Tom pushed the door open and stopped in his tracks...
The housekeeper lay naked on his bed, one leg bent, her dark hair spread across his pillow. She had clearly been waiting. When their eyes met she offered a small, nervous smile - the same shy flush she had worn the day he told her that her breasts were showing.
Tom’s mind went blank.
Before he could form a single word, the door behind him opened wider.
Sienna stepped inside.
For one suspended second the three of them simply existed in the same frame: the naked woman on the bed, the husband frozen in the doorway, the wife whose entire world had just tilted. Then colour drained from Sienna’s face and flooded back as something far uglier.
"What the fuck is this?" she shouted.
The housekeeper scrambled for the sheet to cover herself when she recovered from the shock. Tom opened his mouth.
"I just walked in. I didn’t know she was-" he tried to speak his truth but Sienna cut him short.
"Shut up." Sienna’s voice cracked like a whip. She did not even glance at him. Her eyes stayed locked on the naked woman. "How long have you been doing this under my roof? How long have you been spreading your legs for my figurehead husband like some cheap little whore?"
"Miss Kensington, I-"
"You’re fired." Sienna bellowed, cutting the lady short. She didn’t give the lady breathing space before continuing;
"Get out. If you are still on the property in ten minutes I will have you arrested." The words were flat, final and absolute.
The housekeeper did not argue. Embarrassment wouldn’t even let her be. She snatched her clothes, clutched them to her chest, and fled. The door clicked shut after her.
Silence settled over the room, thick and poisonous.
Sienna turned to Tom with a glacial stare.
"You bring women into my house," she started, each syllable cut from ice, "to fuck them on the bed I paid for. Under my roof. While you live here as my husband? How senseless can you be?"
Something old and bitter rose in Tom’s chest - every night he had lain awake listening to her scream for other men, every casual humiliation, every reminder that he was temporary. The words left him before he could soften them;
"Isn’t that exactly what you’ve been doing? Bringing men here. Making sure I heard every second of it." His voice came out low and rough.
Sienna’s lips parted. Genuine shock flickered across her face, quickly buried under fresh fury. Then she snapped coldly;
"Those men were invited by the woman whose money built this house. My family’s money. My work. You are here because I allow it. This is not your home. You are a guest who has outstayed his usefulness the moment you started acting like you had rights."
Tom felt the familiar weight of those words try to settle on his shoulders then something like pride that had been buried under his mind because of lack of money, swarm forcibly to the surface.
Tom straightened and the next words that came out of his mouth was;
"Then I’ll leave."
The sentence landed between them like a live wire.
Sienna blinked. "What?"
"I’ll pack my things and go. You won’t have to look at me anymore." He held her gaze without flinching. He was confident, nothing like a few days ago when he would be worried that there was nowhere he could go if she chased him out. He had money now.
For the first time since he had known her, Sienna looked truly thrown. She recovered with visible effort, but the crack remained.
"You’re not going anywhere," she snapped.
"I need you here until the launch. There cannot be any controversy. No sudden separation. No questions. You will stay."
Tom tilted his head. A cold, unfamiliar calm settled over him.
"Then you should be the one asking me to stay. Not ordering me. That’s how it should be." he pointed out calmly, like an adult correcting a child.
Sienna’s mouth opened. Nothing came out. She ran a hand through her hair, the gesture sharp with frustration, then pulled her phone from her blazer.
"How much?" She was already scrolling, opening her bank mobile app. "Name a number and stay out of trouble until the launch is over. I’ll transfer it right now."
"Take the money like the gold digger you are, and behave!"
"I don’t want your money." Tom maintained firmly.
She scoffed in annoyance mixed with disbelief.
"Liar. You agreed to marry me that night in five seconds flat. Men always want something. A car? I can toss you one of the older ones. Just name the price for your silence and your presence."
The words hit like a slap. Tom’s fists clenched.
"I said yes that night because I had been in love with you from afar for a long time. Not because of your money. Not because of your name. Because of you." he gritted out the last part as if that would make her understand better.
Sienna stared at him as if he had spoken in a language she did not recognise. Then she laughed once, short and disbelieving.
"Spare me the romance. This arrangement ends the day after the launch. Officially. So stop pretending you have any claim and just name what you actually want so I can pay you for your time."
The System’s interface flared across Tom’s vision, bright and merciless.
```
[SIDE MISSION]
Cut a deal.
Force her to stay completely out of your business for the remainder of your time under this roof.
The more savage, authoritative, and nasty the terms, the higher the reward.
[BASE REWARD: $10,000]
[TIME LIMIT: 20 seconds]
[Accept? ]
```
Tom’s pulse spiked. That reward and an increment? He would do it.
The timer began counting down at once immediately the system registered his silent acceptance.
Tom locked eyes with Sienna and spoke before the first second could fully die.
"Sienna." Her first name came out like a blade. "I don’t want your money. I don’t want your fucking cars."
Sienna’s lips parted. Tom didn’t give her time to act further, he continued very fast.
"What I want is simple. From this second until the launch is finished, you keep your fucking mouth shut about anything I do in this house. You do not question me. You do not interfere. You do not walk into my room uninvited. You do not speak to any woman I bring here. You do not look at me with that disgusted little face when I decide to use this house the same way you have been using it for weeks."
```
[Savagery: 18% — Reward adjusted to $18,000]
```
That was the ginger he needed to keep going. He took a step closer. The timer kept falling.
"If I want to bend the housekeeper over the kitchen counter, you will walk past and say nothing. If I want to fuck someone in the living room while you are home, you will stay in your wing and keep your opinions to yourself. If I give an order in this house, you will follow it without comment. And starting right now, you will get out of my room, close the door behind you, and not open it again unless I tell you to."
```
[Savagery: 41% — Reward adjusted to $41,000]
```
Sienna’s face had gone white. Her mouth opened.
Tom raised one finger.
"Speak, and the deal is dead. I will walk out of your damn house today, and you can explain the sudden separation to every journalist in the city however you like. Your choice."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Sienna’s mind raced behind her eyes - the launch, the sponsors, the carefully built image, the absolute necessity of a quiet, present husband for four more weeks. Pride warred with calculation and lost. She closed her mouth.
Then she nodded once, stiff and small, and walked out of the room without another word. The door shut harder than necessary behind her.
The System chimed, bright and satisfied.
```
[MISSION COMPLETE]
[Final Savagery Rating: 47%]
[Reward: $47,000]
```
The money hit his account a second later. Tom stared at the new balance, then let out a sharp, private breath that was almost a laugh. His heart was still slamming against his ribs from the words he had forced out of his own mouth, but the numbers on the screen were real.
[Host now has formal authority within these walls until the launch,] the System said. [Use it as nastily and as thoroughly as the deal allows.]
Tom swallowed. The weight of what he had just done sat heavy and exhilarating in his chest at the same time. He looked at the closed door, then at the empty bed the housekeeper had occupied only minutes earlier.
While I thinking about what the housekeeper was up to, his mind wandered to the hotel he just came back from;
"The hotel. The women. The cameras. Do you know who set that up?"
[I will not spoil the game,]
[The person responsible will reveal themselves when they are ready for the next round. Until then, Host should focus on the freedom he has just purchased.] the System answered.
Tom exhaled deeply then forced his mind to circle around the things that mattered for now. He was forty-seven thousand dollars richer and the taste of real power was still unfamiliar on his tongue.
For the first time since he had set foot in this house, the walls felt like they belonged to him.