Chapter 3

Zack had been waiting forever, watching me stall and dodge the question, all while I refused to reveal who was behind all this. He finally lost his patience and demanded, "Who is it?"

"I can't say. He'll make me disappear. You know how ruthless he is," I replied.

Hearing my evasive answer, Zack's eyes narrowed suspiciously. He asked, "Is it Samuel?"

I kept my head down, pretending to be too terrified to say another word.

Zack seemed annoyed. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, but didn't bother to smoke; he just let the haze slowly fill up the tiny room.

I coughed a couple of times, and he snuffed out the cigarette. His voice was icy as he said, "You'd better not lie to me, or I'll toss you into the river and let the fish have you."

I still kept my mouth shut.

After a while, Zack wrote out a check and threw it over to me. He said, "That's 150 thousand. If I find out you blabbed about last night, this'll pay for your casket."

Then he got in his car and drove off.

Staring at the 150-thousand-dollar check, I pulled out another from my pocket: this one for 300 thousand dollars.

It was from Jayden, the first guy who walked out of the presidential suite.

I personally took him to the hospital.

When he woke up, he signed that 300-thousand-dollar check right then and there, just to buy my silence.

Being rich was really something.

They just threw around money like it was pocket change.

Not me, though. Back then, I had to go around begging for help to cover my adoptive mom's medical bills.

Even my own parents wouldn't lend me a dime; they accused my adoptive mom of being a human trafficker and said they'd never pay for a trafficker's surgery.

But they were the ones who abandoned me in the first place. My adoptive mom was just a poor woman from a small town.

She'd seen traffickers throw me away three times, just because I was a girl. She couldn't stand to watch me starve to death, so she took me in.

When I'd begged everyone I knew and still couldn't scrape together enough for the medical bills, Samuel stepped in and paid it all off.

By then, I was already planning to break up with him. I didn't want to owe him anything anymore.

So when he asked me to give up my grad school spot to Yvonne, I was honestly relieved.

But I never expected Yvonne to come after my spot in the national competition, too.

She thought if she could edge me out, she'd ruin my chances at grad school.

But I still beat her.

She immediately ran to Samuel, putting on her damsel-in-distress act. To help her get revenge, Samuel actually had his best friend hit on me.

If I hadn't accidentally overheard their scheming that day, I swear I would've totally snapped and done something crazy by now.

Staring at those two checks, I cashed them out right away, just in case something went wrong down the line.

The first thing I did was pay off my adoptive mom's hospital fees.

The doctor said that even if my adoptive mom ever woke up, she'd be a vegetable. He suggested maybe I should think about bringing her home.

What he was really saying was: I'd be better off saving my money and making arrangements at home instead of wasting it on life support.

But I wanted to gamble. I wanted to believe my adoptive mom would wake up and see me make it into grad school with her own eyes.

That night, as soon as I got to the school gate, I spotted Wade leaning against his car, clearly waiting for me.

The moment our eyes met, I spun around and bolted, my heart pounding like crazy.

Obviously, I was no match for him.

Before I knew it, Wade grabbed my wrist and hauled me over to his ride.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Help! Somebody help! I'm being kidnapped. He's gonna kill me!"

Wade shot me a cold, lingering stare and said, "You wrung 450 thousand out of Zack and Jayden. I was part of your game, too. Why didn't you try to shake me down?"

Wade was the smartest of the three, and honestly, the last guy I ever wanted to get tangled up with. Even though Nathan, the one who'd spent the night with them, swore they'd never find a trace, I still wanted zero contact with Wade.

I kept my mouth shut and fought back as hard as I could.

Wade pressed, "Zack says you've been stirring up trouble between Samuel and us. So tell me: what are you really after?"

His hold was like a vice, squeezing harder by the second.

My hand throbbed, my blood pooling under his fingers.

Out of nowhere, a figure started walking toward us.

On impulse, I looked up at Wade and just went for it: kissing him hard, right on the mouth.