Chapter 1 Homecoming

• It was a dark night when heavy curtains shrouded the room in complete darkness.
• Two bodies were pressing against each other in bed. The man's breathing was heavy; he had a sturdy physique, and his manners were rough.
• Nicole was so in pain that there were a few times when she had wanted to push the man away. However, upon thinking of her mother, who was in the hospital, she forced herself to fight back the urge to resist him. She gritted her teeth, letting him have his way with her again and again…
• After a long, long time, the man finally fell into a deep sleep. Enduring the discomfort, Nicole staggered out of bed, put on her clothes, and left.
• Wearing exquisite makeup, Queenie Anderson walked to the room door at a leisurely pace. "How did it go, sis? Did you service Young Master Joseph well?" Blatant smugness showed in her eyes when she saw Nicole's sorry figure. So what if Nicole is pretty and excels in her studies? In the end, she only deserves to substitute for me, doesn't she?
• Nicole's voice was cracked and gravelly as she gritted her teeth while lifting her stubborn and pretty little face up. "Don't forget what you've promised me, Queenie."
• "The 200,000 has been transferred to your account," Queenie replied while tossing Nicole's cell phone back to the owner. Then, in a mean voice full of disdain and mockery, she added, "I won't forget about that, of course. That's the money you've prostituted yourself for, after all."
• Her venomous words stabbed Nicole in the heart like a dagger, but Nicole couldn't be bothered that much. After taking back her phone, she rushed to the hospital.
• After Nicole completely disappeared from her sight, Queenie let out a cold snort and opened the door to the suite with a wiggle.
• Joseph Mann was the Mann Family's youngest son. Despite his unsavory reputation, his father, Robert Mann, was very fond of him, for Joseph was born when Robert was in his older years. Joseph was plied with drinks tonight, so he wouldn't know about the switch. When he sees the blood in bed, he'll definitely take responsibility for what has happened! If it weren't for Joseph only preferring virgins, I wouldn't have given up the opportunity to Nicole, that b*tch! Queenie thought to herself.
• However, as soon as she undressed and got into bed, the man in bed suddenly awakened. At once, he seized her throat with his strong, large hand, exuding a terrifyingly murderous aura through his every pore. "Who are you?" His voice was husky, with a slight trace of lust from him having just slept with someone, but his demeanor was unusually commanding.
• A dumbfounded Queenie looked up, only to find unexpectedly that the man on top of her wasn't Joseph. He was Colton Gardner, the person currently at the helm of the Gardner Family—a family for whom the Mann Family was far from being a match...
• ...
• Five years later, Nicole, dressed in a long and slick trench coat, walked in high heels among the crowd at Goldwick Airport, drawing the attention of many with her beautiful face and smoking hot figure.
• Upon returning to the familiar city, Nicole couldn't help falling into a trance. Although she had gotten 200,000 that year, by the time she arrived at the hospital, her mother had passed away. According to the doctor, the hospital had called her many times when her mother was in her dying moments, but all the phone calls had been cut off.
• Nicole nearly had a breakdown when she heard that, for when the hospital was calling her, she was in Joseph's bed, and her phone was in Queenie's hands! In other words, it was Queenie who had robbed her mother of her last chance of survival!
• At first, Nicole had wanted to end her life after making the arrangements for her mother's funeral. However, she was held back by the baby in her womb then...
• Suddenly, a boy's clear voice snapped her out of her abstraction. "Hurry up, Mom! I'm bursting!"
• Nicole's spirits lifted the instant she lowered her head and saw her son's tender little face, which was red from him struggling to hold his pee. "Now you're bursting, huh? I told you to use the washroom on the plane, but you kept saying no."
• "Mom!" Hayden Anderson pouted his lips with a hint of grievance.
• "Alright, the airport's washroom is over there. Let me take you there," Nicole replied, quickening her pace involuntarily, leading her son through the crowd before they finally reached the washroom. "Can you manage alone?" she asked, crouching down a little. When they returned from abroad, her son insisted that they take everything with them, so it was really inconvenient for her to follow her son into the washroom while carrying many things with her.
• "Yeah. Don't worry, Mom. I'll be out in a minute," Hayden replied while swiftly trotting into the washroom. It seemed that he couldn't hold it in much longer.
• Nicole was lugging her suitcase and waiting outside when her cell phone suddenly rang in her pocket. At the sight of the caller ID, she frowned slightly. Why does this phone number seem familiar to me? But I always save the phone numbers of those I have work-related dealings with on my phone's contact list… Nonetheless, she answered the phone call.
• An apologetic female voice immediately sounded through the phone. "I'm sorry, Ms. Lisa..."
• The woman's voice carried a note of respect, and it sounded familiar, but Nicole couldn't remember knowing any person with such a voice. "You are?" she asked, puzzled. Over the past five years, she had been furthering her studies in fashion design. Eventually, she was spotted by a talent scout, so she joined F&M Apparel as the Chief Designer under the code name 'Lisa'.
• At first, Nicole had wanted to take Hayden to visit her mother's grave on her homecoming trip this time. As it happened, F&M Apparel's branch in the country was in talks with Gardner Corporation, a leading enterprise in the country, for a partnership, so her boss asked her to help with the negotiations...
• Meanwhile, Queenie lowered her voice on the other end of the line to make it sound softer. "Ms. Lisa, I'm your assistant in the country. I'm supposed to pick you up this time, but I have something important to deal with at the moment, so I'm really tied up..."