But today, through the security camera feed on my phone, I watched her writhing beneath someone else, her face flushed and coy.
My stomach churned violently.
Wave after wave of sounds drifted down from the master bedroom, and I doubled over retching, again and again, with nothing to bring up.
I fought desperately to break free.
But every time I struggled, the ropes only bit tighter.
The coarse hemp cord, thick as two fingers, shredded my skin. A searing, stinging pain tore through my entire body.
That was when I realized the ropes had been soaked in salt water beforehand.
The sounds from upstairs never stopped all night.
Again and again, in the throes of her pleasure, Tamara let slip truths I'd never heard before.
"Jarvis, I love you. These seven years, I never loved that broke loser. I never once actually planned to marry him..."
"Why stay with him for seven years? Because he's an idiot! He never touched me and still gave me money to spend. Look, he even gave us a huge wedding gift for our marriage! This house isn't much, but it cost that deadbeat every penny he had. Still worth a few million..."
When dawn broke, the master bedroom door swung open amid a tangle of cloying laughter.
But when I heard where those footsteps were heading, every drop of blood in my body rushed to my skull.
I couldn't care less that my body was already rubbed raw. Like a man possessed, I threw myself against the basement door until it gave way, then staggered and crawled to my foster father's memorial shrine.
The moment I saw what lay before me, the blood in my veins turned to ice.
My foster father's portrait had already been set ablaze with Jarvis's lighter. The fruit offerings that had once been arranged so neatly on the table had been devoured clean by the German shepherds his men had brought in. The incense burner lay toppled on the floor, surrounded by the shredded remains of the sutras my foster mother had painstakingly copied by hand. The whole room was in ruins.
Jarvis picked up a necklace from the table and dangled it in front of Tamara.
"What the hell is this thing?"
It was my foster father's ashes pendant. The only keepsake my foster mother had left to mourn him by.
"A necklace with ashes in it. Disgusting. Don't touch it!" Tamara glanced at the pendant with open contempt and flicked her wrist to throw it away.