Chapter 530

Nathaniel had always seen Isabella as nothing more than Harrison's pale imitation.

The bitter truth had gnawed at Isabella for years - yet she'd stubbornly refused to accept it.

"I'm the true jewel of the Whitmore family! Harrison's just some backwater nobody! She could never measure up to me!" she shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria.

Nathaniel's gaze turned arctic. "Who permitted you to speak her name?"

A bodyguard moved with military precision, delivering a stinging backhand across Isabella's porcelain cheek.

Crack!

The impact snapped her head sideways violently.

But the punishment didn't stop there. The guard's palm connected again and again - each slap landing with brutal efficiency, painting her flawless skin with angry red welts. Within moments, her cheeks ballooned grotesquely, a thin trail of crimson leaking from her split lip.

"It burns!" Isabella whimpered, her aristocratic composure shattering.

Nathaniel raised a single finger, and the guards retreated like shadows melting into darkness.

Her knees buckled, sending her crumpling onto the cold marble floor.

Raised in gilded luxury, Isabella had never known physical pain. Now her skull throbbed, her vision swam, and she could taste copper where her teeth had cut into tender flesh.

Nathaniel regarded her with the detached interest one might show a particularly repulsive insect. "One more insult about Harrison, and this will seem merciful."

Through swollen eyelids, Isabella saw him lounging in his throne-like chair, the impeccable black suit clinging to his powerful frame. His very presence radiated lethal authority, making her bones vibrate with primal terror.

That glacial stare sent ice water flooding her veins. She trembled uncontrollably.

Scrambling forward on hands and knees, she clutched at his polished Oxfords. "Please! I can't lose you! Don't you understand how terrified I am?"

Nathaniel's laugh was colder than a winter grave. "Congratulations. You already have."

She shook her head violently, tears cutting tracks through the blood on her face. "No! I'll do anything!"

A sudden, stabbing pain lanced through her chest. She clawed at her designer blouse, her flawless complexion draining to corpse-white.

"Nathaniel! My heart - it's tearing apart! Call your physician! I'm too young to die!"

His expression remained impassive as he produced a small amber bottle. "These your little lifesavers?"

Isabella's eyes lit with desperate hope. "Yes! Please!"

With deliberate cruelty, Nathaniel tossed the pills over his shoulder to Dominic. "Let the pain teach you what your conscience couldn't. Maybe a slow, agonizing death will help you understand what you've stolen from Harrison and me."

He stood to leave.

Isabella lunged, fingers twisting in his trousers. "Don't go! I'll die without those!"

Nathaniel didn't bother looking back. His voice carried finality.

"The moment you impersonated Harrison to trap me, you signed your own sentence. This suffering is merely the first installment of your debt."

Hot tears scalded Isabella's ruined face as realization dawned - she was trapped in a nightmare of her own making, with Nathaniel as both judge and executioner.

"I beg you! It was a mistake! I'm sorry!"

His retort came like a guillotine's fall: "If apologies held power, prisons would be empty. You planted this poison, Isabella. Now choke on its fruit."

"They'll come for me!" she screamed hysterically. "My family won't abandon me!"

Nathaniel's smile could have frozen hell. "How touching. Rest assured, I'll personally ensure every Whitmore pays tenfold for your sins. None shall escape."

The heavy doors slammed shut with the finality of a tomb sealing.