An hour later, Arlia was back in a familiar surroundings. As she had expected, her father was displeased with her failure, but due to his busy schedule, he left his underboss to dispense his punishment. Believing that she deserved to be punished severely for tainting the name of the Medici to an outside party, he had her stripped naked, tied against a pole and blindfolded. Back in the past, such punishment would, at least, made her struggle to flee before being brutally beaten down, but she had since learned to enjoy the punishment in a desperate effort to make it less stressful. She could hear the door open, followed by the noises of footsteps. Her ears picked up the hushed excitement in the voices of whoever were in the room and her body shuddered when she listened to what they were talking about. 

Taking a deep breath, she braced herself as the unseen people approached her.

----------------------------

After Nigel and Arlia made their hasty retreat, Hayley had followed Isaac and Sean away from the scene of the fight to recover. By this time, her wounds had healed, but her hair and wings would need more time to return to their original appearance. "Fuck that bitch... For a mafia princess, she really knows how to deal a world of hurt, I'll give here that..." she muttered.