Chapter 15 11 288 Vouchers Chapter 15 Sophie watched bodyguards flooding into Reformatory, hearing waves of agonized screams and pleas echoing from within. This institution finally bared its fangs like a roaring beast, exposing its atrocities to the world. But Sophie only felt exhaustion-why wouldn't heaven claim even her soul? Compared to these scenes, she longed to shut her eyes forever and escape. Living hell-that's what this place embodied. Alexander slackened his grip on the club, surveying blood-smeared walls and floors. Weariness washed over him as he ordered the surveillance room locked. Ignoring the wails inside, he clutched video evidence of Sophie's ordeal and moved toward the room he both craved and dreaded. He'd personally confined her here for three torturous years. Most scars on her body wouldn't exist without him. This truth hammered his mind as trembling hands pushed open the door. The cramped, windowless cell held only a cot, a wooden table, and a bathroom. Fetid dampness assaulted his senses-the sole light seeped through a fixed pane above the door. Alexander choked on the nauseating air Sophie had endured for three years. Scalding tears spilled as he scanned every inch. His gaze froze on claw marks densely etched into the right wall beside the cot. Fingernails had scraped desperate words: "Save me." "Never love again. "Let me go." Amidst the jagged grooves, his name stood out-proof she'd once waited for him, her only living relative, to rescue her. Alexander traced the fading scratches, gutted by hollow remorse. 60% 12:39 Chapter 15 288 Vouchers He envisioned Sophie's numb despair on that cot, recalling when she'd returned the family heirloom bracelet: "Uncle Alexander, I wish you happiness." His own voice echoed: "Sophie, why don't you cry out? You always used to whimper over the smallest hurts." Her reply had been chillingly flat: "Because it doesn't hurt." No whip could compare to Reformatory's torments. Alexander slapped himself twice, the sting failing to purge his suffocating guilt. Everything was his debt to Sophie-all of it. "Sir, the troublemakers are getting restless. Your orders?" The interruption shattered his anguish. Alexander turned, eyes blazing with hatred. Outside, the scent of charring spread from the surveillance room. Sophie watched figures struggle against barred win- dows, pinned helplessly by guards. Watching as Alexander emerged from within, he had the windows boarded up by bodyguards before tossing a torch inside. The flames grew fiercer, the blinding inferno engulfing the entire surveillance room. Those trapped inside still pounded desperately on the windows, clinging to hope pinned on panes long nailed shut. Just like how Sophie had once pinned her hopes on Alexander, who would never come back. Such hopes would never bear fruit. 65.3 % 12:39