Rowan Keller was startled by his sudden movement.
The moment he lifted her from the window ledge, she had the terrifying illusion that she was about to fall from the twenty-eighth floor.
Before she could react, he had already dragged her back into the bathroom and thrown her to the floor.
She steadied herself just in time to keep from collapsing.
“If you’re really unwilling, I won’t force you.” Sidney Grant turned off the water in the bathroom, a complicated expression on his face as he continued the act.
“Why go to such a dangerous place?”
“How was I supposed to know if you’d try to force me?” Rowan Keller’s heart was still pounding with fear.
Her gaze flickered over to Zion Hawthorne’s face.
“You’re capable of pulling a stunt like that, so what’s forcing someone into submission to you?”
Sidney Grant: “…”
Sidney Grant glanced at the man beside him.
‘Things have already come to this.
Surely he doesn’t expect me to keep up the act, right?’
“If I really wanted him to do something to you, do you think you’d still be standing here unharmed?” Zion Hawthorne closed in on her, one step at a time, his tall frame incredibly intimidating.
Rowan Keller was a little afraid of him and subconsciously shuffled backward.
The next second, in a move no one expected, Zion Hawthorne scooped Rowan Keller up again and walked toward the window.
Before she could even process what was happening, he dangled half her body out into the open air.
“Since you’d rather be out here than stay in the room, then you can just stay out here and enjoy the feeling.”
“Master Hawthorne!” Sidney Grant cried out, startled.
Rowan Keller’s entire body went limp with fright.
‘When I climbed out myself, my hands and feet had footholds.
I overcame my fear because everything was under my control.
But right now, my only support is in Zion Hawthorne’s hands.
If he has a sudden impulse and lets go, it’ll all be over for me.’
“Rowan!” Suddenly, Willow Sterling’s anxious voice called out from outside the door.
“Willow, I’m in here!” A flicker of joy sparked in Rowan Keller’s heart, and she immediately called out, “In here!”
She tried to get down from Zion Hawthorne’s grasp, but with no purchase for her hands or feet, she could only let him hold her.
A moment later, Willow Sterling found her way inside.
When she saw Rowan Keller being held in that position by Zion Hawthorne near the window, she was scared out of her wits.
Her voice trembled with lingering fear as she spoke, “Zion Hawthorne, what are you doing?!
Put Rowan down, now!”
Zion Hawthorne’s gaze fell on her.
‘I don’t quite understand why she’s here.’
“If you don’t put her down, I’m calling the police,” Willow Sterling said, her phone in hand.
“Go ahead and try,” he said unhurriedly.
“Let’s see if you can dial faster than I can let go.”
Willow Sterling’s grip on her phone tightened, and the look she shot him was sharp enough to kill.
The atmosphere was tense; neither side showed any intention of backing down.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Sidney Grant, who truly disliked this kind of atmosphere, offered him an out.
“You’ve scared her enough.
If your precious son finds out you treated his mother like this, he’s going to be furious with you.”
Zion Hawthorne still didn’t let go.
Sidney Grant snatched her from his hands and pushed her toward Willow Sterling, finally ending the standoff.
“Are you okay?” Willow Sterling, still shaken, carefully inspected Rowan Keller from head to toe.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine.” Rowan Keller’s heart finally began to settle.
Only after confirming Rowan was truly unharmed did Willow Sterling relax.
Then, her resentful gaze landed on the intensely imposing man, and she spat out a single, blunt word: “Scumbag!”
Zion Hawthorne’s impassive gaze lifted slightly.
Although he said nothing, Rowan Keller knew he was angry.
She composed herself and, connecting it to everything that had happened, looked at Zion Hawthorne and demanded, “Everything tonight was your design, wasn’t it?”
“So what if it was?” Zion Hawthorne showed no sign of embarrassment at being exposed.
Rowan Keller’s hands tightened into fists.
‘So that explained why Sidney Grant—always known to be modest, polite, and with an excellent reputation—acted so differently from the rumors.’
“Why?” She didn’t understand.
She couldn’t comprehend it.
“To see just how stupid you are without me.” Zion Hawthorne’s words were merciless, his gaze like he was looking at an ant.
“And the results prove it: you’re stupid beyond measure.”
“You know full well whether I’m ‘stupid beyond measure’ or if you’re just looking for trouble,” Rowan Keller said, meeting his eyes and drawing a clear line between them for the first time.
“If you had just stayed out of my life, none of this would have happened.”
The pressure around Zion Hawthorne seemed to drop, and his face became a mask of frost.
Rowan Keller took her phone back from Sidney Grant and threw one last sentence at Zion Hawthorne: “If you’re any kind of man, go live your life with Serena Sterling and stop bothering me.”
After saying her piece, she took Willow Sterling’s hand and left without a moment’s hesitation.
With only Zion Hawthorne and Sidney Grant left in the bathroom, the atmosphere immediately became oppressive, no different from being in the eye of a storm.
“Seems your little wifey doesn’t appreciate your efforts,” Sidney Grant remarked with a light cough.
Zion Hawthorne shot him a look.
Sidney Grant immediately took the hint.
“Alright, alright, I’ll shut up, okay?”
Now that Rowan Keller was gone, Zion Hawthorne got down to business.
How’s the investigation coming along?”
“It’s strange.
The man looks familiar, but I can’t find anything on him,” Sidney Grant said confidently.
“Normally, I would’ve dug up his entire background by now, but I have no leads on his name or where he lives.
And more importantly, there’s your mother-in-law.”
At this, Sidney Grant’s expression turned serious as he stared at him.
Zion Hawthorne uttered a single, curt word: “Speak.”
“When I tried to trace her background, the trail went completely cold right at her marriage to your father-in-law.
I can’t find a single thing from before that.
I’m starting to suspect her identity is anything but ordinary.”
Zion Hawthorne’s eyes darkened.
He had never looked deeply into Rowan Keller’s mother’s past.
Not long after he and Rowan married, her mother got into a car accident and had been in a coma ever since.
All he knew was that her name was Anna Keller, that she shared the same surname as Rowan’s father, and that she had never had much of a presence in the Keller Family.
“Keep investigating from Rowan’s mother’s side.” Zion Hawthorne’s eyes were dark.
“Between her identity and that man’s, we have to figure out one of them.”
…
Rowan Keller had no idea about the things Zion Hawthorne was hiding from her.
She only breathed a sigh of relief after leaving the hotel and getting into the car with Willow Sterling.
“Thank god you came.”
“I almost didn’t make it,” Willow Sterling cursed under her breath as she drove.
“I never thought Zion Hawthorne would stoop to such a shameless trick.
If I hadn’t noticed something was off, I would have never known you’d messaged me!”
Rowan Keller glanced at her.
“What do you mean?”
Willow Sterling explained what happened when she went to see Mr.
Sterling, including how he had summoned her with no intention of discussing business, only to snatch her phone and delete her messages.
“If Zion Hawthorne wasn’t the one behind this, I’ll eat this steering wheel,” Willow Sterling said, almost one hundred percent certain.
“Luckily, I was suspicious.
When you didn’t reply, I went home and checked my messages on my tablet.”
“I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t looked, but when I compared my phone and my tablet, I saw that two of your messages were clearly missing from the phone.
Putting that together with my dad’s sneaky behavior, I instantly knew something was fishy.”
Rowan Keller paused.
‘This was probably Zion Hawthorne’s warning to her.’
“Oh, right,” Willow Sterling said casually.
“Before I came, a diamond collector messaged me out of the blue.
They want to buy your diamond, but since it involves going against Zion Hawthorne, it’s risky.
So the price is a bit low—they can only offer ten million.”