Sophia was still shrieking threats as the guards hauled her into the dungeon beneath Hawthorne Manor. "Theodore! You dare touch me? My father's Omega Leopold! He'll—"
Crack!
A whip lashed across her back, tearing through her fine silks and leaving a b****y gash. Sophia collapsed with a scream, writhing on the cold stone floor.
Theodore stood in the shadows, his eyes glinting with a chilling frost. "Omega Leopold? He's got his own hide to save."
Sophia's head snapped up, panic flooding her face. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Your father's been skimming taxes from the townsfolk's fields, colluding with Delmora's fat-cat merchants. The evidence is airtight—no weaseling out of it now." Theodore crouched, his gaze icy and unyielding. "Your father's finished. You'd better start worrying
