he gave a very slight nod.
The car stopped on a deserted, quiet street, a few blocks away from the Harrison family’s massive mansion.
Robert turned off the engine.
The air inside the vehicle grew heavy and stifling.
He turned toward the back seat with great caution.
“It’s okay… I’m here with you, and I won’t let anything bad happen.”
Matthew was visibly trembling.
He lifted his white uniform shirt very slowly.
And then…
Robert caught his breath in horror.
Not because he had never seen physical pain.
But because he had never seen anything so cruel on a child’s body.
Lash marks.
Crisscrossed.
Overlapping one another.
Old scars and new wounds that still seeped with a silent, deep pain.
Some were still open.
Others had purple bruising.
The fragile skin of an eight-year-old boy… torn as if he were not a human being worthy of respect.
Robert couldn’t breathe.
His hands began to shake with pure rage.
“My God! Who did this to you?”
Matthew quickly pulled down his shirt.
As if he were the one to blame for what happened.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to bother you with my problems…”
That sentence…
pierced Robert’s heart like a dagger.
“No! You didn’t do anything wrong… do you hear me?”
Matthew stared at him.
With tears welling in his eyes.
“But Aunt Valerie says… that if I behave better… she won’t punish me like this…”
Robert felt his blood run cold.
Valerie Castle.
The woman who was about to become Alexander Harrison’s wife and the new lady of the house.
The same woman who appeared before the media as a perfect lady: elegant, intelligent, and a supposed lover of children and noble causes.
The only one… who stayed with Matthew every night while his father worked late at his downtown offices.
“She… does this to you?”
Matthew didn’t answer with words.
He only gave a slight nod.
“What does she use?”
The boy swallowed with difficulty.
“A thick leather belt…”
The silence inside the car shattered.
Robert turned his gaze toward the window.
He needed a few seconds to compose himself and not lose control.
Because if he didn’t…
he would turn around that very instant.
And he would do something he could never regret for the sake of the child.
“Does your dad know about this?”
Matthew shook his head in fear.
“She says… that if I tell anyone… she will send me far away… where no one can ever find me…”
An eight-year-old boy…
living with the constant fear of disappearing.
Inside his own luxury home.
The car began to move again.
But this time…
it wasn’t a normal trip back home.
It was the beginning of a secret that would change everything forever.
