---- Chapter 20 Jeremy Glass POV: "Haylie, no!" | lunged forward, grabbing for her hand, her arm, anything. My fingers brushed against her sleeve, but she pulled away as if my touch was poison. She didn' t stop. She didn' t look back. She just kept walking, her head held high, until she and Elliot disappeared through the double doors, leaving me kneeling on the cold, linoleum floor of the courthouse, a broken man in a room full of strangers. "I'm sorry," | whispered to the empty doorway. "God, I'm so sorry." Joselin crawled over to me, her face a mess of tears and smeared makeup. "It's okay, Jeremy," she sniffled, trying to help me up. "We still have each other." | looked at her, at the source of all my misery, and something inside me snapped. | shoved her away, my voice a low, terrifying snarl. "We have nothing. You and my father... you will both pay for what you did." | left her there, a crumpled heap on the floor, and walked out into the blinding sunlight, a man with nothing left to lose. ---- The cellar was dark and damp, the air thick with the smell of fear. Joselin was tied to a chair, her eyes wide with terror as | approached. "Jeremy, please," she whimpered. "Let me go." | ignored her, my movements calm, deliberate. | slowly unbuttoned my cuffs and rolled up my sleeves. "Tell me something, Joselin," | said, my voice deceptively soft. "When you were whispering in Haylie' s ear while she was in a coma, what did you say to her? When you were pinching her, torturing her when she couldn' t fight back... did you enjoy it?" "| don' t know what you' re talking about!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "I did it because | love you! | wanted you to be free of her!" "You don' t know what love is," | said, my voice hardening. | grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to look at me. "The only woman | have ever loved, the only woman | will ever love, is Haylie. And you took her from me." "Did you ever love me?" she screamed, her voice raw with a pain that was, for once, genuine. "Even for a second?" My answer was a sharp, stinging slap across her face. The force of it knocked her head to the side, a trickle of blood appearing at the corner of her mouth. | walked over to a table where one of my bodyguards had laid ---- out a variety of instruments. | picked up a long, leather whip. "You wanted to know what happens when someone hurts the person | love," | said, the leather creaking as | tested its weight in my hand. "Now, you' re going to find out." She saw the whip, and a new level of terror entered her eyes. "Jeremy, no! Please! I'm pregnant!" The lie was so reflexive, so pathetic, it was almost funny. "No, you' re not," | said, my voice flat. | nodded to one of my men. He stepped forward, forcing a small white pill into her mouth and pouring water down her throat. She gagged and choked, her eyes wild with panic. A few minutes later, she cried out, clutching her stomach as a wave of cramps hit her. A dark stain spread across her light-colored dress. She slumped in the chair, sobbing, defeated. "Now," | said, raising the whip. "The real punishment begins."