Lina continued to speak below, while above, a heavy silence, imbued with intense pressure, fell. Despite the short distance, no one spoke. Everyone sat or stood, lost in their own thoughts, exchanging not a single word. Throughout the entire basement, only Chester, his two legs broken, moaned weakly in one corner.
"I still don't understand." After a long silence, Catherine seemed unwilling to continue enduring the awkwardness of the pressure and initiated the conversation. "Even if there was coercion and reason, how can someone willingly hurt a woman they deeply love and who loves them deeply too? Judging from Lina's display earlier, the harm wasn't mild. How could he go to such lengths?"
