With a wave of his hand, a subordinate went to Levi.
He ordered, “Monitor that woman closely. If anything happens to her, report it to me right away.”
He did not expect Mia to warn him about his situation.
It is rare to have someone so kind within an emotionless family like the Joneses.
She deserves my acknowledgement.
Back at the villa, Wales dragged Mia into the living room.
Plop!
Mia cried in pain when Wales kicked her knees. They buckled, and she fell to her knees in front of Michael.
Then, Wales asked, “Grandpa, do you know who she ran out to meet?”
Curiously, Michael responded, “Who did she go to?”
“She went to Levi and told him everything,” Wales complained.
“What? Are you telling me that Levi knows that we are going to make him a scapegoat and send him to jail?” Michael stood up immediately and shouted.
Wales confirmed, “Exactly!”
“This is absurd! You are a piece of shit!” Michael was livid that he almost had a fit.
The rest of the Jones family also looked at Mia with hatred and started to chatter about her.
“She is a betrayer! How dare she rat out on our family?”
“By turning your back against Grandpa, do you know how big a mistake you have made?”
“You are throwing the entire family in a ditch! If Levi does not go to jail, we will be doomed!”
Mia was still on her knees with her head hung so low that it was about to kiss the floor.
She knew that she had committed a grave sin.
Michael yelled furiously, “Do you know your actions will destroy every single one of us here?”
“Grandpa, I’m sorry. It is my mistake…” Mia cried.
“Mistake? You aren’t even the scapegoat we chose to send to jail! Why do you seem to have a grudge against us that you wish to harm us in this way? Huh?” Michael roared.
At a loss, Mia continued to weep. “No, Grandpa. It’s nothing like that! I do not hate the Jones family nor do I want to see any of you get hurt.”
“You are clearly trying to bring us down! I won’t be surprised if you already planned to betray us in the first place.”
The rest of the Joneses viciously scolded her.
“Father, this won’t do. Mia committed a serious offense that concerns the survival of our family. She has broken our family rules, and we have to enforce the rules. Otherwise, they will mean nothing if we do not punish her,” Wallace suggested.
“Yes! She has to be punished!”
“Mia has violated several family rules, and she has to take responsibility for them. Otherwise, more people will take those rules for granted, and there will be more who will do the same in the future.”
Persuaded by the rest, Michael nodded in agreement. “Alright, we shall punish her based on our rules then. Please hand me the ferule.”
Then, he glanced at the butler and asked, “How many strokes should she receive for such an offense?”
“Based on the rules, she should receive a hundred strokes. However, since she is a female, she will be spared and will have to take sixty.”
The rest of the family gasped in surprise at what the butler said.
They had seen family members being punished in the past.
There was a man from the Jones family who received twenty strokes. At the end of the punishment, his skin was split open, and there was blood everywhere. Besides, he could not even leave his bed for three months.
In this case, Mia had to take sixty strokes, three times what that man received. With such soft and tender skin, she might die from the punishment.
“We will not show mercy to those who break the family rules. Mia, the fifty-third generation of the Jones family, has made a mistake and is responsible for putting the family in danger. She will receive sixty strokes, and it is a lesson to never mess with the Jones family rules,” Michael announced his decision coldly.
“Father, please spare her! Mia is still a child,” Mia’s parents begged.
Heartlessly, Michael immediately responded, “Whoever pleads for Mia’s leniency will receive the punishment with her!”
