Chapter 389

Joaquin was still drunk, and his mind felt slow and heavy under the influence of alcohol.

He boldly wagged a finger at Gwendolyn and proclaimed in a slurred voice, “What is the meaning of this? Who are you? I don’t know you!”

His words angered Gwendolyn.

This boy needs to be put in his place!

She looked around the room, but there was no suitable item to punish him with. Then, she glanced at the belt around Cedrick’s waist.

Cedrick followed her gaze and immediately knew what she was thinking.

“No!” He frowned and shook his head firmly.

Gwendolyn thought about it again, but she did not change her mind. She turned her eyes to Nico who was standing by the door and said to him, “Your belt, give it to me.”

“Huh?” Nico was confused by her strange sudden request.

He looked at Cedrick but found no answer there either.

He had no choice but to unfasten his belt and hand it over to Gwendolyn.

Right before he gave the belt to her, a realization hit him. “Are you intending to punish this boy? That’s hard labor! You’ll be tired from the whipping! Let me do it! I’m good at it!”

Gwendolyn agreed. “Hit him hard. Make sure he feels pain, but don’t injure him too badly.”

“Roger!”

Nico rolled up his sleeves and turned to face Joaquin, and started laughing to himself. He approached Joaquin with a poker face and cracked his belt in an enthusiastic greeting.

Snap!

The snap of the belt meeting Joaquin’s exposed skin kept ringing through the air.

“Ouch! It hurts! It hurts! Stop hitting me!” Joaquin howled.

He fell to the ground and curled up into a fetal position. He writhed around the floor, trying to avoid contact with the belt in futility.

He rolled around the floor in pain. His mind cleared immediately as the alcohol lost its hold on him.

“Stop hitting me! Ouch! Gwendolyn! I’m sober now! I’m completely sober!”

Nico glanced at Gwendolyn over his shoulders. She nodded at him. He immediately ceased his whipping and looped the belt back around his waist.

Gwendolyn approached and sat down on a nearby couch, looking down at Joaquin who was still curled up on the ground.

“Listen here, you little b*stard! You’d better remember who I am! If you have already sober and are still messing with me, I’ll just send you back to the Zipper residence. I’ll let Old Mr. Zipper deal with you himself! His punishments are worse than being whipped with a belt, right?”

Joaquin rubbed his sore body and stared up at her.

When recognition hit him, he sat up immediately and said, “Gwendolyn! It’s you…”

Gwendolyn folded her arms in front of her chest and stared back at him coldly.

He quickly tried to make excuses for himself. “Gwendolyn, it’s so rare for me to get two days off! I went out for drinks with a few friends. Is that such a bad thing? Does it really justify handing me over to my grandpa?”

“You had two days off, and you were drunk for the entire two days?”

Joaquin nodded, unashamed. “Yes!”

Gwendolyn’s eyes turned to ice. She pulled out her phone, searched for the trending topic online, and tossed the phone at him. “Look at this!”

Joaquin grabbed the phone, looking bored. His expression gradually turned to shock when he saw his name written all over the screen.

“W-What is this? When did this happen? I was just drinking with my friends for the past two days! I swear I didn’t do anything else! Gwendolyn, you must believe me! I would never touch these women!

They’re disgusting to me!”

Cedrick, who had kept quiet up until then, spoke up and said, “It’s not enough for her to believe you.

Everyone else must believe you, too.”

“What am I going to do? What will happen to my career, the Zipper family name, and Angle? We’re all done for!” Joaquin was hysterical and worried.

With his name in the mud, it was not just Gwendolyn and his grandfather who wanted to hit him, he wanted to slap himself as well.

He ran his hands through his hair in a gesture of anger and frustration.

His motion hiked up his sleeves, revealing the red marks from the whipping earlier.

“Which son of a b*tch did this to me? Who dares to ruin my reputation?”

Gwendolyn ignored his outburst and did not try to stop him.

This punk had been drinking for two days straight and allowed a disastrous incident has happened! He should beat himself up a little!

The other three people in the room merely watched Joaquin quietly.

After a while, Cedrick broke the silence and said, “You must think carefully about who it might be. It must be someone who’s close to you. Who invited you out for drinks? Who sat at the table with you?

You should list them out.”

“I-I…” Joaquin stammered.

He dived into his thoughts but became more and more agitated. “I don’t really remember anything! I was so drunk! I forgot everything…”

Gwendolyn frowned at his weak answer. “Keep whipping him until he remembers!” she ordered.

Nico undid his belt again and swiftly landed another strike on Joaquin.

The boy howled. He shielded his face with his hands and rolled around on the ground, trying to escape.

Nico was ruthless. He dealt one strike after another painful strike mercilessly.

Joaquin often suffered corporal punishment at home and was used to the pain, but even so, Nico’s whipping was too much for him to bear.

“Stop! It hurts! I remember everything! I’ll tell you now!”

Nico paused immediately, but he did not put away his belt. He waited for Joaquin to speak.

“It was Max who called me up and invited me to Quinary Bar. Besides him, there were two other people who came together, Jeffrey and Pablo. They’re both good friends of mine. Halfway through our drinking session, some of their friends joined us. Then, friends of their friends joined us. All boys. It didn’t bother me. We all just drank and had fun together. I can’t remember any of their names.”

Gwendolyn thought for a minute before asking, “Was there anyone who behaved strangely?”

Joaquin racked his brain. “No, I really can’t recall any weird behavior. We were all just drinking and having fun. Who would pay so much attention to the details?”

Gwendolyn glared at him, and Nico brandished the belt in his hand in a threatening manner.

Joaquin trembled and covered his head in fear. “Gwendolyn, I really don’t know! I never asked the names of all those boys. Even if you whipped me to death, I still won’t have the answer!”

Gwendolyn softened. She handed him a glass of water. “Here, have some water, and get off the floor.

Sit on the couch.”

She had decided to cease interrogating him. Instead, she turned to Nico and said, “Investigate Max, Jeffrey, and Pablo. See if there had been anything suspicious in their activities in the last month. After that, go to the hotels in the vicinity and have a look at their guest records and surveillance videos.”

Joaquin’s trending photos all featured a bed in the background.

Someone must have drugged him, then brought him to a nearby hotel to take those compromisingphotos when he was unconscious.

As soon as Nico departed, Cedrick immediately walked up to Gwendolyn and wrapped his arms around her. “Let’s have a look at the surveillance videos of Quinary Bar for the past two days.”

Gwendolyn nodded, squeezing him in return. “Ceddy, I’m so glad you’re here. Everything that needs to be done has been handled by you. I feel so relieved.”

Cedrick lowered his face and rubbed their noses together as if no one else was in the room “You just have to trust me and listen to my plan. If there’s anything that I’ve missed out on, you can just tell me.”

“Sure.”

They smiled and gazed at each other with eyes filled with love.

Joaquin was watching them, stupefied. He hung his head in shame.

Cedrick moved toward the door. When he saw that Joaquin still had not moved, he asked in a cold voice, “Mr. Joaquin, are you coming?”

“You two are going to look at the surveillance videos. What am I supposed to look at? Your disgusting public display of affection?”