Arrogant Man VS Unyielding Woman novel Chapter 450

"What were you doing at that time? Answer my question!" Zed bellowed. His voice started to become colder, making Toby feel a chill run through his spine. Toby's eyes widened in regret and fright as he glanced at Zed, who looked scarier than moments ago.

"I..." Toby started and immediately stopped. He lowered his head immediately after seeing the piercing eyes of Zed and didn't dare to raise his head to look. "I won't explain myself. I wasn't able to do my duty of protecting Mrs. Jean from Joy. I have failed you, Mr. Zed. Please, punish me as I deserve to be punished."

Zed lifted one corner of his lips, satisfied by how well-trained his employees were, but not enough to do their duty. He took his belt out immediately and whipped Toby by the back with all the force he could muster. Toby couldn't do anything but kneel in front of Zed, biting his bottom lip. "Do you think I won't punish you if you explain for yourself? Toby, I trusted you so much, but I can't believe that you failed me in the end. If anything happened to Jean, you are going to be responsible as well. Do you hear me?"

After saying that, Zed gave Toby another whip much harder than the first one. This time, Toby winced and did his best to hide his pain that was coursing throughout his whole body. The sound of the whip was so loud that they could now hear the sound of flesh splitting.

Everything happened so fast that Jean stood there in shock. Only then when she saw blood seeping through Toby's shirt did Jean come back to her senses.

She quickly grabbed Zed by the arm before he could beat Toby again and shouted in front of him as if he wasn't close enough to hear. "Zed! What the hell are you doing? It's not Toby's fault! Stop beating him to death! Stop it right now!"

Zed pushed Jean aside and made sure he didn't push her too hard. He then turned his attention back to Toby and continued to whip his belt onto Toby's back. "Go away, Jean. Don't stand in my way! Because of his careless actions, you might have lost your life! I'm merciful enough to let him keep his life."

"Zed, if you keep punishing him, I'll protect him by throwing myself in front of your belt. Believe me." Glaring at Zed, Jean didn't have any other choice but to threaten him.

Zed stopped mid-air and turned to glare at Jean back. "What did you just say?" He couldn't believe what Jean had just said. "You need to be reasonable, Jean. Toby works for me, and it was his duty to protect you, but he failed. He knew then that there would be consequences for failure. I'm telling you as well, Jean. If you dare to stop me, I will kill him directly."

"God damn it, Zed! Who do you think you are?" Jean sneered after hearing what Zed had just said. "Kill Toby? Really? You didn't even give Toby a chance to explain for himself, and now you're talking about killing him! Can you even hear yourself, Zed? You are no more than a tyrant! Do you think lives are just easy to throw away? I can't believe you take lives for granted!" Jean raised her hands up in exasperation. "How did I even get to know someone as heartless as you?"

"Mrs. Jean." Toby looked up and barely spoke before their argument gets any worse. His face was so pale, and his breath was breaking as he tried hard to muster up all the energy to still speak. "Please, don't beg for mercy on my behalf. I don't deserve it."

Jean's eyes widened in surprise. Her eyes started to brim with tears as she noticed how Toby was suffering extremely from excruciating pain. While pointing at Toby's injured body, she couldn't help but turn to Zed with a glare and scream at him with tears now rolling down her cheeks. "Look at what you did to Toby! How dare you treat him like an animal in a slaughterhouse? If you dare to hurt him again, I won't ever forgive you, Zed."

"Jean," Zed said, unable to get his words right. He felt anger consume him at once.

Before he could say anything more, he was interrupted by thundering footsteps towards them. Apparently, Gregory and Terry heard the commotion and rushed inside. "Mr. Zed, please have some mercy." They knelt before Zed and explained,"Toby failed because he had a high fever and became unconscious."

"Stop." Toby interrupted Gregory. "Both of you... just stop." He summoned his last bit of energy to look at them and warned them with his eyes not to continue their words and interfere.

Gregory gave Toby a glance of desperation. "Toby, I don't care whether or not you will despise or blame me for doing this, but I will still tell Mr. Zed the truth, or you'll be dead." With a firm look on his face, Gregory turned to Zed and continued to explain,"You have to know, Mr. Zed that Toby still brought Shirley even though he was barely conscious. He forced himself to make Shirley stop Joy from hurting Mrs. Jean at that moment."

"Then, why didn't he just save Jean by himself?" Zed asked angrily. His face still showed his pure frustration. He then furrowed his eyebrows at Toby.

"Toby was out of strength by then. He wasn't sure if he could take down a furious and insane woman, so he decided to threaten Shirley instead. Then again, Toby still regretted his decisions," Terry added in haste.

Jean was stunned upon hearing the truth behind this situation. She immediately moved towards Toby and intended to help him up.

However, Toby removed Jean's grasp and refused her help.