Days passed and Adeline got to learn that punishment did not always arrive screaming. Sometimes, it arrived quietly.The morning—or what she guessed was morning—came without light. The door opened. The other man she saw with Donovan at the banquet stepped in, looking as intimidating as that day as his presence flattened the room."Stand," he said.She did.He did not bind her hands, he turned and walked. That alone terrified her and she just followed at his backThey walked.The villa unfolded in layers she had not seen before: wide halls narrowing into corridors, polished marble giving way to concrete floors. Men passed them without a glance. No one asked questions. No one looked surprised.The man stopped before a room that smelled of metal and cleaning solution.Inside, a man knelt on the floor. His hands were bound. His face was bruised, his eyes unfocused with fear.Adeline's breath hitched."What is this?" she whispered.He looked at her, expression unchanged. "A reminder."Donovan entered moments later.He wore a dark suit, immaculate. If not for the tension that followed him, he could have been walking into a boardroom.The kneeling man began to sob."Please, Don—please, I didn't mean—"Donovan raised a hand.The man fell silent instantly."You lied," Donovan said calmly. "You thought loyalty was flexible."He turned his gaze to Adeline."Watch," he instructed.Her knees threatened to buckle. She shook her head.Donovan did not raise his voice."I wasn't asking."She forced herself to look.The man she came in with stepped forward, Don called him Ethan. He did not rush. He did not hesitate. What followed was swift and controlled—no shouting, no spectacle. When it was over, the man was led away, broken and silent.Adeline tasted bile.Donovan studied her face."Fear makes memories permanent," he said softly. "Now you know what disobedience costs."He stepped closer."You will not test me," he continued. "You will not dream of escape. And you will not mistake patience for weakness."Her tears fell unchecked."Good," Donovan said. "You're learning."---That night, she was moved.The room was different. Larger. A bed instead of the floor. A bathroom with running water.Comfort.The cruelty of it sank in slowly.He wasn't breaking her with pain.He was teaching her dependence.Food came regularly now. Clean clothes. Silence instead of screams.And then—Donovan.
He began to visit.Sometimes he said nothing. He would sit across the room, reading, watching, existing like a shadow she could never escape. Other times he spoke casually—about business, about power, about how men failed themselves long before they failed him."You're quiet," he noted one evening."I'm listening," she replied before she could stop herself.A flicker of approval crossed his face."Exactly," he said.Silence stretched and her mind ran around different thoughts. She had so many questions but one lingered her mindShe wanted to ask when she would be leavingAs she opened her mouth to speak he received a phone call.....