Chapter 17
Sienna quietly watched them perform, letting them finish before speaking slowly, her voice flat and cold.
“Oh? You’ve taken care of it? Funny… I seem to remember those twenty lashes you demanded for me under Prescott family law. You and your precious son insisted on it, didn’t you?”
Mr. and Mrs. Prescott went pale on the spot.
Mrs. Prescott suddenly reacted like she’d grabbed onto her last lifeline.
She began slapping herself in the face, sobbing as she cried out, “I’ll do it! I’ll do it! As long as it can appease you-however many times you want!”
Mr. Prescott clenched his jaw and, to everyone’s shock, pulled off his belt and whipped it across his own
back.
His hand trembled as he struck again and again.
The reception room echoed only with the sharp cracks of skin against leather and their muffled groans of
pain.
By the time they finished the full twenty, they were utterly disheveled-faces swollen, backs covered in welts,
collapsed on the floor and gasping as they looked up at Sienna with pitiful hope.
Only then did Sienna slowly lean forward.
Her lips curled into the faintest, coldest smile.
“Alright,” she said softly, “I’ve made my decision.”
She paused.
Just as hope lit up in their eyes, her next words fell like ice.
“I still refuse.”
Their expressions collapsed.
Mr. and Mrs. Prescott fell completely limp on the floor, faces ashen, eyes vacant with despair.
At last, they understood. This was retribution.
This was the price for what they had once done to her.
When Adrian learned that his parents had gone to beg and ended up humiliated-when he heard how ruthless
and resolute Sienna had been-his heart twisted in agony.
What tore him apart wasn’t their disgrace,
It was the realization that Sienna had truly cut off every last ounce of feeling toward him… and toward the
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entire Prescott family.
No matter what he did-even if he died for it-he would never gain her forgiveness.
That truth drove him further into madness. Because without her, he truly would lose his mind.
He tracked down Sienna’s location at the recovery estate.
Ignoring all warnings, he forced his way in, even injuring several guards before collapsing in front of her
room.
His voice cracked with desperation.
“Sienna! Please! Just let me see you-just once! I beg you!”
Maybe she was tired of the harassment. This time, Sienna agreed to let him in.
Adrian practically crawled his way into the room.
The moment he saw her-propped up in bed, still looking a bit pale-his tears fell uncontrollably.
He knelt by her side, sobbing, pouring out his remorse. He shifted every ounce of blame to his family and
Celeste.
“Sienna! I was wrong! I swear I was wrong! It was my family who forced me!”
“Celeste only drugged me a few times-those times were accidents! The kids… they were accidents too! I don’t love her! I never have! It’s always been you!”
Sienna listened in silence. Her face remained expressionless, like she was hearing a stranger tell a story that had nothing to do with her.
When he finally finished, she slowly raised her gaze.
Her eyes were as sharp and cold as a scalpel.
“Is that so? You were forced? It was all an accident?”
She picked up a document from her bedside and tossed it in front of him.
“That little girl-Lila-she called me a ‘pauper’ the first time she met me. Told me I wasn’t good enough for you. Kept calling me ‘the maid.’ Was that your family’s idea too?”
Adrian froze. His face turned white.
Sienna flipped the page.
It showed flight records and screenshots of private social media posts.
“Before Celeste returned to the country, you flew to her city multiple times. For ‘business trips.”
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“This photo-you’re holding that little girl. She’s calling you ‘Daddy.’ You posted it in your private family
group. So tell me, Adrian-four years of fatherhood, the bond you so carefully nurtured… that was forced too? Was that just another accident?”
Each piece of carefully documented evidence tore apart his lies-one by one.
The kind of lies he’d told so often, he believed them himself.
Until she laid them out, in all their bloody, unflinching truth.
Adrian broke. His mind snapped, his defenses gone.
He collapsed on the floor, sobbing like a child.
And finally-he told the truth.
The ugliest truth of all.
“Yes! I got used to having them around! I couldn’t let go of the kids! I was scared to be alone!”
“I was afraid of having nothing left!”
“But the one I love-it’s always been you!”
“I was scared… scared you’d leave if you knew the truth. I didn’t dare tell you.”
“I thought-if I hid it well enough, I could keep you. I could still have your love. And I could still pretend I had
some perfect family.”
“Sienna… I just didn’t want to lose you.”
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