MIDNIGHT Bride The CEO's TEMPTATION

Elma's eyes bulged. She was horrified by Nathan's words. "No!" she shrieked. She hadn't expected him to be so cruel. She was an experienced, loyal servant of the Bush family, so she had thought that her punishment would be light. But, apparently, she had been wrong.

Helen was as shocked as her nanny was, and not knowing what else to do, she dropped to her knees and began to beg for mercy for her nanny. "Nathan," she cried. "Please show mercy. I promise that this will not happen again!"

"Get up!" Nathan ordered. He hated to see a woman crying. "And from now on, you might want to watch what you say. The baby protects you for now, but you won't be pregnant forever. So keep it up, and you will get the same. Eventually." As he spoke, he nodded to Vic, and the guard dragged Elma to a standing position.

Elma was so scared that her whole body was trembling.

"Do you think this is over?" Nathan shouted. He looked at his servants and continued: "By making this false confession, Elma has made things worse for everyone. Now, until the true informer comes forward, no one will eat, and you will all remain to stand. And Elma will still be flogged."

Crystal stared at Nathan in amazement. What a devil - she thought.

The servants and bodyguards looked at each other in fear. No one dared to say anything, let alone come forward, and they watched in dismay as Vic stripped Elma and bent her over the table. The whip cracked against her bare buttocks, and she shrieked. Helen's face was covered in tears, and she was crying out in desperation for Nathan to put an end to this atrocity.

The second lash struck Elma's calf, and she stood up straight. The third lash struck her thigh, and the fourth, her lower back. He attacked her lower back twice more, and the skin split- and by the time he'd struck her sixty times, he had opened a wound that began at her neck and stretched down to her ankles. There was blood everywhere, and flesh hung off her in gory, meaty threads.

By the seventieth lash, even with the table for support, Elma could no longer stand. Her hands slipped, she fell to the ground, and then she lost consciousness. This didn't stop Vic, though. He continued to lash her nearly lifeless body, and every time the whip licked her skin, she twitched.

Helen knelt beside her nanny. "Elma!" she wailed. Her face was red and puffy, but she had stopped crying somewhere around the fortieth lash. "Elma!" she cried again. "Answer me!" 

Helen held Elma's hand as she received the last of her punishment, and then the servants carried her to her room.

****

Except for Crystal and Nathan, no one had ever eaten anything, and the atmosphere in the villa was tense. The staff was close to panic, and they were all afraid of what would happen if the true informer didn't come forward.

None of this affected Crystal or Nathan, though. After punishing Elma, they'd showered together to get the blood that had splattered on them off of them, and then they went about their day. Nathan had a video conference in the study, and Crystal went to the kitchen to see what was available to eat.

The fridge was empty, but Crystal remembered that she had a box of cookies and a carton of milk in her bag in Helen's room. She quickly retrieved her snack, but when she saw Helen's puffy eyes, she thought - How pathetic. She sighed and said, "Would you like some?"

Helen frowned and said, "Save your insincerity."

"What crawled up your ass?" Crystal asked.

"You did it!" Helen exclaimed. "Miss Smith, I didn't expect you to be so mean. I know that Grandpa wronged you, and I know that this new living situation is hard for you, but Nathan's punishments are over the top - and they don't even seem to faze you. It makes me wonder if they were all your idea..."

Crystal frowned. She leaned against the door and looked at Helen doubtfully. "So," she said. "You think I'm using Nathan to get even with you. Is that it?"

"It is," Helen replied. "And it is unforgivable. Nanny Elma is in her forties. She has never been beaten before, and now she can't even get out of bed. I beg you, Miss Smith. If you are unhappy because I suddenly moved in, then you can deal with me. Alone. Nanny Elma and the servants are innocent."

When Crystal heard this, she shook her head and said, "Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with the punishments."

Helen: "If that is true, can you please go and beg Nathan to show mercy on us? He is so into you that he'll listen to anything you say." 

Crystal: "Okay, I'll talk to him. Can you eat something first, though?"

"Okay," Helen replied. "I'll eat. I'll eat." Then she grabbed a cookie and shoved the whole thing into her mouth. As she chewed, she reached for another, but as her hand stretched out, they heard the sound of a gun being fired, and she froze. Her face turned white, and she cried out.

Crystal touched her arm and said, "Don't panic. Wait here while I go and have a look."

Crystal rushed out of the room, down the hallway, and into the study. Inside, she found Nathan sitting in his chair with his back to the door, looking out of the French window. "Did you hear the gunshot?" she asked.

Nathan turned around, and when she looked into his eyes, she flinched. He is a demon-she realized - A monster. And she was afraid.

Nathan smiled and said, "The rat came out and confessed. Vic has dealt with him." His tone was so light that Crystal thought for a second that it was a joke. The look in his eyes would not let her believe it, though.

Crystal choked and took two steps backward.

"To be kind to your enemy is to be cruel to yourself," Nathan continued. He fiddled with the lighter in his hand and said, "I can't let anyone hurt you. Who knows what a person like this is capable of?"

"I didn't ask you to do this!" Crystal shouted.

Nathan: "Then tell me what I should have done."

After thinking carefully, Crystal said, "You should have let the person go."

Nathan raised his eyelids lazily and said, "That would never happen, especially since l offered leniency in the beginning, but it was rejected. It is too late now, anyway. What's done is done."

Crystal shook her head in disbelief, and she rushed downstairs and into the yard. Outside, Vic was putting away his gun. At his feet, a man was lying in a pool of his own blood.

Crystal could not believe her eyes, and she covered her mouth in shock and fear. "L-look at wh-what you d-did," she stammered..

Vic looked over his shoulder. "He got what he deserved," he said. "Do you recognize him?" 

Crystal nodded. "He was one of Helen's bodyguards," she replied sadly. "He meant well, and he didn't deserve to die."

"Die?" Vic chuckled and said. "He's not dead. Nathan just wanted me to scare him, and I scared him so badly that he fainted. He cracked his head on a rock when he fell, but he'll live."

When Crystal heard that, she nearly fainted. She couldn't believe that she'd thought that Nathan was capable of casual murder. She thought - I feel like such a fool... She watched as Vic ordered the wounded man to be carried into the house, and she let go a sigh of relief as he called the doctor to treat his wounds.. She couldn't believe that all of this hullabaloo had resulted from her request for the Morning After Pill.