Chapter 7
After searching everywhere, Nathan still hadn’t found a single trace of Claire.
Panic mounting, he finally ordered his men to locate the men he’d previously sent to that day.
They found them at a casino–drunk, laughing, throwing chips like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Soon, under Nathan’s command, the men were dragged back to a basement room and forced to
kneel before him.
Their hands and feet were bound with thick rope.
Nathan paced in front of them, fury radiating from every movement.
He grabbed one by the collar and shouted:
“Where the hell is she?! Where did you take her?”
“Why can’t I find her?!”
The man’s face turned ghostly pale. His lips trembled.
“M–Mr. Sterling, we–we don’t know… We just did what you told us. Just… scared her a bit, that’s
all.”
“Y–yeah!” another stammered. “You said 99 lashes. We did that and left. That’s it!”
Nathan’s eyes blazed. Without a word, he grabbed a nearby cane and cracked it across one of their
faces.
Blood splattered as the man howled in pain.
“I told you to scare her–not to touch her!”
“You laid a hand on her?! You think that was what I meant?!”
The men collapsed into frantic apologies, bowing, begging for mercy.
“I swear, Mr. Sterling–we’re sorry! We’ll never-”
Before he could finish, something fell out of one man’s pocket and hit the floor with a soft clink.
A USB drive.
Nathan’s eyes narrowed. He snatched it up.
Chanter 7
“What’s this?”
The man’s lips flapped uselessly.
“It’s nothing–just junk–just-”
Nathan’s expression darkened.
“Tell. Me. Now.”
Under Nathan’s suffocating glare, the man finally cracked.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” he cried. “We weren’t gonna… it wasn’t planned… But when you told us
to ‘make her reflect,‘ and she looked so helpless–we lost control.”
“T–this video… it’s from that night. Please… please don’t kill us…”
Nathan’s hands shook.
His face twisted with a pain so raw, it barely looked human anymore.
He slammed the cane down again. And again. And again.
“You touched her?! You filthy animals touched my wife?!”
“She was mine! Only I–only I had the right to be near her!”
“You ruined her! You destroyed her! She’ll never want to live again–because of you!”
His voice broke into a violent roar.
“Die–just fucking die!”
He beat them until his hands cramped, until the air was thick with blood and the stench of broken
men.
Finally, gasping for breath, he turned to his assistant.
“Feed them to the sharks.”
The men were barely conscious.
Not one of them made a sound.
Nathan took the USB and slid it into his laptop with shaking fingers.
The footage started.
Claire’s voice echoed from the speakers “Don’t touch mel Nathan won’t forgive you for this won’t!”
But they didn’t stop.
One of them sneered: “Nathan? If he cared, he wouldn’t have handed you to us.”
“He’s probably too busy with his new girl.”
The screen showed her crying, struggling… then going still.
Her voice, once pleading:
Nathan… save me.
And then, hollow, numb, broken:
Nathan… I hate you.
Nathan’s hands flew to his head.
His mind flashed through every cruel word, every dismissal, every time he’d turned away when she needed him most.
He crumpled to the floor, curling into himself, a broken man in an empty room.
“I’m sorry, Claire…”
“It’s my fault… I’m a monster. You must hate me
now…
“Where are you?”
“Please, just let me find you–just once more…
“I love you… God, I love you…”
