Chapter 46 Chapter 46. Hands Burned Raw
Zoria’s hands had once been pale, smooth, and slender. They were beautiful. Now they were red and raw, the blisters broken open, flesh and blood a mess. It was enough to make anyone flinch.
“…I’ll remember to put medicine on it.”
……
Zephyr had received the chromosome test results of Zoria’s dead baby, but the father could not be found in the genetic database. Three months ago, who had Zoria slept with?
The hospital surveillance footage where Evander worked had also been obtained after the assistant bribed someone. They tried to trace leads from it, but found nothing else. All they knew was that Zoria went to Evander every week for checkups. What exactly was examined and what the results were, no one knew.
Zephyr ordered his assistant to verify whether fetus Zoria had carried belonged to Evander. The result was no.
After a month of nonstop investigation, all he got was a clean zero.
Zephyr rubbed the space between his brows and leaned one hand on the desk. Just whose bastard was Zoria carrying?
The villa’s surveillance footage had been sent to his inbox long ago. Zephyr had not had time to watch it these past few days. Today, with some time to spare, he opened it.
The video had been cut and edited. It showed the day Zoria pushed Faye. When the assistant compiled and sent it over, there was also a message saying the audio was damaged and the conversation could not be heard clearly.
Zephyr pressed play. Sure enough, the sound was unclear. On screen, Zoria and Faye appeared to exchange words, then an argument broke out, and Faye fell down the stairs. From the camera angle, it really did look like Zoria had pushed her.
Zephyr pulled open a drawer, took out a cigarette case, lit one, and took a hard drag.
The smell of nicotine dulled his mind. Zephyr narrowed his eyes and stared at the screen through the pale white blue smoke, looking lost in thought. The cigarette burned halfway down, ash and sparks falling onto the surface of the desk.
…
In the blink of an eye, more than two months passed. Zoria had completely adjusted to life in the Hawthorne villa. She was responsible for cleaning and cooking dinner, and sometimes went grocery shopping with the maid and the assistant.
On the surface, the servants in the villa all treated her normally, but Zoria could see it clearly. Every single one of them despised her.
By day, she buried herself in doing the things that were “proper” for her to do. By night, she lay in Zephyr’s bed, sinking deep into a kind of debauchery she could not escape.
More than once, Zoria heard them cursing her behind her back, calling her a shameless bitch.
Back when she had formed a mate bond with Zephyr, countless others had looked down on her. Now her pack had collapsed, and everyone knew her father had been sent to prison by Zephyr himself. Yet she still had “no sense of shame,” continuing to have sex with him, willingly becoming his plaything.
“Even now she still refuses to cut the bond with Master. She’s truly disgusting.”
“Sigh… poor Ms. Faye.”
“Do you think Master might be held by some weakness of hers, and that’s why she’s threatening him?”
Zoria tried to live on equal footing with them, but in the end she was still nothing more than someone meant to be trampled into filthy mud.
Every night she had sex with Zephyr. He hated seeing her cry, yet he enjoyed hearing her moan. Whenever Zoria clenched her teeth and refused to make a sound, Zephyr would fuck her even more brutally, as if he wanted to crush her completely.
Zoria’s skin had always been delicate. Even a light kiss would leave a mark, let alone the cruel way Zephyr treated her. Her upper body was covered in red and purple bruises, glaring and horrifying against her pale skin.
Even wearing a high-necked top, Zoria could not hide all those striking marks. The moment Faye saw them, she poured all her resentment and jealousy onto Zoria.
Zoria’s body had already been weakened by her previous miscarriage. During the day, she was tormented by Faye as a form of amusement. At night, she was abused by Zephyr. Little by little, her body grew thinner and more fragile.
Holding Zoria in his arms, Zephyr suddenly grew irritable. He grabbed her waist and abdomen and asked,
"Why are you getting thinner and thinner? If you are this thin, how are you supposed to get pregnant?"
Zoria had been tormented by Zephyr until she was barely conscious and no longer had the strength to answer. Zephyr roughly dragged her upright, and Zoria immediately felt the world spinning before her eyes.
Zephyr frowned and touched her forehead, only then realizing how burning hot it was. That was when he knew Zoria had a fever.
He turned and got off the bed to call Dr. Smith.
When Dr. Smith walked in and saw the messy bed and Zoria lying unconscious, his heart tightened.
Zoria slept restlessly. At the slightest movement, she opened her eyes. The once bright and clear gaze was now covered with a layer of ash, so cold that it made Dr. Smith shiver.
After prescribing medication and giving her an injection, Zoria finally drifted back into a hazy sleep.
Dr. Smith stepped in front of Zephyr. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke in a low voice, "Mr. Hawthorne, Ms. Zoria’s body is extremely weak. She needs a long period without sexual relations."
The reality was far more serious than what Dr. Smith said. Zoria’s body was covered in blue and red bruises, so shocking that it terrified him just to look at them.
"Yeah, I know. I will restrain myself."
Zephyr thought that maybe he should stop for a while. If he forced her too much and something truly happened to Zoria, it would be troublesome.
After Dr. Smith left, Zephyr sat by the bed and looked at Zoria. In the end, his gaze settled on her abdomen. He slipped his hand under the blanket and touched her stomach. It was still flat. Two months had passed. He did not know whether she was pregnant yet.