The Unwanted Bride Becomes The City's Queen

na Viti

nd a silence so heavy it fel

rmur of scandalized delight, like an

dress shoes crunched violently on the sha

nd ripped the bra

cattered across the floor, rolling through the

d off it with a handkerchief as if my DNA we

d it to

oftly. "It's back

ping theatrically. "Thank you, my love

father, his face a mas

t for theft in the Vit

bored. "The whip. Ten lashes for

ante said, his eyes locking ont

es," my fat

nt c

ft

atings. Fifty lashes with the family's leather strap

the slippery floor, my heels sliding in the m

He looked at the guards.

ragged

then. I saved it

pe. My toes barely touched the concrete,

He had a heavy hand, but he di

d to the

rst la

ire slicing through my

ntil it bled,

n

w

re

y ribs, slicing into my arm

dress was

, I was s

lla's eyes, pressing her face into his chest so she w

m say, his voice muffled by the

ng. I was the mons

ir

overing near the damp ceiling. I watched the girl ha

rt

ise. My throat was

ft

orcer s

led to the floor, a heap o

ere tonight,"

al door clanged shut, se

waiting for the bleeding to s

ly, inch by i

servants' quarters, where I kept a first

cot, needle and threa

y back. It was a r

houlders, where the whip had curled around-and b

one b

floor where I

from Is

attac

. He was kissing her neck. She was holding the bracel

* the caption read. *What do you ta

n't r

't fee

t not

, a wall of white noise that drowne

a single

found me an

eave for London," he said, refusing to meet my eyes. Whether out of pi

said, my v

leave in

ow,"

ed up

da

s in hell if it meant I