"I can't believe you've lied to us all this time," Scarlett said angrily as she glared at her legal grandmother. "If I had my way, I'd rip your tail off and beat you over the head with it!"
Chika slapped her across the face, making her see stars. "You'll keep a civil tongue in your head," she said coldly. "Or I'll remove it. You don't need a tongue to fuck, and if I had my way, you'd be reduced to a mindless shell. I don't know how the hell you managed to cozen Navi into letting you keep your free will, but you've had it easy for too long. That's changing today."
"How?" Scarlett demanded. She ducked Chika's next slap and kicked the older woman in the kneecap, causing her to hiss and stumble. "You can't slap me into silence, so you might as well answer my questions."
Chika glared at her, ears back. "I don't have to tell you anything," she said. "In fact, I was going to let you see your son. Since you're being so disrespectful, I'm cancelling that privilege until you go on your knees begging my forgiveness. And I won't accept anything less than a heartfelt apology and a desire to change your disgraceful behaviour. Your father was way too soft on you; that changes from today also. And don't think I won't detect a lie; I'll know from the moment you open your mouth whether it's a sincere apology, or just an attempt to cozen me so I'll let you see your son."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7m1WDbDWl
Scarlett rolled her eyes. "You were never going to let me see him in the first place," she said angrily. "So you might as well cut the bullshit out."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyTKLFHuoeD
"Well, for that, you will get to see your son," Chika said, her smile tight. "In fact, you can see him for as long as you want. You won't be able to do a thing about it, but you'll get your wish." She snapped her fingers.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkdogMdlvkf
Scarlett's eyes widened, but before she could react, total silence enveloped her, and she gasped, the sound ear-shatteringly loud in the sudden stillness. The silence was so total she could hear her internal organs working, and she stared at Chika in growing horror. Arjun's isolation bubbles had been nowhere near as bad, and Scarlett felt hot tears scald her cheeks as she realised that things were going to be very different now that Chika was around. She fervently wished she'd kept her mouth shut, but as Chika left the room, a smug smirk on her face, she knew it wouldn't have mattered. Her legal grandmother would've found a way to slap this wall of total silence on her, and Scarlett wrapped her arms around herself, sobbing silently. Chika, she realised, was going to make her life hell.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsq0BkjBv77
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Unlike Arjun's isolation bubbles, Scarlett soon discovered that it was only her ears that were stopped up. She could still move freely, but at the expense of her hearing, and she found herself wishing more fervently than ever that she'd kept her mouth shut. No one spoke to her; Chika had made it so she was now an outcast in her own house, and everything was given to her after long deliberation, from her meals to her baths. She knew it was useless to protest this treatment - and as the days went on, she suspected Chika had also made her mute, or at the very least, unable to form coherent words. So she suffered in silence, aching everytime she saw her son, nursing from the woman chosen as his new mother. The girl - golden haired and blue eyed - smirked at her every time she was in the room, and she always made a great show of disrobing to nurse Winter, flaunting her rather impressive cleavage. Scarlett could have endured that on her own, but it was the way the girl made it emphatically clear that Winter was thriving under her care, showing the baby's stricken mother just how content her son was in the arms of another woman. There were times when she longed to slap the girl across the face, wiping the smug smirk away, but she knew it would lead to still greater punishment. 106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxr5mMSFetD
So she kept her mouth shut (not that she had much of a choice), and silently endured the days as they turned into weeks, and then into months. Chika never gave her a chance to apologise, but Scarlett knew her legal grandmother wouldn't accept an apology, since she'd know it to be false, born from a desperate desire to have her ears unstopped so she could hear the world around her again. Idly, she wondered how long it would take a person to go mad from hearing nothing but the sound of her own organs working, and she feared she just might find out sooner than she wished. 106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgy0XgJwiQ
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One day, about six months since Chika's arrival, the feline woman came into her room. A snap of her fingers restored sound, and Scarlett almost passed out - both from sheer relief and from the sudden cacophony of sound that assualted her ears. She kept her face level, however, waiting for Chika to open the conversation. No matter how much her desire for revenge burned inside her, she vowed she wouldn't make the mistake of running her mouth again, not until she was in a position where she could dicate the terms of battle. 106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3q0Nu0n2R
Chika laughed. "Bold of you to assume you'll ever be able to dicate terms," she said. Scarlett's eyes widened, and the feline woman laughed again. "I linked your mind to mine the moment I arrived," she said. "It was an entertaining ride, watching you struggle daily with the isolation. I was tempted to keep your ears stopped up for longer, to see how long you would break, but apparently, my son has other ideas."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOrEAGwFdU
Scarlett kept her mouth shut, and Chika smirked. "Your self-control is admirable, but I know it's a sham," she said. "Since you're so keen to know, yes, Jaiden is my son. That makes me your legal great-grandmother, but we're not going to squabble about legal ties." She rose. "Comem with me," she said. "It's time for you to meet your husband. And be warned; if you thought life was harsh under my tutelage, you're going to soon find yourself wishing you were back under my control."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiLWwcI2JHF
It was a futile exercise, but, despite knowing Chika still had full access to her thoughts, Scarlett found herself wondering, as she followed the feline woman, just how things could get any harder. Chika smirked, but Scarlett no longer cared; she had the nasty feeling Chika was setting her up for something truly devious, something that would likely break her in two, just as Chika and Jaiden wanted. Damn it, she thought miserably. Why do I feel like I'm being tossed out of the frying pan and into the fire? 106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaNGIqELGu
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