The manor remained peaceful throughout the rest of the afternoon, with both couples retreating into the privacy of their respective bedrooms, undisturbed by the world outside.
Its quiet hallways stood in stark contrast to the agonized screams echoing from the dungeons far beneath it.
There, Kira and her father, Haji, had been dragged through the underground tunnel and into the very room where the Shibata brothers had been held captive just days earlier, to face the punishment Harper had ordered.
Kira was supposed to receive fifty lashes, including the twenty originally intended for Haji and the additional ten Harper had demanded. But with Damien’s order to double the punishment, the total had risen to one hundred lashes.
Yet by the eighth lash, she could no longer endure the pain. Her
