Rowan Keller followed the sound and looked over.
Sidney Grant was dressed in a well-tailored suit.
His face was gentle and bright with a faint smile, and his eyes held a hint of apology as he looked at her.
He gave off an incredibly approachable impression.
“These bodyguards have no manners.
I hope you won’t take it to heart, Miss Keller.” Sidney Grant walked in, sat down in a chair, and poured her a cup of tea.
“Come, have a seat.
Let’s talk about the ring.”
“I don’t want to sell it anymore.” Rowan Keller looked at her phone, which still had no signal, and wanted to slip away.
“I think it would be best if you reconsider, Miss Keller.” Sidney Grant passed the freshly poured tea to her.
“If you’re refusing to sell because I was late or because of my bodyguards’ rudeness, I can apologize.”
“It’s not because of that.
I just suddenly decided I want to keep it as a memento,” Rowan said.
Sidney Grant rubbed the teacup, his demeanor changing completely.
“Is that so.”
“Yes,” Rowan confirmed.
“Then perhaps you don’t know me very well, Miss Keller,” Sidney Grant said, his tone slow.
“It’s rare for me to take the initiative to arrange a purchase like this.
When the other party backs out at the last minute, it makes me very unhappy.”
Rowan’s hand, which was clutching her bag, tightened instinctively.
Sidney Grant took a light sip of tea and said unhurriedly, “Why don’t you name a price?”
“Fifty million.” Rowan wanted to make him back down with an impossible price.
“I’m a sincere buyer.
Please don’t take me for a fool, Miss Keller.” Sidney Grant set down his cup, his expression still gentle.
“How about two thousand?”
At this point, if Rowan still didn’t realize he was toying with her, she’d have to be an idiot.
She clutched her phone tightly.
“Not for sale.”
“Then you leave me no choice.” Sidney Grant gave the bodyguards a look.
The two men immediately closed in on her.
Realizing something was wrong, Rowan quickly tried to press her phone’s emergency alert shortcut, but before she could finish, the phone was forcibly ripped from her hand and she was restrained.
“This is robbery,” Rowan accused him.
“Who told you I was after your ring?” Sidney Grant walked toward her, reached out, and tilted her chin up.
Following the script someone had given him, he said, “Zion Hawthorne used to protect you, so I couldn’t touch you.
But now, I can finally make you pay for your father’s debts.”
Rowan’s heart skipped a beat.
I’ll be over in a bit.”
“My friend is just downstairs!
If I’m not down in ten minutes, she’ll call the police!” Rowan had no other choice but to say this, hoping to intimidate him.
But he didn’t seem to care at all.
Rowan could only be led away by the bodyguards, consumed by terror and fear.
Once she had disappeared from the conference room, Sidney Grant spoke to the small room inside.
“That’s your precious little wife—the one you’re afraid will melt in your mouth or break if you hold her too tight.
Are you really okay with scaring her like this?”
“If I don’t scare her, she won’t learn her lesson,” a man’s cool voice sounded.
Immediately after, Zion Hawthorne, dressed in a gray suit and radiating a cold, detached aura, walked out.
His gaze, fixed on the direction Rowan had disappeared, was filled with a suppressed chill.
‘How dare she try to sell the ring.’
‘If I don’t teach her a lesson, there’s no telling what she’ll do next.’
“Still, don’t scare her too badly.” Sidney Grant had a soft spot for women and reminded him, “If you actually scare her into a state, you’ll be the one worrying.”
Zion Hawthorne didn’t respond.
He thought about everything he had just witnessed from inside the other room, and his bottomless gaze fell on Sidney’s hand.
Sidney Grant felt a chill from his stare.
“What’s with that look?”
“Which hand did you use to touch her?” Zion Hawthorne’s words were laced with danger.
Sidney Grant: “?”
Sidney Grant hadn’t expected him to be petty about this.
“I was just acting according to the script you gave me!
You’re not so depraved that you’d blame me for this too, are you?”
“You said it yourself.
Depraved,” Zion Hawthorne stated calmly.
“No way, are you serious?” Sidney Grant couldn’t believe he was this kind of person.
“If you’re going to be like this, don’t ask me for any more favors in the future.
I can’t handle being the bad guy and the criminal.
It’s too much for me.”
Zion Hawthorne said coolly, “Pathetic.”
Sidney Grant: “…”
‘If this man wasn’t his brother, I’d throw him out the window right now!’
“Take your people and go downstairs.” Zion Hawthorne’s eyes darkened as he thought of the person in the next room, who was probably scared to tears.
“No one is to come up without my permission.”
“I know, I won’t interrupt your ‘business’,” Sidney Grant said sarcastically.
At the end, he still added a reminder, “But you should still go easy on her.
That girl looked genuinely terrified.”
Zion Hawthorne shot him a sideways glance.
Sidney Grant immediately said, “Alright, alright, I’ll shut up.
I’m leaving, okay?”
He didn’t hesitate any longer, leading his bodyguards and secretary out of the conference room.
Only after they had gone down the elevator did Zion Hawthorne slowly make his way to the room where Rowan Keller was.
The moment the door opened, Rowan’s bound body trembled uncontrollably.
She wanted to say something, but with her mouth sealed with tape, she could only make muffled sounds. Find the original chapter at g.com.
As the sound of leather shoes on the floor grew closer, her fear intensified.
Deprived of her sight, she couldn’t see a thing, which infinitely magnified her other senses.
Zion Hawthorne walked to the bedside.
Seeing the terror on her face, he felt a momentary pang of softness, but the thought of her trying to sell the ring he gave her without his permission ignited a fire within him.
He reached out and caressed her face, the rough pads of his fingers tracing over her delicate, smooth skin.
“Mmph—” She shook her head desperately, trying to avoid his touch, but she couldn’t move an inch.
A moment later, two clear streams of tears flowed out from under the black blindfold.
When he felt the warm liquid, Zion Hawthorne’s eyes darkened.
He took out his phone, opened an app, typed a sentence, and hit play.
A strange man’s voice emanated from the phone: “Don’t you know that for a man, tears are an aphrodisiac?”
Rowan was too scared to move.
‘Who is this person?’
‘Is he the “honored guest” Sidney Grant mentioned?’
Before she could figure it out, she suddenly felt a man’s warm breath on her neck, followed by a trail of hot, wet kisses.
Perhaps it was due to extreme fear, or maybe it was a physical revulsion to a stranger’s touch.
Rowan suddenly found it hard to breathe.
The feeling of suffocation in her chest grew stronger, and in just a moment, her fair, flawless face turned beet red.
Zion Hawthorne noticed.
He immediately tore the tape from her mouth, trying to let her breathe through it.
But Rowan was too afraid.
The combination of her terror and her bound body made it difficult to breathe.
She only felt her head grow heavy as her vision started to blacken and spin.
“Rowan,” Zion Hawthorne said in a low voice, patting her cheek.
Rowan still couldn’t catch her breath.
He lowered his head and kissed her lips, breathing air into her mouth.
At the same time, his hands quickly untied the ropes binding her, freeing her body.
After about ten seconds, Rowan finally started breathing again.
Like someone deprived of oxygen, she gasped for air, and the redness on her face slowly subsided as she began to breathe.
Watching her breathing gradually steady, Zion Hawthorne removed the black blindfold from her eyes.
The concern on his face vanished in that instant, replaced by his usual cold indifference.
“Feeling better?”
Rowan opened her eyes and saw him looking down on her.
Thinking of the fear and terror from moments before, anger surged through her once again.
“Was it fun?” Her eyes were filled with accusation and a distance that grew ever wider.