Jennie
Nichkhun smirked at my answer. He leaned in and whispered into my ear, "You'll beg for death, Jen."
They forced me into a chair and slammed the papers on the table.
"Sign." He commanded.
"I won't. No matter what you threaten me with. I won't sign it. You can kill me."
"Very well, you've made your decision." Nichkhun said as a ghost of a smile spread across his lips. He raised his hand out towards the maid standing to his right. "The tool, please, Jessi."
From the corner of my eye, I noticed a trolley with a stainless steel plate and torture tools laid out on it; it glimmered under the crystal chandelier lights. As if Jessi was an assistant surgeon in an important operation, she handed Nichkhun a plier.
I stiffened.
Don't let them see that you're scared, Jen. They will feed off your fear. They want you to grovel and beg for mercy. Don't give them the satisfaction.
I kept a straight face, numb to what was about to happen to me.
You've been through worse, you'll get through this, too.
Horrified about what was about to happen, I watched Nichkhun wedge the plier into the nail of my index finger.
"One last chance." He said sweetly.
"The answer is still no." I told him, while trying my best to not showcase the fear crawling deep inside my bones. I was doing this for Lisa, for the freedom that I wanted for the both of us. As I was someone who was initially appointed to care for her and to protect her, I would do my job until I drew my very last breath.
A second later, a horrified wail filled the silence and pain so potent speared through me. I wished that I'd signed the papers and was done with it, so I wouldn't be subjected to this torture. My finger was soaking in blood, dripping, and devoid of a nail. The smudges stained the beautiful carpet below.
That was ironic. A beautiful home like this one held nothing but years of pain, sufferings, lies, and deceit. There was no love found between these four walls, only a hunger for power and the title that came with it, and somehow, I'd been part of all this madness.
He wedged the plier into my thumb. "Don't make this hard on yourself."
I kept a straight face, even though my insides were screaming like hell-fire. "Do it." I challenged him. "Do your worst, you sick bastard, but I won't sign the papers!"
Nichkhun passed me the same charming smile from the first day I'd met him, "With pleasure, my love."
I screamed loud enough to shatter the glass windows of the entire mansion. The nail on my thumb was gone, too.
"The blood is staining the carpet." Sorn pointed out, while inspecting the expensive Turkish carpet. "I think we should stop, Nichkhun. She won't talk even if you pluck all her nails, and it's not worth ruining a carpet worth three million dollars that was won from an auction. It's vintage and handmade. Totally not worth her peasant blood dripping all over it."
Nichkhun seemed to think that Sorn had a point. The carpet was getting ruined after all. Well, thanks to the expensive carpet, my torture was halted.
"Jessi, clean up Mrs. Manoban's wounds."
Jessi had come equipped with a first-aid kit. How very convenient. Why did I have a feeling that these two devil incarnates did this casually to people and got away with it? The housekeeper, Jackson, had lost an entire leg, for God's sake! He seemed to do well with a replaced fake one, and he seemed to have resigned to his fate.
The door had loud knocks on them. "Jen... is Jen there? I heard a loud noise." Lisa's voice drifted from the other side.
I started calling out for her, getting out of the chair, when Sorn scrunched up a ball of cloth and shoved it into my mouth to shut me up.
"She's not here, Lisa." Nichkhun said in his casual tone, "I heard her say that she was going outside for a walk in the courtyard."
"Okay."
Then I heard the sounds of the retreating footsteps. I slumped back into the chair. Jessi cleaned my wounds with some alcohol and covered my fingers with a band aid. Sorn brought a pen and forced it between my fingers. She had brought the document, the contract papers of when I was hired as an employee. The papers had my signature on them.
Sorn held my hand in hers with the pen and forced a signature on the paper. It was a mess, but she'd managed to fake my signature - Jennie Manoban.
"It's done." she said happily, while looking proudly at the papers. "The writing is a little funny, but I think no one would care enough to check."
Nichkhun looked at the paper, "You're right. As long as we got her signature."
I didn't know what problems were going to come over me, and I knew that nothing would prepare me for what they had planned. I wasn't sure why they were being so cruel.
Lisa's parents, especially her mother Grace Manoban, had taken in two unfortunate children and given them a roof over their heads, wealth, education, and everything else that kids born in the family would have gotten.
They were biting the hand that fed them. Their greed knew no bounds.
The door opened, and I climbed to my feet, spitting out the cloth from my mouth. "Karma is going to come for you soon, Nichkhun, and when it does, I'm going to be there to see it happen."
He grinned, "Can't wait."