himself staring off into space, a furrow on his forehead, trying to grasp a wisp of an image, a whisper of a recollection. It was at such times of unrest that Rebecca would reappear out of nowhere, her voice low and calm, anchoring him in the present, pulling him back from the brink of his own turbulent mind; back to her."What's on your mind, sweetheart?" she would say, her arm on his. "Don't worry about unimportant things. Just focus on getting better. Focus on us."And Ralph would try. He would concentrate on Rebecca's smile, her words of support, her worry-free assurance. Still, though, that nagging feeling remained an itch that couldn't be scratched.One afternoon, when Rebecca was on a lo

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 68

    The uncertainty lingered, a stark contrast to Rebecca's commanding presence. The pen clattered sharply beside the contract, a bold reminder that his company's fate and his very future hinged on that decisive moment. The air crackled with tension as she prepared to take control of the situation, knowing that every second counted in solidifying her position. Her grip on his arm suddenly tightened ever so subtly. "Darling," she said softly, her voice a soothing comfort, her eyes masking an unspoken urgency, "after thorough discussions, we have reached a point where we need to move forward with the Spire proposal. It's important to embark on this direction we’re taking. Trust me."Ralph's gaze shifted from the contract to her reassuring smile. The familiarity of her, the absolute certainty in her voice, were lifelines amidst amnesia's sea. He had to believe her, must believe her. The disturbing encounter with the crazy woman, that haunting melody disturbing interventions into the neat

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 68

    The scene in the study captured a moment of heightened emotion. Silvia was there; her angry eyes, mussed hair, and voice full of a reality Ralph could not yet understand. Rebecca's beautifully constructed composure was in ruins, her face twisted into a furious snarl.Julian Vance's hand moved automatically towards his inside pocket. Ralph felt suddenly overwhelmed by a fragment of a familiar melody and the woman whose wild beauty hit that unapologetic, primal recognition."Who is this woman?" Ralph spoke curtly while his puzzled tone had his eyes darting between Silvia and Rebecca. The familiar comfort he experienced with Rebecca dissolved into an unsettling sense of confusion."Darling, she's an ex-employee with delusions," Rebecca said with regained calmness but her sweet-tongued voice betrayed hidden panic. By this point, security should have removed her from the premises. Their performance on the job was clearly inadequate. Julian, would you?" Julian moved toward Silvia, a ster

  • Signed to Suffer, Destined to Love   Chapter 67

    As Rebecca’s threat hung in the air like smoke, acrid and choking, Julian’s grip tightened.His hold was brutal on Silvia's arm, his fingers sinking into her flesh. He began dragging her towards the door. Rebecca's eyes flashed with a victorious cruelty, Silvia worse than what she had ever witnessed. The room, previously filled with the melancholic notes of their melody, now hummed with threat."Where do you imagine you're taking me?" she asked, trying to maintain a defiant tone despite her quavering voice.He didn't say a word, his expression a mask of chilly impassiveness as he dragged her through the empty mansion. Rebecca followed behind him, her smile a ravenous one.Down the grand staircase, they descended, rich ambiance colliding with the raw terror that gripped Silvia. A fleeting catch at seeing herself in one of several gilded mirrors – a pale, disheveled woman dragged down her hallway – soured her tongue with injustice.Down they descended, into cold, moist air. Julian led h

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