Punishment
936 Words
Nyx Pov
The screen glowed against the dark.
Father.
My breath hitched. Of all people, he was the last name I wanted to see.
For a second, I thought of ignoring it pretending I didn’t see. Pretending I could still breathe freely. But hesitation was dangerous when it came to him.
I swiped the screen anyway.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” His voice was calm the kind of calm that made chills run down my spine.
“Father, I ”
“Don’t speak.”His voice was calm, steady enough to make my pulse stumble
Just that. Cold, clipped, final.
“I’ve had to hear your name dragged through every corridor of that academy. My daughter, behaving like some...” He stopped himself, but the silence said everything.
Disgust.
My throat burned.Of course he'd shift the blame on me with no regrets, and his perfect daughter get all the pampering, love.
“You will come home. Now. The driver’s outside.”
A pause, cold as winter.
“And my men will make sure you don’t change your mind.”
Click.
The call ended before I could breathe again.
Through the tinted window, I could already see them two men in black suits, standing by the car, waiting.
Not politely. Not patiently. Just waiting.
The phone’s glow faded, leaving my face in shadow lipstick smeared, eyes too wild, the taste of someone else still on my mouth.
So this was it.
The consequence that always finds you.
The guards didn’t speak when I stepped outside. They didn’t have to.
Their silence carried my father’s authority cold, clean and sharp.
I slid into the car. The leather pressed close,the door locked with a click that sounded too final.
The world outside fell away laughter, music, the memory of his hands all fading into the dark.
I tried to breathe. I couldn’t.I felt my lungs out of breath . Every second felt like punishment,every turn of the wheel a reminder that I was no longer in control.
The phone buzzed again a message this time.
Father: We will discuss your behavior when you arrive.
My chest tightened.
Home wasn’t a place. It was a cage dressed in luxury.
..............
I stepped out of the car,my eyes set on the tall mansion looking exactly the same ,too grand, too cold, like nothing inside it ever learned how to love
I heaved a huge sigh as I entered.
My footsteps carried through the hall. The guards moved ahead like habit.
His office door groaned open.
He was there Mr. Moretti, my father behind his desk, immaculate as always. Power stitched into every line of his suit. Michelle sat beside him, legs crossed, the faintest smirk painted over her glossed lips.
“Sit.”
The word cut through the air before I even breathed.
I obeyed. My fingers were trembling, so I folded them in my lap to hide it.
He didn’t look at me right away , he never did.
That silence was the worst part. It made you start confessing things you didn’t even do.
Michelle’s voice broke it first, light and poisoned.
“She was at that party, wasn’t she? I saw the news clip chaos, scandal… What sort of daughter behaves like that?”
Her words dripped with satisfaction.
I felt her eyes drag over me like a knife judging, waiting for Father to react and that was her best part.
When he finally did, it wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” His tone was calm, too calm. “The Moretti name dragged through dirt because of your recklessness.”
“I...” I tried to speak, to explain that it wasn’t what it looked like, that the chaos hadn’t been my fault.
The slap came before the words did.
A clean, sharp sound.
The kind that doesn’t echo, it just sinks.
My face burned red.
My chest hollowed out.
“You will not speak until I ask you to,” he said.
His hand shook once not from guilt, but from restraint.
Michelle sighed dramatically, the way someone does when pretending to care.
“Why can’t she be more like Nyomi?” she said softly, turning to him. “At least your first daughter knows her place.”
My sister’s name hung in the air like a curse.
Nyomi.
Perfect Nyomi , the golden daughter.
The one he saw.
He turned back to me then, eyes cold enough to freeze blood.
“You’ve embarrassed me for the last time, Nyx,” he said. “And you’ll fix it.”
I didn’t move. “Fix it?” I whispered.
He stood slowly, circling the desk.
“You’re getting engaged.”
The words landed like a blade , cutting through me, inside and out.
His words repeted twice in my head.
I blinked back in disbelief.
My throat tightened. “What?”
He didn’t bother explaining.
“You’ll meet him tomorrow. The papers are already in motion.”
I wanted to scream, but the memory of my mother’s face pale, trembling, on that old clip froze me still.
He’d promised he’d stop her medication once if I disobeyed. He never jokes.
So I just sat there, trembling.
Michelle smiled. My father adjusted his glasses,eyes focused on some documents close by.
"You may leave" His final words rolled out
My feet's felt heavy, face paled . I could barely move and I realized, for the thousandth time, that love didn’t live in this house only control did.
And this time, I was its price.
- Writer
