First punishment

Of all the days she had fought to be a strong woman, today seemed to be eating up the strength and courage she had gathered all these years.

The dark room engulfed her mind with ill thoughts. She could call darkness a great king for the wall it had built around her.

The room was cold, quiet with only a single chair in it.

Although she believed she would get through this punishment, it still made her shudder but there was no way she was going to escape this wide wall.

It takes a long time to be wise but only a second can make one foolish, maybe she was going to learn something more in here after the heat and cold had sat her down and given her a great lesson.

She was going to cry when she saw the man who had been ordered to execute the punishment on her go to the heater which was set at the wall of the room.

Through the faint light, he was kind enough to leave for her, she saw him about to press the button of the heater.

She didn't have much to say even in her anger which has passed the length of the great wall of China and all she had to do was to stare back and beg like she did years ago when life was laughing at her.

Slowly she felt her body begin to heat up. She didn't know how long the first phase was going to last all she was going to do was feel her body heat up like a slice of dead meat in the oven and later be iced.

She should hate her boss for this torture which she had vowed never to receive for the rest of her life again. She wouldn't blame her boss for it, if only she had not been foolish she wouldn't have felt her skin squash. "Ahhh!!" Roselle groaned, her eyes were almost popping out of her eyes as she felt her body trembling.

Her palms were sweating and she believed the wall of this dark room was caving in on her.

"The moment you scream, Karla I will add to your punishment."

Roselle heard her boss speak, the voice came from the speaker placed on the ceiling of the room.

In the midst of pain, Roselle smiled wearily. "You promised you will never harm me again, boss." Roselle pointed out of pain.

"That it's just a promise, I never vowed to keep that, did I?"

"This is too much for me to bear," Roselle yelled. Dryness was taking down her throat.

She wept inwardly at the life she had signed away to get protection from this man.

Without him, there was no Roselle the millionaire, there was no hyper-realistic mask to fake her life in order to fulfil her revenge. Without him, there was no taking down of Rashuel and she feared she was going to end up falling at Rashuel's feet again begging like a puppet in front of him if he ever leaves her.

Her boss's voice from the speaker was inflicting more pain on the heat that was biting into her skin.

"It took me years to take you to this level but still you make silly mistakes without thinking." "I discovered that you struck one of Axl's men and he is looking for you in the whole city. Now you see how you've got the whole city on your neck?" The voice became more tormenting with each minute that passed.

In all the things he was saying, she couldn't make out a single thing until she heard him mention the name of her friend. "Tina has nothing to do with this, you dare not punish her on my behalf!"

"That's what friends are for right? They help when in need, so I will send her home to receive your punishment on your behalf. I will send her home, Axl men will come after her, whatever they do to her will be your fault."

"No please, I'm begging you, boss, don't do this to her." Roselle couldn't take it anymore, she let her tears wash down now not minding the pain her boss will add to her for letting it pour down her cheeks.

Roselle took a breath in the room that had made her whole body sweat and she groaned. "You can torture me all you won't when I do even the slightest mistake, but I won't allow you to touch her, the moment you touch what belongs to me, I will add you to my list."

"I've become an enemy to so many people for punishing what they love. Hahaha, but you Karla don't tell me you will hate me for doing it to you too. I will not take that hatred from you." Roderick stopped himself from feeling surprised at Roselle's threat. She had dared not to threaten him before.

"Ahhh!" Roselle whimpered amidst the pain. "You have done so many things to me, boss, I take it all because you made me who I am. But not this one, I will never take it from you."

At this threat from Roselle, he struck the mask on his face and it fell right on the floor. His hands began to tremble and he felt a pressure hit his head to the point he felt he wanted to yell out all of his pain.

He didn't want Roselle to hear him whimper in pain, he made to drag his feet out of the room he was speaking to Roselle from. But he felt all of his strength was taken away from him.

He heard Roselle call him, but he didn't respond. This part of him was always hidden out of the eyes of Roselle. But he wondered how long he was going to hide it.

Maybe if his mother didn't join them to call him a stroke of bad luck, he wouldn't have been in this traumatic experience each time the one he loved threatened him.

If only Roselle could know how painful her words had hurt him she wouldn't continue to talk, she wouldn't tell him she would hate him. "Off the heater! Cool the room!" Roderick shouted, grasping his spinning head.