"I’d be happy if she were willing to use me as a stand-in. Unfortunately, I don’t even qualify to be one."
With that, Leo Ford took another harsh swig of his drink.
"Her? Who is she, to make our Mr. Ford so desperate?"
Shannon Ashford asked, her face full of curiosity. How pitiful, to not even qualify as a stand-in.
"I know who it is. Ten years ago, he was sold by Master Ford into Myarka as a child laborer. Back then, he was saved by an older girl. He’s been looking for her all these years. Then a month ago, he called me and said he finally found her. And guess what? The woman’s already married, with five-year-old fraternal twins. He asked me how to be the other man, how to be a stepfather to her kids."
"Leo Ford, I always thought you were looking for that woman to repay her kindness. I never imagined you wanted to repay kindness with cruelty and wreck her family. Knowingly becoming the third party... you’ve really outdone yourself."
Kai Keane said, his expression a mix of mockery and pity as he looked at his friend beside him.
"Since ancient times, a life debt has always been repaid with one’s body. There’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing."
Having his plan to be the other man exposed by Kai Keane, Leo Ford wasn’t the least bit embarrassed. He only hated that he lacked the ability to successfully usurp the position.
"Mhm, you’re right. A life debt should be repaid with one’s body. I support you. Go for it!"
Jasmine Sinclair shot Leo Ford an encouraging look.
The reason she supported Leo Ford in knowingly becoming the other man wasn’t that she lacked morals, but because she had finally remembered that book. The one that had once made her blood pressure spike so high she nearly ended up in the hospital, the one that made her want to perish together with Jessica Adler—that gut-wrenching, body-tormenting novel, *Meat and Bone Tragedy*.
The heroine in the book had it so, so miserable. To save his first love, the scum male lead first hired thugs to humiliate her and take pictures, posting them online to ruin her reputation. Then, he drugged her and pretended to have slept with her, making her believe the twins she was carrying were his. This convinced her to marry him. After she gave birth, he used the excuse that the children were too young to manipulate her into quitting her job.
To remain ’pure as jade’ for his first love, the scum male lead even faked having a physical problem so he wouldn’t have to be intimate with the heroine. To win over clients, he tricked the heroine into dressing seductively to deliver documents, which nearly resulted in her being assaulted by a greasy middle-aged man. Fortunately, the second male lead, Leo Ford, appeared in time to save her.
He maintained the public persona of a loving husband, but secretly, he orchestrated a car accident that left their young daughter brain-dead. Ignoring the heroine’s pleas, he insisted on unplugging their daughter’s ventilator, all so he could give her heart to his first love.
Later, he realized he had actually fallen in love with the heroine. He then forcibly imprisoned her, forced her to strip in public, and threatened her with their son’s life to make her slash her own face, claiming, "Without this face, let’s see how you’ll seduce other men."
He forced her to sleep with him, saying it was to have another daughter, that their lost daughter would return, and they would be a happy family of four once more.
In the end, that scum actually succeeded in getting her pregnant again. The heroine forgave him for the sake of the new child, and they went on to live a shameless life together.
When Jasmine Sinclair read that garbage ending, she nearly spat blood in anger. How could she forgive him after all that? Was their daughter’s death just a part of their twisted foreplay? A scumbag like that should be chopped up and fed to the dogs.
Before, watching this trash plot unfold from outside the book, all she could do was burn with impotent rage. But now that she was inside the book, things were different. She could change the plot, change the ending. She was going to make sure Leo Ford succeeded in taking his place, and make that scumbag male lead suffer a lifetime of regret, unable to get the one he loves.
"Jasmine, you’re the one who really gets me."
Leo Ford was deeply moved that Jasmine Sinclair would abandon her moral principles just to support him.
Kai Keane was indifferent about Leo Ford becoming the other man. After all, he didn’t have much of a moral compass himself.
Ava Wallace and Shannon Ashford had some morals, but not many. If forced to choose between destroying a family and ensuring the lifelong happiness of their childhood friend, they would decisively choose their friend’s happiness. That sliver of morality could be tossed aside.
Jasmine Sinclair finally understood why these five could hang out together. They were all villainous side characters, all amoral, all ’love-brains’ who would go crazy for love, all had warped values, and they had all grown up together. It would be weirder if they *didn’t* get along.
"Hey, beautiful, how could you be so careless? We just asked you to pour a drink. How could you spill it all over our Mr. Lowell?"
"Mr. Lowell’s suit is custom-made by hand in Veridia. It’s very expensive. Can you afford to pay for it?"
Renee Sullivan, dressed in a bunny-girl outfit, stood before them, bowing awkwardly. Of course she couldn’t afford custom-made clothes from Veridia, but just a moment ago, if the man they called Mr. Lowell hadn’t suddenly reached out to pinch the fluffy tail on her backside, she wouldn’t have gotten nervous and spilled the drink on him.
They were clearly the ones who got handsy first, and now they were making her pay for the clothes. These people were despicable.
"What are you guys doing? Why are you making things difficult for a girl? It’s just a piece of clothing, no big deal. Beautiful, come over and have a drink with me, and we’ll call it even."
Lachlan Lowell beckoned to Renee Sullivan with a hooked finger, his interest piqued.
One look and he could tell this girl was new. Unlike the other girls selling drinks at the bar who were already used to being taken advantage of, she was still so pure. He loved the pure ones.
"I... I... I don’t drink..."
Renee Sullivan said, shaking her head. She was here to earn money, not to be a drinking companion. Besides, from the looks of this group, it wouldn’t end with just one drink. They definitely wanted to do something more.
"You don’t drink? Then what are you doing selling drinks? Let’s not even talk about you spilling wine on Mr. Lowell’s clothes. Just based on the fact we bought hundreds of thousands worth of alcohol from you, what’s wrong with asking you to have a few drinks with us?"
"Selling drinks in a bar dressed like that, and still pretending to be some pure, innocent maiden..."
A few of the rich kids sneered.
"You... you..."
Listening to their demeaning and insulting words, tears welled up in Renee Sullivan’s eyes. She had risked her life jumping from the second floor of that beast Wyatt Grant’s villa and finally found a job at this bar just to earn money for her brother’s medical bills and no longer be controlled by him. Now, not only had she not earned any money, but she also had to pay over a hundred thousand in compensation. Where would she get that kind of money? Did she have to go back to begging Wyatt Grant?
"It’s fine if you don’t want to drink. My clothes aren’t that expensive, only one hundred and eighty-eight thousand. I’ll even round it down for you—one hundred and eighty thousand."
Lachlan Lowell swirled the drink in his glass. He didn’t care about the wine on his clothes at all. What he cared about was that this girl had dared to refuse him again and again in front of so many people. It made him lose face, and he had to get that face back.
The man sat on the sofa, his legs crossed in a lazy posture. His gold-rimmed glasses glinted under the lights, and beneath the lenses, his deep eyes watched the girl’s defiant gaze and her lips, bitten white. Her appearance was quite pitiful, actually, and he found he couldn’t quite bear to watch them make things difficult for her.
However, just as Dexter Ashford was about to speak up and help the girl out of her predicament, a rich peach fragrance suddenly drifted into his nostrils. The next second, a charming face appeared right before him, instantly capturing his entire line of sight.