In a distant villa, nestled at a prime location in the city—deep within the prestigious Mayfair Gardens on Prisis Hill—the air was heavy with smoke and silence. The dimly lit room smelled of leather, cigars, and blood.
Sebastian sat leisurely on the velvet couch, a half-burnt cigar resting between his fingers. His tall, well-built figure leaned back in a lazy posture, but there was nothing relaxed about him.
His sharp, godly features looked as if carved from stone, but it was his eyes that unsettled everyone present.
Dark… piercing… and murderous.
At his feet, a bloodied figure lay sprawled on the cold floor, trembling uncontrollably. Robert—the head driver of the Harper estate—his back torn open with lash marks, skin split and raw.
The sound of the whip had stopped only moments ago, but the sting still lingered in the air like static.
"Enough," Sebastian said coldly, raising his hand to signal Benjamin, the butler, to halt the next strike.