Aurora's POV
I was ready to face punishment, not revenge
Pain.
It wrapped around me like a thick, suffocating fog the moment I tried to move. My wrists screamed where the chains dug into them, my arms quivering, raw and bruised. My legs burned from the awkward position, but it wasn’t just the physical pain that threatened to break me; it was the awareness, the bitter, suffocating clarity, that this was punishment, not revenge.
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat.
I had been through betrayal before. I had been abandoned, deceived and manipulated, but this… this was different. This wasn’t anger at past wrongs. This was calculated. Cold. Deliberate. Designed to hurt me in every way possible.
Natalie. Her name echoed in my mind. I whispered it softly, tasting it like poison. Natali
