She listened to Effie’s tirade in a trance, unable to refute a single thing the woman said.
But her daily torture wasn’t over yet.
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Before Valerie could collect herself, Rickey hoisted her up and made her kneel again. Leon held up the Prajna Sutra and nodded for her to start. The men planned to take alternating shifts to make sure that she finished reading the scriptures.
The reality of her situation finally struck her. She had lost everything. Without Atticus and Graham, she was just a helpless young woman with nothing to her name.
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For now at least, Valerie knew she needed to recuperate and manage through these hardships. Once she somehow attuned to her new life, she could plan her revenge.
She took the book, cracked it open, and began to read in her hoarse, grating voice.
The scriptures were meant to teach and inspire someone to atone their sins and improve their character. But for Valerie, it was yet another trial thrown in her way.
Two hours went by. The sky grew darker. Even so, Valerie continued to kneel in the yard, chanting the Prajna Sutra.
It turned out that this particular task was a thousand times more agonizing than she had ever imagined.
Her knees were about to give out, her throat was dry, and the wounds on her back were festering. Now and then, she would twitch involuntarily as pain shoot through her body.
At last, she reached her limit and fainted.
This didn’t mean that she was safe, though.
Rickey and Leon weren’t the least bit inclined to show her any measure of mercy. One of them fetched a basin of cold water and splashed Valerie in the face.
She startled awake, coughing and gasping, and less than a minute later, she was forced to continue reading the scriptures again.
She held on for another half hour, but then it began to rain.
Relieved, Valerie raised her head and cast a sideways glance at Rickey, as if taunting him at this unexpected turn of events.
If the pages got wet, then the print would be smudged. Even if it dried, the words would be illegible, and she wouldn’t have to read the damn book anymore.
Rickey sneered at her in response, then silently grabbed the printed copies. Without missing a beat, he replaced them with waterproof ones.
Lucinda was well-prepared. Rain was something one anticipated if one had to live out in the countryside.
She would never let something so random as a sudden shower prevent Valerie from getting her punishment.
Shivering in the cold rain, Valerie stared at the new book in her hand and scoffed.
“Lucinda, you bitch!”
Her words did not escape Rickey’s hearing.
“Continue reading!” he barked.