“Isn’t this treating me like livestock?”

“Darling, if you hadn’t dozed off during science class, you’d know that crossbreeding between different species is impossible. How can humans expect offspring from livestock?”

“You’re not human.”

“Oh, right. I’m a son of a bitch.”

Leon enjoyed the hatred reflected in her gaze directed at him as he tightened the rope.

“The doctor told me not to move for a while after ejaculating and to keep your hips elevated.”

“You crazy bastard.”

It sent shivers down her spine that he was serious enough to ask a doctor about getting pregnant.

“I’ll untie you if you promise to prevent it from leaking out with your hands.”

He used his fingers to scoop up the s*men that had oozed out and pushed it back in.

“If you don’t do it, I’ll have to.”

Disgustingly, he began to enjoy the aftermath. He showered attention only on the upper part, then mentioned that he needed to take a shower and disappeared into the bathroom.

Grace looked at her pitiful state and bit her lip. She could have easily freed her hands and let the s*men out, but she lay there helpless. A few days ago, she got caught trying to scrape out the s*men while he was in the shower, and it led to a humiliating situation.

“If you enjoyed this so much, why didn’t you say something?”

She was tied up, f*cked all night until the bed sheets were soaked with his overflowing s*men.

When the shower sounds ceased, the man came out of the bathroom naked, wearing only a towel around his waist. He held a wet towel in his hands.

He meticulously wiped her body which was drenched in sweat, with the warm, wet towel, excluding the area between her legs. He gave explicit instructions not to wash that area. Only after that did the man untie the ropes binding her hands and feet.

While Grace was watching and couldn’t get up, the man neatly put on the clothes he had discarded.

It was an ambitious move.

The man, now impeccably dressed, approached with a jacket over his arm.

“Have sweet dreams, and see you tomorrow.”

He lightly kissed Grace and whispered affectionately. The post-coital cuddling still disgusted her. Moreover, he implanted a time bomb in her belly and wished her good dreams.

As Winston walked towards the door, Grace shouted, facing the back of Winston’s head.

“If the rebel bears your child, do you think you will be spared?”

”Thank you for your unnecessary worries, darling.”

The man casually replied, turning around. As he nonchalantly turned to open the door, Grace couldn’t hold back and threw whatever she could grab.

Thud.

The only thing that hit Winston’s back as he walked across the room was a mere pillow. It wouldn’t hurt or even itch.

The man paused and looked back.

When his gaze fell on the fallen pillow, the stoic expression on his face turned into a smirk.

That was it.

He left without any retaliation or a word of reproach.

º º º

“Your fiancé instructed you to commit suicide.”
Did Jimmy really tell her to die?

Grace sat in the foamy bathtub, lost in the same thought. Even while saying he loved her? How could he be so malicious? Jimmy isn’t a cruel person.

…But did Jimmy really tell her to die?

The words felt like a boomerang. The more forcefully she threw away the lie, the more vehemently it returned, piercing deep into my heart.

“Ha…”

Grace exhaled a long breath and closed her eyes. The moment the words, ‘Jimmy wished for my death,’ stabbed her heart again, she submerged her face in the water. However, as soon as her face was submerged, her head was grabbed, pulling her out of the water.

“Why willingly subject yourself to waterboarding?”

The man released her hair and used a towel to wipe away the water and foam streaming down her face. The absurdity of the man, who had previously immersed her head in the bathtub, now pulling her out made her snicker.

“You haven’t said a word all day and suddenly find it amusing to do things on your own…”

As she opened her tightly shut eyes, she met the concerned yet faintly amused gaze.

Worried. Shocked.

That behavior wasn’t the only oddity.

Winston was not only washing Grace but also cutting her nails. An interrogator, with his sleeves rolled up, caring for a prisoner. At a glance, he appeared affectionate, resembling an ordinary lover. Yet, this ordinary appearance seemed insane in her eyes.

Winston’s abnormality was normal, and what others considered normal was his abnormal.

She could twist and turn as much as she could, but it seemed like a one-way rotation, and she would return to her original position. Grace wasn’t that naive to be fooled.
“I love you, truly.”
If this was love to him, then Jimmy’s command for her to die could be considered love.

Rather than receive what he called love, Grace would rather swallow poison.

‘Poison…’

Suddenly, she remembered the box containing cyanide capsules. Grace felt a sense of emptiness and laughed ironically.

She knew.

As a precaution, the leads provided her with cyanide capsules.

“Scars on a soldier are like medals, but…”

Grace, who had been staring into the void, shifted her gaze towards Winston.

“I hope you’re doing it moderately. Well, hoping for moderation from you is foolish, after all.”

The man was losing his reputation, and that was why he trimmed her nails.

“I could overlook one or two… Look at this.”

The man lowered his shirt collar to reveal three long, fresh scratches resembling those from a cat, vividly marked on his neck.

“Moreover, wearing gloves in the middle of summer is not an option…”

His palm was no better, it was messed up. Grace watched as he meticulously smoothed the tips of her short fingernails with a file.

Today, for the first time, she spoke.

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you if you just pulled them out?”

“Ah, right. I didn’t think of that.”

Winston let go of her hand and stood up. However, the sound of footsteps going to fetch the pliers was not heard. Only the rhythmic sound of water droplets falling from the broken faucet persisted. She felt an observing gaze from above, but Grace didn’t raise her head.

The silence continued until she suddenly heard the sound of exhaling.

It was difficult to distinguish whether it was a scoff or a sigh.

The man sat back on the edge of the bathtub. Only after the nail care resumed did she discreetly exhale the breath she had been holding.

“Shall I tell you an interesting story?”

“No.”

Grace refused without even knowing what the story was about. Whenever this man brought up an interesting story, something uninteresting inevitably happened to Grace.

Nevertheless, as always, the man, who had no interest in Grace’s opinions, began a cruel tale.

“Do you know how they torture women in the East?”

“I don’t want to know.”

“They say they strip and put a woman in a bathtub filled with finger-sized freshwater fish. But where is the torture is that…”

He continued the story, forcibly pulling her head, submerged in water up to her ears, and narrating in a soothing voice.

“Those fish have a tendency to find their way into warm, moist holes. So, where do you think all those fish would swim into on a woman?”

“….”

Between the knees and breasts floating above the water’s surface, long fingers swayed like fish. He swirled the foam, revealing a grin.

“Savage, isn’t it?”

Didn’t he consider himself savage for forcefully opening the warm, moist hole and attempting to have sex at will?

“Where can you get those fish?”

“Well… they say they’re only found in the East.”

“Too bad. It would be better to be eaten by fish than to have your child.”

The man, who had been filing the nail tip of her right ring finger, stopped and let out a weak laugh.

“Is your mind not working?”

He muttered to himself and sighed heavily.

“Think about it. This is your chance to leave the torture chamber.”

Grace only responded with a contemptuous snort.

“A cradle doesn’t suit a torture chamber, right? Besides, if you’re going to give birth, you’ll have to go to a hospital.”

It was hard to believe that these words came from a man who wouldn’t take her to the hospital and warned against getting badly hurt. She didn’t want to imagine that far, though if the unfortunate moment came where the childbirth process began, she thought the only thing he would do was call for the midwife to the torture chamber or something similar.

“I made a difficult decision, breaking even my desires and self-imposed principles.”

Disgusting.

When Grace stared at him with a disdainful glare, the man’s eyes curled, and he laughed.

“Of course, it’s a decision for myself. But it’s not a loss for you either. Remember that.”

Even though he gave strong words, she remained unresponsive.

He added.

“It’s your last chance.”

A chance…?

Ridiculous. After giving hope countless times and then cruelly taking it away, there was no way she could believe the words of a man like him.

“Don’t miss it.”

“I’d rather…”

__