Mia Sinclair shoved open the door to the presidential suite, practically buzzing with excitement.

Tonight, she’d made plans to meet a gigolo here. She was about to do something huge.

The room was pitch-dark. She had just started feeling her way forward when a strong hand suddenly clamped around her wrist and yanked her inside.

"What are you doing?!" Mia cried out.

She stumbled and fell hard onto the soft bed. Before she could react, her lips were sealed, and a pair of hands locked around her slim waist.

"No...!" Mia struggled with everything she had.

But a young girl like her was no match for a grown man’s strength. Her clothes were torn apart in moments.

"Be good. Listen to me." The man’s voice was low and rough, hot breath brushing against her ear, sending a violent shiver through her body.

"Mm... it hurts!" The sharp, tearing pain nearly made Mia black out. Tears spilled uncontrollably down her face.

"Good girl. I’ll be gentler." The man was hanging on to the last scraps of reason...

The night sank deeper and deeper, and in that room, all that came and went were Mia’s sobs and broken pleas for mercy.

The next morning.

Nathan Mercer slowly came back to his senses and instinctively looked to his side.

The girl was curled into a tiny ball. Her eyes were swollen red from crying, and her small hands were gripping the blanket so tightly her knuckles had gone pale. She looked like a kitten that had just been bullied, pitiful and fragile in a way that poked straight at the softest place in a person’s heart.

Nathan rubbed between his brows. He was just about to call his assistant to deal with this when a message popped up on the girl’s phone.

"Mia, I grabbed the wrong keycard. That room is my uncle Nathan Mercer’s. Don’t go in no matter what. Everyone calls him the living king of hell. He’s scary as hell."

The sender was Elliot Mercer.

His own nephew.

He’d slept with his nephew’s friend.

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

Right then, Mia suddenly jolted awake.

The first thing she saw was Nathan Mercer’s bare upper body and that face of his that was way too striking. Fragments of last night came rushing back into her mind.

Nathan’s brows drew together slightly. Under normal circumstances, any woman who dared climb into his bed would’ve been dealt with long ago. But the girl in front of him was deathly pale, and it was obvious she was on the verge of crying again. Even a cold and ruthless man like him couldn’t help feeling a trace of mercy.

His low voice sounded out, still carrying the hoarse rasp of just waking up.

"No crying."

Mia clenched her fists so hard her fingers trembled. She fought with everything she had to keep the tears from falling, refusing to look even more pathetic than she already did.

"You bastard!"

She flung up her small hand and slapped the man hard across the face.

Smack!

Nathan Mercer clearly hadn’t seen that coming. He froze on the spot. A man born with everything, praised and protected since childhood, had just been slapped for the first time in his life. The temperature in his eyes dropped in an instant, cold and sharp. A violent chill burst out of him, and for one terrifying second, he really looked ready to crush the girl’s throat.

"I paid you to take pictures. Who said you could—could you..." Mia Sinclair’s eyes were red, but that redness wasn’t rage alone. It was fragile, stubborn, like a little beast cornered with nowhere to run. She was obviously already too weak to fight back, yet she still forced herself to hold on. The pain and helplessness on her face hit so hard it made even the heart soften.

In the end, her tears gave out first. Big drops rolled down one after another, as if her whole world had gone pitch-black.

"I’m Elliot Mercer’s uncle. What happened last night was an accident." Nathan spoke in a low, tight voice, which was basically the closest thing to an explanation he would ever give. The murderous edge around him slowly faded. He had never bothered laying a hand on something too weak to resist.

"Uncle..." Mia lifted her eyes in shock. Tear marks still clung to her face. That one word came out choked, mixed with panic and disbelief. This mess was way more complicated than she had imagined.

Right then, Nathan’s phone rang. He glanced at the message, got up, pulled on his clothes, and tossed out one short line: "Wait here." Then he turned and left.

The room went silent again.

Mia sat on the bed like a rag doll with its stuffing ripped out, hollow and still, her mind completely blank.

Only after a long while did her thoughts slowly crawl back.

She had actually slept with her best friend’s uncle... a one-night stand?!

The shrill ringtone of her phone finally yanked her back to reality.

She looked at the number. It was the Sinclair family landline.

"What is it?"

"Mia Sinclair, get your ass home right now!" On the other end came Annette Sinclair’s arrogant voice. She hung up immediately after that, not even giving Mia a chance to respond.

Mia raised a hand and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. Supporting herself against the bed, she forced herself to stand. The soreness and stabbing ache between her legs hit again, brutally reminding her that she was no longer whole.

At the Sinclair house.

The moment Mia stepped through the door, a cup came flying straight at her face. She didn’t dodge in time. It smashed into her forehead, and her foot twisted. She fell hard to the ground.

"You little bitch, so you still know how to come back!"

Mia’s head spun. Before she could even react, someone yanked her up by the collar. Through the haze, she saw the face she hated more than anything—her aunt, Patricia Sinclair.

"Mia Sinclair, if you dare pull even the slightest stunt at today’s blind date, I’ll dump your useless mother’s ashes into the river and let the fish have them!"

Mia Sinclair struggled to catch her breath. She lifted a hand and shoved Patricia Sinclair’s hand away. "Got it."

Her mother’s ashes were her weak spot, the one thing she could never let go of. And her mother had also been the only light in her whole life...

"Get up. Now. Go put on makeup." Patricia snapped at her with open disgust. Then she sat down on the sofa, staring at Mia’s face, a face that looked more and more like her mother’s every day. The hatred in her eyes deepened bit by bit.

The makeup artists exchanged awkward glances. Not one of them dared to speak up for Mia. They could only carefully disinfect her first, then start doing her makeup.

By the time Annette Sinclair came downstairs, Mia was already done.

She sat there quietly, not making a sound. Sunlight streamed through the window lattice and fell across the side of her face. She looked so beautiful she almost didn’t seem real, like a painting touched by light.

"Hmph. So what if the makeup looks good? She’s still going to marry some old man as his second wife." Annette sneered. She admired her nails as she walked over to Patricia. "Mom, are we leaving or not? Mr. Zhao is probably so impatient he’s already counting the seconds till the wedding night."

At her side, Mia’s hand slowly curled into a tight fist.

She had just gone through something so terrifying last night. She had wanted to use a scandal to make the Zhao family hate her, but that plan had failed too. So now what? How was she supposed to get out of this?

Shengshi Hotel.

Mia was dragged into a private room by Patricia.

Nathan Mercer had come to Shengshi to deal with some business. He just happened to be standing inside the sightseeing elevator when he saw Mia being pulled unwillingly through the door. His brows drew together slightly. Why was the little thing here?

Nathan flicked a glance to his assistant and said coolly, "Go check who’s in that room."

"Yes, Mr. Mercer."

Inside the room, Mia’s uncle, Edmund Sinclair, wore a smile so fake it folded his whole face into wrinkles as he drank with a man around his age.

"Mr. Zhao, today’s your lucky day. My niece is young and gorgeous." Edmund’s words were blunt enough to make skin crawl. The two men looked at each other, and Mr. Zhao burst out laughing.

"I have President Sinclair to thank for that."

While they were talking, Mia was brought in.

She was young, pretty, and delicately built, with a waist so slim it looked like a man could circle it with one hand.

Mr. Zhao got so excited he stood up on the spot. His lecherous eyes were practically glued to her. "So this is Mia. Beautiful, really beautiful. President Sinclair, as for that cooperation project, we’ll sign it first thing tomorrow morning."

"With your word, Mr. Zhao, I’m relieved." Edmund rose with a grin. "Look at me, this memory of mine. I just remembered I’ve got something else to do. A-Zhen, let’s head back first."

"Uncle—" Panic flashed across Mia’s face. She grabbed Edmund’s arm in a rush.

Edmund shook her off. His eyes were full of warning. "You’d better serve Mr. Zhao properly."

The moment her hand slipped empty, Mia felt like her whole heart had gone hollow too.

When Mia Sinclair snapped back to her senses, a bloated face suddenly loomed right in front of her. Mr. Zhao’s greasy, pig-like hand reached out as he grinned. "Mia, be good. Stay with me from now on, and you’ll have it made. Good food, good money, the whole package."

"Get the hell away from me!" Mia shoved him hard and turned to run, but the second she reached the door, her heart dropped.

It was locked.

Edmund Sinclair and Patricia Sinclair had done this.

Panic hit her like ice water. Mia spun around, face white as paper. Mr. Zhao was already stripping off his clothes as he lumbered toward her, step by step. She was shaking so badly her legs could barely hold her up. She stumbled backward, trying to get away, but her foot slipped. Her whole body crashed to the floor, and her head slammed against the tile with a sickening thud. Bright red blood instantly trickled down.

"Sweetheart, here I come!" Mr. Zhao lunged at her, his heavy body pressing down.

"Ah!" Mia screamed, both hands pushing at him with everything she had, fighting like crazy, but it was useless...