Chapter 3

"Don't worry?" Jocelyn scoffed coldly. "I'm not counting on anything. I'll make sure you're gone before the wedding begins—on my own terms." After she finished speaking, Jocelyn turned around and threw herself into the sea before Naomi could even realize what was happening. A loud splash immediately caught everyone's attention. "Jocelyn!" James' voice rang from within the cabin. He dashed out and jumped into the sea without any hesitation. Naomi stood frozen, her hands and feet unmoving, as if they were glued in place. After James had painstakingly rescued Jocelyn, he started administering CPR on her. Jocelyn sputtered a cough and weakly opened her eyes. Her eyes were bleary as she tearfully whimpered, "I thought that Nae had accepted me after these two days, James. "I didn't think that she would push me into the sea when I wasn't paying attention. Don't blame her, James. She's just…" Before she could finish her sentence, she passed out. James' head shot up. Suppressed anger flickered in his eyes as he snarled, "Stubborn and insolent! When will you forgo those despicable thoughts of yours, Naomi?" Naomi shook her head in a panic. "That's not true, Uncle James. I don't like you. I also didn't push her." "Why are you still lying? You'd better watch out!" James refused to listen to her. He scooped Jocelyn up in his arms, sped across the deck, and rushed to the hospital. Naomi still stood where she was. There was a gaping hole where her heart used to be. As she watched James' retreating figure, she chanted the same sentence that she had done a million times before under her breath. "I'm telling you, James Payne. I really don't like you anymore." … At midnight, Naomi sat and waited quietly on the couch alone. She knew that when James warned her earlier, it was a sure sign he intended to punish her for it. She had already learned from the few years she had in the academy that running away and begging for mercy would only make the suffering a lot worse. So, she waited silently for her punishment to arrive. After waiting for a long time, the door was pushed open with a bang. James stormed in furiously and bellowed, "Kneel!" Naomi obediently did as she was told. Her head still hung low, and she didn't utter a single word. James was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected her to be so compliant. He took down a whip that hung on the wall and marched toward her. "So now you're behaving? It's too late! "Have I spoiled you too much, Naomi? Are you so much of a brat that you think you're above the rules we have in this family?" He then struck her back with the whip. Naomi's body shook as if she had been electrocuted, but she didn't make a sound. It was as if the whip had landed on someone else entirely. "Say something!" James' voice was shrill with bottled anger. "Do you admit to your mistakes now?" "Yes." "You do?" James scoffed. The whip in his hand was raised once more. "If you knew what you were doing was wrong, why did you still do it?" James' voice was laced with suppressed rage as he swung the whip down with a crack, raining it down onto Naomi's back over and over again. On the first lash, he roared, "Why did you push Jocelyn into the sea? Did you know that she nearly died?" On the second, he questioned, "Why did you fall in love with me? Don't you know that I'm ten years older than you?" And on the third, he snapped, "Why are you so shameless? Don't you realize that I raised you?" … When James delivered the 52nd lash to Naomi's back, he snarled, "Why are you so ridiculous? You're so absurd. I wanted to…" James' was consumed with rage. He lost count of how many times he had whipped Naomi. He nearly let his tongue slip, and in that split second of silence, Veronica Stead, a maid, jumped in with a cry. "Please stop, Mr. Payne, please! Ms. Summers has always been pampered and sheltered since childhood. She won't be able to take it anymore! "Please look, Mr. Payne. Her blood is all over the floor." It was only when James finally looked down after stopping the whipping that he saw Naomi's entire back, bloody and raw. Her blood had pooled on the floor, some of it running and staining the soles of his shoes. However, what shocked him to the core was that Naomi, with her head still hung low, had not shed a single tear or begged for mercy. He instantly pulled her up to her feet, only to find her looking like an empty, lifeless shell. "Why won't you yelp in pain, Naomi? Weren't you the best at playfully whining and exaggerating your pain just to get attention?" Naomi looked up and calmly said, "That's because this doesn't hurt." The suffering that she had experienced at the academy and the beatings she had to endure were far more painful than this. Her expression was ashen as she asked hoarsely, "Are you done with the beating? If you are, may I leave now, Uncle James?" James finally realized that something was amiss. "How could it not hurt? You've endured many lashes, so how could it not be painful?" When he peeled her top off, Veronica gasped in shock. What James saw made his pupils instantly contract, his breath catching in his throat.