Instead, he slammed his palm against my back. The force sent me crashing into the table. Something in my ribs cracked.
The soybeans slid down into my stomach. Within a minute, my face swelled, the allergic reaction visible in real-time.
I felt nothing.
No—I chose to feel nothing.
I raised my hand and slapped myself across the face.
"I'm sorry. I failed to take proper care of Miss Fox. I'll remove the flowers immediately."
I didn't defend myself.
What was the point? In his eyes, I was already damned beyond redemption.
From the moment I returned to the Blackwell estate, Rebecca had made a game of humiliating me. Mason never saw it. Or maybe he just didn't care.
When Rebecca accidentally spilled soup on the floor, Mason made me kneel and lick it clean.
When she dropped her ring into the pool, he forced me into the frozen water in the dead of winter. Two hours. I nearly died.
Even those flowers—Rebecca had ordered them placed there herself. Just to see what Mason would do to me.
And now he stared at me, disgust carving deep lines into his face.