Chapter 1

Because I challenged my wife's untouchable "white knight," she sent me to the Crawford Research Institute as an experimental subject.

She said I was too consumed by jealousy and needed a small punishment.

I was injected with unknown substances, force-fed drugs, given spoiled food, and beaten.

After a year of inhuman torment, as she wished, I became obedient.

She came as scheduled to pick me up, standing high above, staring at me coldly: “Have you learned your lesson?”

A shudder rippled through me as I hastily dropped to my knees, admitting fault: “Master, I’ll be an obedient dog.”

But she broke down.

###The harsh sting of slaps yanked me out of unconsciousness, the beeping of monitors a constant background noise.

I curled up, my body pulling at the festering wounds, stinking of infection, each movement igniting a pain so intense that even a moan refused to escape my lips.

I knew it was time for another injection.

Needle marks covered my arms so densely that I couldn’t feel them anymore. I was too weakened by the pain to resist.

“Not dead yet? If not, wake up—it’s time for your shot.” The man withdrew his hand, a mocking grin stretching across his face.

A pair of sharp pincers dug into one of my open wounds, twisting mercilessly.

I screamed, raw and primal.

Another set of pincers stabbed into a different gash, silencing me instantly. I choked back the scream that had barely left my mouth.

These monsters once told me that the louder I yelled, the more eager they’d be to torment me, pushing until I nearly died.

Once, after being injected with an unknown serum, the pain felt like my insides were being torn apart. I screamed uncontrollably.

Seeing my frenzied reaction, they grew more excited, injecting me with multiple substances until I passed out from the agony.

They’d throw water on me to wake me up and then douse my back repeatedly with boiling water, calling it “artistic expression.”

My back would blister, seeping thick, yellow pus. My teeth were knocked out long ago during slaps, and my hearing had been nearly destroyed.

After that, I never dared scream again.

No matter how excruciating, I swallowed my cries, praying silently, “Pass out soon. If I pass out, I won’t feel the pain.”

“Look at you, clinging to life like a pathetic rat!” The man scoffed and kicked me hard in the wound, causing my breath to hitch and my face to go pale.

Laughter erupted around me. “Still not dead? Just as we thought—worthless!”

“Yes, yes, I’m nothing, just a lowly creature at your mercy,” I knelt and pleaded, echoing their words.

Only when I played along did their mood improve, sparing me worse torment. After a year in this place, I’d grown used to such humiliation.

When I first arrived, I was proud, defiant. I fought back, clashing with them.

But a few enforcers pinned me down, tying me to the experimental table, injecting me with all manner of concoctions.

I was force-fed drugs and even live insects. My stomach wrenched with pain every day.

Over time, the relentless torture broke my spirit, turning me into an obedient tool.

I knew these men were sent by Vanessa Hale, who watched over me through them. It was all her doing.

She called me unruly and said I needed to be taught a lesson for challenging Marcus Sterling. So, she sent me here for “discipline.”

And so, I endured inhuman abuse.

###