Chapter 1 You Again

• My best friend had gotten me drunk. In my inebriated state, I stumbled and staggered as I allowed her to bring me back home.
• Perhaps it was due to my less-than-sober state, but it felt like no time at all before we arrived home. Flipping around, I snuggled into the blankets while muttering, “My head hurts...”
• Through my haze, I distinctly felt slender fingers brushing across my body before unbuttoning my blouse.
• “Stop that, Shannon...” My words came out muffled as I had buried my head into the soft blankets.
• But the fingers did not stop their actions. In fact, they even moved down to my waist. After a few seconds of fiddling, I heard theclink of my belt buckle before a chilly gust of air swept past my lower body.
• In my drunken stupor, I found myself not minding that my best friend was seeing me naked.
• However, Shannon was really crossing the line. Before I could say anything, a terrible pain shot out from a certain part of me. It was like something was tearing inside me, ripping me apart. As a matter of fact, the pain was so intense that tears sprang to my eyes.
• Instantly sober, I snapped my head around to look behind me, and my eyes widened at what I saw.
• Contrary to what I was expecting, it was not Shannon that was standing beside the bed. It was a tall and well-built man. With my back toward him, it was easy for him to aim and thrust forward.Smack! My whole body shuddered.
• “What are you doing?” I shrieked. Then I scrambled forward as quickly as I could and hid under the blankets. The searing pain coming from the lower part of my body told me what I needed to know. I was no longer a virgin.
• Yet, the man was not at all afraid. Instead, his expression darkened, and he bit out through clenched teeth, “Jennifer, isn’t this what you wanted?”
• Huh? He knew me? I scrutinized him closely, taking in the hard angles of his face and his deep, dark orbs. His lean body was clad in just a piece of towel, revealing the rest of his honeyed and smooth skin while showing off his washboard abs.
• Wait a minute...
• When I finally realized who he was, I shouted my lungs out, “Lucian Sutton! What the flippin’ hell are you doing in my house?”
• He was the man I used to have a marriage contract with - a contract that was signed when we were both still very young. However, after the Quinn family went bankrupt, the contract was never brought up again.
• “Yourhome? Are you sure this is your home?” Lucian chuckled mirthlessly. Climbing onto the bed, his hand reached out to snag my chin while clicking his tongue, “Tsk-tsk... Jennifer, you really are shameless, aren’t you? You even voluntarily delivered yourself to my doorstep so you could be associated with the Sutton family!”
• I smacked his hand away, retorting furiously, “Lucian, what the hell are you talking about? What’s this nonsense about me wanting to associate with the Sutton family?”
• A beat later, I realized what he had said. I swept a cursory glance around the room before my eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. This was not my home; this was a hotel suite!
• “W-What...? What’s going on?” I could not wrap my head around what was happening. Earlier, Sharon told me she would send me home, so why did she send me to a hotel instead?
• Nonetheless, any explanation that I racked my brains to come up with seemed weak and unreasonable at that time. Besides, Lucian would probably refuse to listen to what I said anyway. He was of the mindset that I was doing this to ingratiate myself with his family.
• Dragging my clothes under the blanket, I was prepared to dress and leave.
• I struggled violently, scratching and punching him with all my might. Despite that, my efforts were in vain. In the end, all I could do was lie there helplessly as I panted for breath, like a wild hare being hunted down by its vicious predator.
• “Lucian Sutton, I’m going to sue you for this!” I growled out through gritted teeth. Frustrated and furious, I raked my nails down his arm with all the strength I could muster.
• “Getting angry now that I’ve exposed your plot? Hmph! What right do you have to sue me?You’re the one who came tomy room!” Sneering, he reached for his suit before digging out his wallet. After a short while of fumbling around, he took out a wad of cash that he then flung in my face. “You’re after money, aren’t you? There! Is that enough?”
• The repeated humiliations were causing tears to well up in my eyes. I twisted my head away, blinking furiously to force them back. A Quinn must not cry! Especially not in front of a damn Sutton!
• For the rest of the night, I was at his mercy - mercy which he did not give. I was woken up at dawn by the painful throbbing of my body. When I looked down at myself, I saw that my skin was littered with purple bruises, appearing as if I was being tortured. Indeed, I was - as he was like an animal and bit me countless times.
• After that, I dressed myself in record time before fleeing out of the room.
• “Wait!” Lucian strode out of the room and grabbed my hand, placing a debit card in it. His voice was frosty when he said, “I don’t ever want to see you again. This is the payment for your services last night!”
• I did not even wait for him to finish before I bent the card in two. Fury was bubbling inside me as I tossed the two halves at his face. “Lucian Sutton! Don’t you act all high and mighty with me! I’ll definitely get you back for this someday! When that day comes, I’ll make sure you pay me back with interest!”
• “I’ll be waiting,” he replied with a smirk.
• Glaring at him one last time, I turned to leave. Little did I know this man would become the person I lived the rest of my days out with.
• After exiting the hotel, I hurriedly hailed a cab to get to work. Unfortunately, I was still late.
• I worked at a finance company. While it wasn’t huge, we were still relatively well-known. Due to my excellent performance recently, where I had obtained several outstanding cases for the company, my boss was even considering promoting me to be a manager.
• By the time I arrived, everyone was already in the boss’ office for the morning meeting. I searched the crowd carefully, finally locking gazes with Shannon. As usual, she shot me a sweet smile before gesturing for me to stand by her side.
• Although I really wanted to demand answers from her at that moment, I knew I had to wait until after the meeting.
• Our boss, Isabelle Sweet, was dressed in a pale green dress suit today. She was sitting in her office chair as she swept a stern gaze across all of us. Nobody dared to move an inch upon seeing the look on her face.Someone must be in deep trouble.I thought to myself while trying to avoid eye contact with her. After all, she wasn’t exactly in the best of moods.
• Just then, she barked abruptly and broke the silence, “Earlier this morning, some of our company’s classified documents were leaked. I’m sure you know who you are, so please step forward immediately!”
• The atmosphere became even more tense when everyone heard about such a serious matter happening. We glanced at each other quizzically, but nobody admitted to the deed.
• Infuriated that no one had owned up, Isabelle smiled grimly before pointing at me. Then, she smacked her hand down on the table and bellowed, “Jennifer! Just what on earth is going on between you and the CEO of Toluc Finance? Did you leak our classified documents to him?”
• “The CEO of Toluc Finance?” I shook my head in terror. “Isabelle, I don’t even know who that is! Why would you think that I did it?”
• “Still denying everything, huh!” Isabelle picked up a stack of photos on her table and threw them at me. Bending over to pick them up, I hastily flicked through them before my mind went blank. These were photos showing me and Lucian in the hotel corridor! What made things even worse was that the photos only showed him handing me that damned debit card which I remembered breaking into halves.
• When the other employees saw the photos, their accusing gazes cut into me like sharp knives. Though they didn’t say a single word, I knew what was going through their minds at that time. And it was the word that I hated the most...
• Sell-out.
• I, Jennifer Quinn, had become a “sell-out.”
• However, there was no time to think what other people thought of me as my boss was looking at me with her eyebrows raised, expecting an answer. Deeply confused, the gears in my head churned as I raised my head to look at Isabelle. “Isabelle, are you saying that the CEO of Toluc Finance is Lucian Sutton?”
• “As if you wouldn’t know! You were with him last night, weren’t you? Do you have any idea who he is? He’s the CEO of the biggest financial company in G City! This guy is our biggest competitor!” Isabelle’s expression was wintry as she stalked toward me. “Tell me. How much did he pay you?”
• My eyes could not get any larger even if I tried - they were literally a millimeter away from popping out of their sockets. At that moment, only one sentence kept echoing in my mind -Lucian Sutton is the CEO of Toluc Finance!
• Compared to his company, we were rather insignificant. However, that did not change the fact that we were in the same business field. Besides, the way those photos were taken only served to deepen the misunderstanding. How could I even begin to prove my innocence?