The staff did as they were told and proceeded to remove the gag from my mouth.

The moment the gag came off, I turned toward Sora and called out her name in a trembling voice.

The audience laughed and jested, “Listen, Sora! He’s calling for you!”

“You sure are something else, you have him captivated at first sight!”

“His voice is so mesmerizing. Don’t you want to claim him for yourself later, Sora?”

Meanwhile, Sora fixed a grim look at me and murmured, “Why does his voice sound so much like Cleo?”

I immediately tried to explain, “It’s… me… Cleo… Brown…”

However, my voice was broken into disjointed sequences because of the electric current running through me. I could barely form a complete sentence.

That was when Damien, who was next to Sora, glared at me and stated angrily, “Not only is this bastard imitating Cleo's physique, he’s even imitating his voice! What unruly behavior!”

Sora's initial suspicion turned into deep disgust following that statement. She declared, “Nobody can replace Cleo in my heart.”

With that, she issued another order, “Whip him!”

The staff produced a long and ominously black whip, which they used to flog me again and again.

“Ah! Ah!!”

I could not hold back and cried out from the sheer amount of pain that reverberated through me.

Soon, my body was covered in large, long streaks from being flogged. I felt a tight cramp in my stomach as well.

When I was younger, I suffered from terrible stomachaches due to irregular eating habits while I was abroad. When Sora learned of this, she did everything she could to treat me. She tried all sorts of alternative treatments and even dabbled in witchcraft.

Back when I couldn't eat anything because of my stomach’s condition, she would cook something easy to eat for me. There were even times when she would cry at the sight of how haggard and frail I looked.

But now, she was the one who was ordering me to be flogged.

I coughed out a mouthful of blood, which stained the floor beneath me red.

Someone cried out immediately, “Look, he's vomiting blood!”

“I think it's a stomach hemorrhage.”

“He must have a death wish if he’s risking his life doing something like this, even when he knows he has a health condition.”

Atop the stand, Sora waved her hand to signal the staff to stop flogging me. She looked at me, still coughing blood, and issued another order, “Take him to the hospital. Maybe this will bring some good luck for Cleo.”

That was when Damien interjected, “Hold on. Maybe it’s some kind of trick he’s pulling to distract you.

“Let me head down there to see if he is truly coughing up blood.”

With that, Damien walked down the observation deck and approached me. He angled my chin toward him with his fingertips and whispered in my ear, “Mr. Brown, pleasure meeting you for the first time. You may not know me, but I have known you for a long time.

“I have been with Sora for five years, even before you knew her at all. Still, you swooped in and took her from me using your status as the eldest son of the Browns.”

I saw the deep-seated hatred in his eyes when he spoke.

“And now, you’re trying to steal her away from me for good!”

His words astounded me. If he had truly been with Sora for five years like he claimed, that would mean they were already having an affair before I even got married to her!

Back then, it was Sora who relentlessly pursued me before I finally agreed to marry her.

I shook my head at him, but I could not get a word out.

Damien gripped my chin so tightly that his nails dug into my skin. He hissed viciously, “You are going to die today. Once you die, Sora will be all mine!”

With that, he flicked a finger against my face before turning to Sora. “It’s all an act! He had a blood pack stored in his mouth the entire time.”

Sora was furious. “He must have done his research and knew Cleo has a stomach condition! He’s doing this to get my sympathy!

“What a crook, I’ll teach him not to mess with me!”

With that, she marched up to me and prepared to yank the mask right off my face.

Sensing the threat, Damien suddenly threw himself on the ground and screamed in pain, “Ouch! Sora, he kicked me!”

Sora immediately turned around and helped him off the floor. Then, she jabbed a kick at me.

“You punk! How dare you hurt Damien?! I’m going to make you pay for that!”

I was numb with pain as I stared at Sora. My hands and feet were bound so tightly I could hardly move an inch. How was I supposed to hurt Damien?

She had become completely blinded to facts.

“Use every other device you have on him!’

After shouting one last instruction to the staff, she helped Damien back to the observation deck.

Then, the staff lit a candle and used it to drip scorching wax all over the red streaks on my body left behind by the whip.

I screamed in agony when I felt the heat of the wax singe my already inflamed skin. The staff showed no mercy and continued to drip the wax all over my body.

They used a total of eighteen different torture devices on me. Toward the end, my body was covered with bruises all over to the point where even the audience could not stomach the sight of it.

“Ever since the auction hall was founded, nobody has ever endured all eighteen torture devices!

“Usually, they would use only one or two at most until the auctioneer decides to take the man away. This person is very unlucky because he tried to pose as Mrs. Vanderbilt’s husband.”

“He should have known better than to impersonate her husband when she snuck out of the house to be here! Her husband is the last person she wants to see!”

Meanwhile, Sora and Damien were passionately making out in the stands.

After they were done making out, Damien held Sora tightly and asked coyly while darting a look at me, “Sora, what are you going to do with that man? Since you paid for him, he’s yours for the night.”

Sora wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. “I already told you I came to be with you today. What do you think we should do with him?”

Damien shot a vicious look at me. “Since he’s so desperate for money, you should give him to one of your bodyguards who likes having a boy toy. If you pay him a hundred thousand for each man he serves, he’s going to have enough money to feed himself for the rest of his life.”

With that, Sora snapped her fingers and called out to her bodyguards, “You’ve heard Damien. You all can do whatever you want with this man.”

As soon as she said so, her phone rang. Upon answering the call, her expression dropped, and she cried out in a panicked voice, “How could he possibly be missing? He was fine just now! Hurry up and find him!”

I turned to her and tried to tell her I was right here.

However, she was already rushing out of the venue with Damien.

Meanwhile, the bodyguards excitedly came backstage to untie the ropes from my hands and feet.

They dragged me to a secluded room where I found myself surrounded by dozens of them. I felt countless pairs of hands fondling me all over.

Since they were Sora's personal bodyguards, I recognized most of them. These were the same men I saw from day to day! I had to exert all of my remaining energy to get them to stop. "Stop it… It’s me, Cleo Brown…"

One of them removed my mask and whistled. “Wow! He looks just like Mr. Brown!”

“Such a pity that you have to live a very different life from Mr. Brown. While he is being pampered by Mrs. Vanderbilt, you have to serve us, hahaha…”

“Me first! He sure looks good. You’re not going to be able to find anyone like him on the streets.”

Just as they took off their pants and prepared to escalate things, the door was kicked open.

It was Sora who shouted in a horrified voice, “All of you, stop right there!”