She needed money.
Desperately.
Although her adoptive parents treated her as their own and never skimped on her education or daily needs—giving her the family warmth she had never known at the orphanage—their factory was now facing severe financial troubles.
Since she was already an adult, she couldn’t rely on them for everything.
She had to learn to share their burden, earn her own tuition, and cover her basic living expenses so they would have one less thing to worry about.
“Is it really just standing there for a little while?” Zoe Quinn asked, carefully confirming the details.
“I guarantee it!” Manager Warren raised his hand.
“Ten minutes—no, five!
Once the clients pick who they want, the ones not chosen can come right back down!”
“Just standing there gets us an extra two hundred?” Zoe asked timidly once more.
She clutched the hem of her skirt, waging an intense inner war.
“Yes!
An extra two hundred.” Manager Warren raised his right hand as if taking an oath.
“I’ll pay it out together with your regular wages when you get off work.”
Under the manager’s solemn guarantee, Zoe looked at Daisy Donovan and finally gave a timid nod.
Miles Ward heaved a sigh of relief and quickly ushered Daisy toward the locker room.
“You can’t wear your uniform; you need to change.
I’ll find you a dress.” Because the cleaner who had taken a leave of absence was a heavyset older woman, Zoe couldn’t fit into the uniform she had left behind.
Thus, the foreman had agreed to let Zoe work her shift in her own skirt.
Five minutes later, Daisy walked out in a short black dress, looking thoroughly uncomfortable.
“Zoe, why do I feel like we just made a huge mistake?”
“Five minutes,” Zoe muttered, comforting herself.
“Just five minutes.”
Miles had already gathered over a dozen hostesses.
All of them were heavily made-up and dressed in revealing outfits.
Zoe and Daisy, two bare-faced schoolgirls, stood among them, sticking out like sore thumbs.
Instead of showing any apprehension, the heavily made-up women had eyes that gleamed with the prospect of cash.
They struck seductive poses, chattering about how the guests were bound to choose them.
The group took the elevator straight to the top floor.
As they walked down the thickly carpeted corridor, Zoe could hear music and laughter drifting from the private rooms.
Her palms began to sweat.
The heavy door to the private suite swung open, and at that moment, Zoe felt her breath hitch.
The suite was massive, bathed in dim, suggestive lighting.
Through the swirling cigarette smoke and the gaps in the crowd, she caught sight of a familiar figure—Silas Sutton.
He was wearing a dark gray suit, the top two buttons of his shirt undone.
A wine glass rested in his hand as he leaned back casually against the sofa.
The lighting cast shifting shadows across his face.
Though she couldn’t see him clearly, Zoe was absolutely certain—it was the big delinquent.
She wondered how it could possibly be him.
She lowered her head, instinctively wanting to flee, but Manager Warren was already pushing them into the room.
The door clicked shut behind them, cutting off her only route of escape.
“Mr.
Crane, the hostesses are here!” Manager Warren announced with an obsequious smile.
Inside the suite, Silas’s group already consisted of over a dozen guys.
Now, with this new influx of girls, the spacious room was suddenly feeling extremely cramped.
“Whoa!
You called for even more hostesses?”
“Sean, are you crazy?
Calling so many—can you even handle them all?
Hahaha…”
“Yeah, just bringing in the girls isn’t enough, you’ll need some stamina pills too!
Haha…”
The men in the room erupted into a chorus of hoots and jeers, quickly crowding around the new arrivals.
Zoe kept her head down, curling her toes tightly inside her shoes, wishing she could shrink into an invisible ball.
She could feel the men’s gazes inspecting them like merchandise.
Their malicious laughter and face-burning obscenities filled her ears.
“Oh, this one’s nice, really well-endowed.
Come play with me.”
“I like the one in the black dress, what long legs.”
“Nobody fight me for this one, I’m claiming her!”
Zoe felt a wave of nausea wash over her.
She kept her head lowered and clutched her skirt so tightly that her nails nearly dug into her palms.
Daisy stood beside her, trembling slightly as well.
Silas did not look up.
From the moment the hostesses entered, he hadn’t cast a single glance in their direction.
He remained solely focused on the swirling amber liquid in his glass, acting as if the entire spectacle had absolutely nothing to do with him.
Sean Crane and Ryan Rhodes walked up to him.
“Boss, take a look.
See anyone you like?”
“Pass,” Silas replied, rolling his eyes in irritation.
His voice was ice-cold.
“If you like them, pick them yourselves.”
Looking a bit awkward, Sean waved a hand at Manager Warren.
“Have the hostesses line up so we can take a look.”
The hostesses were arranged into two neat rows.
Fortunately, Manager Warren was a man of his word.
He purposely guided Zoe and Daisy to the very edge of the second row.
The two girls kept their heads bowed, hunching their shoulders to hide behind the women in the front row.
They silently prayed over and over that the men wouldn’t notice them.
But things didn’t go as planned.
A man holding a billiard cue strolled over, swaying slightly as he inspected the girls one by one.
His name was Victor Lane, a wealthy scion of the Lane Family.
His family ran a lucrative building materials business and partnered with the Cosmos Group.
He was also a longtime friend of Sean, Silas, and the rest of the inner circle.
Victor’s gaze swept over the heavily made-up hostesses until he reached Zoe.
Suddenly, he stopped.
“Huh?
This little lady is interesting,” Victor said, his eyes narrowing as he looked Zoe up and down.
“Dressed so plain—playing the innocent card?”
Zoe stiffened from head to toe, not daring to look up.
Victor reached out and grabbed her arm.
“You’re the one.
Come have a few drinks with me tonight.”
“Let…
let go of me!” The harassing remark terrified Zoe into a sudden scream.
Instinctively, she began to struggle with all her might.
“I’m not…
Let me go!
Let go!”
That familiar voice made Silas snap his head up.
He wondered why he was hearing Sprout’s voice.
Silas shot a puzzled glance toward the source of the commotion, and in that split second, time seemed to stand completely still.
He wondered what on earth he was seeing.
He saw a figure in a white dress—the exact same one she had worn at school yesterday.
He saw her terrified little face and her long hair thrashing wildly as she struggled.
It was Sprout!
It was really her!
Blood rushed straight to Silas’s head.
Without a single thought, his body moved entirely on its own.
CRASH!
A wine glass flew through the air, smashing precisely into Victor’s shoulder before bouncing off.
The sharp shatter of glass on the floor left everyone stunned.
“Ouch!”
Victor cried out in pain and released his grip.
Before he could even process what had happened, a figure lunged in front of him like a pouncing cheetah.
Silas’s expression was frighteningly dark, a terrifying storm brewing in his eyes.
He slammed his body ruthlessly into Victor, knocking him aside.
Victor stumbled backward and crashed into Manager Warren with a muffled grunt.
Everyone wondered what Boss Sutton was doing.
Pin-drop silence instantly fell over the entire suite as they stared at the scene in absolute shock.
Silas turned around and looked at Zoe.
She was pale with fright, her eyes rimmed with red.
She stared back at Silas, her gaze a complex swirl of emotion—fear, surprise, and a fleeting trace of raw, unconcealed agony.
In the moment their eyes met, three years of time seemed compressed into a single second.
His face completely thunderous, Silas said nothing.
He simply grabbed Zoe’s wrist and began dragging her toward the exit.
“Boss!” Sean and Ryan exclaimed in unison.
But Silas didn’t look back.
His strides were fast and urgent, practically dragging Zoe along.
She tried to pull away, but his hand clamped around her wrist like an iron vise.
The door slammed shut with a heavy thud, leaving a room full of people exchanging bewildered glances.
Everything had happened so fast.
Before Sean and Ryan could even figure out what was going on, their boss had stormed off, forcefully hauling a girl in a white dress behind him.
Wait!
A girl in a white dress?
Sean and Ryan exchanged a glance, catching the identical shock and mounting worry in each other’s eyes.
“That girl…” Ryan murmured.
“Could she be…”
“…his girl?” Sean finished for him, his expression turning grave.
“We’re screwed.
This is going to be a massive problem!”