Chapter 1
Samuel Hartley, the heir of the world's richest family, is totally nuts.
Anyone who ticks him off gets payback like crazy.
Bad luck for me, my most hated step-sister, Celia Sinclair, is his precious pet.
One day, Celia smashed my mom's urn on purpose. I snapped her arm right in front of everyone.
The next day, boom. Samuel's goons dragged me into a room, breaking my limbs and cutting my tendons.
I begged my most trusted bodyguard for help with my last bit of strength.
But to my surprise, I heard the kidnappers call him Mr. Hartley.
At that moment, I was done for.
I just wanted to die. But Samuel lost it.
I took Samuel Hartley home.
It was pouring that day. He was cornered in an alley by a group of men.
I sat in the car, watching him fight for his life in the rain.
There was something mesmerizing about the way he fought. The s body, tracing every curve of his perfect muscles.
Every punch he threw and every kick he landed drew me in irresistibly.
I could even see the raindrops on his skin.
Even with blood streaming down his face, he didn't look bad. That crimson only made his beauty feel more ruthless and tragic.
He looked like a masterpiece carved out of pain and steel, beautiful and brutal.
But even he couldn't take on that many people at once.
Eventually, he was beaten to the ground, covered in blood and broken bones. Only then did I finally open the car door and dial the police.
The thugs scattered.
I reached out my hand to him. "Since I saved you, how about you stick around for three years and protect me in return?"
The icy rain slammed down on his sharply sculpted face.
He looked up slightly, eyes deep and cold.
He didn't say a word. So I took his silence as agreement.
I wasn't some saint. I was just drawn in by his looks, and that was all.
No one in this world loved me. I just wanted to pick someone to call family.
And Samuel? He was handsome enough, miserable enough, and completely alone.
I chased after him for three years. And during the period, he stayed just as indifferent.
He was like a wild cat, untamed and out of reach. No matter how hard I tried to please him, he barely paid attention. He was always far above my league.
Honestly, it was kind of fun.
He didn't love me, but whenever I was in danger, he always showed up first.
That was enough for me.
Everything went smoothly until that party. That night, Samuel fell in love at first sight with my hateful stepsister, Celia Sinclair.
That was when everything fell apart.
Celia had a minor fall after arguing with me.
The next day, I was shoved down a flight of stairs and suffered a severe concussion.
When my best friend got fed up with Celia pretending to be innocent after something awful and made her drink a glass of wine as punishment, the next day, someone pinned me down and forced three pounds of hard liquor into me. I ended up with a bleeding stomach.
In just a few months, I became the target of nonstop revenge.
And all of it, every single thing, was ordered by the lunatic heir of the Hartley family.
No one knew how Celia even met him. But in Rivergate City, everyone knew one thing. He doted on Celia dearly. No one could lay a finger on her.
One by one, my friends left me. Even my best friend started to distance herself from me.
Eventually, she warned me, "Stop going against Celia. Or Mr. Hartley is going to destroy you. He is a madman."
But so what? I wasn't scared, not even a little.
So when Celia smashed my mom's urn before me, just to get under my skin, I didn't hesitate and beat the hell out of her in public, breaking the bones in both her hands.
The next day, I was kidnapped. They locked me in a warehouse on the outskirts of town, cut the tendons in my hands, and shattered my limbs.
"Mr. Hartley, we've handled her just like you asked," one of the thugs said.
He had accidentally put the call on speaker.
A familiar voice came through the phone. "Warn her. If she ever touches Celia again, I will kill her."
That voice was cold, emotionless, and brutal as ever.
I couldn't believe it. It couldn't be him.
After the warning, the thug tossed the phone at me. "Call someone to come and get you. And remember this little lesson."
"Oh, wait. I forgot. Your hands don't work anymore. Guess you'll have to use your tongue?" he mocked.
The thug spat thick phlegm right onto the screen.
"Go on and unlock the phone," he said.
I didn't move. I just lay there, staring at their smug, twisted faces.
After about ten minutes, they got bored and finally left.
Before the warehouse door shut, I heard one last thing.
"Mr. Hartley, I gave her the phone. You're the only one she trusts, the one she always called first. I'm sure she'll reach out soon, just like before," a thug said.
And just like that, the last spark of hope inside me went out.
Samuel was really the lunatic heir of the Hartley family.