<b>Chapter </b>9


    Elissa limped more severely as she left Murphy Manor.


    For the past three years, as long as Frank didn’te home with her, the day always ended with the same brutal family punishment.


    She wasn’t surprised anymore.


    Frank never realized that every time he tried to prove his love to the woman he truly cared about, he was only pushing Elissa further to the edge.


    The Murphy family had no use for a woman who couldn’t even hold her own husband’s


    heart.


    Butler Murphy sighed. “Why do you always have to be so honest? You could have made up some excuse, told the matriarch a harsher story, and at least spared yourself this kind of beating.”


    “Butler Murphy.”


    Elissa’s delicate face was calm and obedient, showing not a trace of resentment. “Grandmother raised me. I could lie to anyone, but never to her.”


    He sighed again.


    Something genuine flickered in Butler Murphy’s kindly eyes as he nced at her reddened palms, raw from the cane. “Don’t waste time–get yourself to the hospital, quickly.”


    “All right.”


    Elissa nodded, saying nothing more.


    Ridge had been sent home hours ago.


    Every step Elissa took was agony.


    As a child, she’d always suspected her grandmother was the reincarnation of the Evil Queen from Snow White.


    Old Mrs. Atwater would, at worst, make Marcia kneel in the garden for a while.


    But the Murphy matriarch? She’d have the maids escort Elissa outside and force her to kneel on a gravel path,


    At first, in this weather, the cold was almost bearable. The snow gave a bit offort, numbing her knees.


    But as she knelt there, the snow melted, and all that was left were jagged stones digging mercilessly into her skin.


    13:29


    Once she was numb with cold, a servant woulde out with a cane and strike her


    palms.


    That was the worst part–when her skin was frozen, every blow cut deeper, splitting flesh.


    Murphy Manor stood on a mountainside road, surrounded by woods and water–beautiful, but isted.


    It took all of Elissa’s effort to book a rideshare in the middle of the night, and with the snowing down, the driver refused toe farther than the base of the hill.


    Every step down that icy slope was torture.


    Despite the winter cold, sweat dampened her back from the pain.


    In the distance, a ck stretch Bentley crept along the slick, snowy road.


    The driver, sharp–eyed, sped up a little. “Sir, I think that’s Miss Elissa up ahead.”


    In the back seat, a man lounged with his long legs crossed, his face chiseled and shadowed in the dim night. There was a cold,manding aura about him.


    He didn’t even open his eyes, only replied with a faint, “Mm.”


    Impossible to tell what he was thinking.


    The assistant in the front seat couldn’t hold back. “Sir, aren’t we going to do something for


    Miss Elissa?”


    “And you want to?”


    The man’s low, resonant voice was edged with frost.


    The assistant fell silent.


    After a long pause, the man finally looked through the windshield, his eyes narrowing as he watched Elissa’s staggering figure. “Find out where Frank is tonight.”


    “I already checked–he’s probably with Marcia, all loved up.”


    The assistant’s answer was quick, and he added, “Sir, Miss Elissa has likely been kneeling out there for hours. She’s not going tost much longer.”


    Just as he finished speaking, they saw Elissa copse face–first into the snow.


    “See, I told you-”


    Bang!


    The car door mmed as the man got out, face cold and hard, striding over to scoop the unconscious girl into his cashmere coat.


    <b><i>2/3 </i></b>


    13:29


    The assistant scrambled out, opened the back door. “Should we go to the hospital, sir?”


    “Take her home first.”


    “Yes, sir.”


    “Have the doctor waiting.”


    “Already called.”


    The driver, sensing the tension, quietly turned the heat up.