Chapter 3

I stood on the stairs and looked down at the hall below. Charlotte lay in Lucas's arms, her chest burned red as she cried so hard she could barely breathe, while Michael, sweating with panic, pressed an ice pack against her. Richard stormed up, grabbed me by the collar, dragged me downstairs, and made my knees crash into the hard marble floor.

Richard cursed me as a monster, then snatched up the ashtray from the coffee table and hurled it at my head. Heavy glass smashed into my forehead. Warm blood ran into my eyes, and my vision turned red.

Andrew pointed at me and cursed me out. "Stealing Charlotte's place wasn't enough for you? Now you want to scar her for life too? Do you even know how hot that milk was?"

David rushed over and kicked me hard in the shoulder. "If I don't beat you to death today, my last name isn't Wynn!" He yanked the barbed whip off the wall, the tool the family used only for severe punishment, and aimed it at his own sister.

"No! David, don't hit Natalie!" Charlotte struggled as if she wanted to get up, but Lucas held her tightly in his arms.

Lucas snapped, "Don't stop him. A vicious woman like her deserves it. She doesn't deserve to be your sister."

David raised the whip and lashed it across my back. My clothes tore open, and searing pain exploded through my whole body. I clenched my teeth and made no sound while blood and sweat ran down my mangled back. Richard watched coldly. "Hit her until she admits she was wrong."

As long as I endured this, and as long as Richard didn't change tomorrow's notary plan, I would remember every single lash.

David didn't stop until he'd whipped me twenty times and was panting for breath. Richard pointed at me and said coldly, "Throw her in the basement. Without my permission, no one gives her food or water."

Lucas let out a cold snort. "Uncle Richard, a woman like her is nothing but trouble in the Wynn family. You should just kick her out and let her fend for herself."

Andrew nodded in agreement. "Exactly. The Southside Project is already in Charlotte's hands. Natalie has no value left." Then two bodyguards came over and dragged me toward the basement.

I curled up on the freezing concrete floor, trembling from the pain as my wounds grew inflamed and my fever climbed. High heels clicked outside, and the small window in the iron door slid open to reveal Charlotte's carefully made-up face. There wasn't a trace of weakness left in her—only naked malice in her eyes.

"Natalie, how does it feel?" I leaned against the wall and kept my eyes closed, saying nothing. She laughed softly through the iron door.

"Did you really think that just because you're the real daughter of the Wynn family, one day they'd wake up and love you? Keep dreaming. Do you know how you got lost back then? My mother did it."

"She dumped you in a trash heap out in the country, and your mother went mad after losing you and jumped to her death. Now look at you, beaten like a dog by your own family."

"Tomorrow you'll be thrown out for good. Natalie, what do you have to fight me with?"