After a brief pause, the torrential rain returned with renewed force. I stood there, unmoving, soaked to the bone. Finally, Adelaide Palmer, unable to bear it any longer, cautiously spoke up:

"Sir, you've been in the rain too long. If you stay out much longer, you might catch a nasty cold."

In the cozy living room, a woman nestled in Kylo's arms, lazily lifted her head from a fashion magazine and sighed:

"Let him in."

With those simple words, it was as if I'd been granted a pardon. Adelaide helped me inside. As we passed through the living room, Kylo glanced at me with disdain and said:

"Does this Persian rug mean nothing to you? How can you let such a mess stand on it? Soaking wet—it's ruined now, isn't it?"

Selena wrapped her arm around his neck and kissed him. After their lingering kiss, she looked at me with indifference.

"Kylo, what do you think? How should I deal with your brother?"

Kylo looked me up and down and then sneered:

"Make him kneel and clean the rug. If he doesn’t do it, he doesn’t eat."

"Alright, if that's what you want."

Selena smiled gracefully and ordered, "Kneel down and clean."

I stood there, dazed, on the carpet, staring at my brother, who despised me so deeply. I knew that even if he could tear me apart, it wouldn't ease his hatred.

But he used to be the brother who cared for me the most.

Kylo and I are twins, born just three minutes apart. As kids, he would protect me from our father's drunken rampages, never backing down even when he was black and blue. Our mother had entrusted him with the task of taking good care of me because of my frail health. He had taken those words to heart and lived by them.

Until the day our mother, unable to endure our father's violence, divorced him. She could only take one child, and she chose the weaker me. From then on, Kylo resented both me and our mother.

As I remained unresponsive, Selena suddenly stood up and approached me.

"Knox Rice, don’t make me repeat myself."

Seeing her cold expression, I turned and walked back into the storm without a word. The remnants of my mother’s legacy had already been destroyed, and there was no point in enduring further humiliation.

Selena chased after me a couple of steps, shouting furiously from under the eaves:

"Knox Rice, defy me again, and you’ll regret it!"

I walked away, faster and faster, never looking back no matter how she raged.

I couldn't say how long I had been walking in the rain. My mind was heavy, and my vision blurred. When I finally regained my senses, I found myself standing outside the old house where my mother once lived.

The sight of the crumbling walls was heartbreaking, and I started to sob uncontrollably. After my mother's death, this old house and the handmade quilt inside were all that I had left to remember her by.

While she was alive, my mother supported us through her quilting skills. The quilt, however, was a labor of love, representing years of dedication. It depicted moments from my childhood with Kylo.

I often watched her stitch it with tears in her eyes. I knew she missed my brother and regretted not being able to bring him to live with us.

After she passed away, Kylo's resentment towards us reached its peak. He made several attempts to disturb the peace of the old house, trying to destroy anything that reminded him of our mother.

I could understand his hatred, the kind of anger that could no longer be directed at someone who's gone. But I couldn't stand by and watch him destroy the remnants of our past.

It was during one of Kylo's aggressive visits that Selena appeared. She approached me with an offer:

"If you become my loyal follower, I'll protect your mother's belongings."

I had no choice but to agree.

From that day on, Selena made it a point to make my life difficult. I understood her animosity. It stemmed from a university hiking club outing where partners were required. I avoided pairing with her, yet she pursued me relentlessly.

In a twist of fate, she ended up falling into a lake outside campus. Unaware that she couldn't swim, I came back to save her, only to find her on the brink of unconsciousness.

Kylo had been following me in the shadows, seizing the opportunity to capture her soaking appearance on camera. Knowing she was a wealthy girl and fearing any potential romance, he used those nearly compromising photos and my desire to preserve my mother's memory as leverage to keep me silent about the incident.

Though I initially left, I couldn't shake the fear of leaving Selena in danger, so I returned. Midway, I was ambushed by Kylo and spent a week in the hospital recovering from his attack.

It was only later that I discovered the full extent of what happened that day. Selena was nearly assaulted by a passerby and owed her "rescue" to Kylo's timely intervention.

From that day forward, she despised me. I had opportunities to explain, but she never believed a word I said. With Kylo always lurking, my voice was stifled.

Now, watching the old house that Selena had ordered Kylo to tear apart, I felt a grim satisfaction in having kept my silence.

If she was truly that merciless, then she deserved the volatile presence of Kylo—a ticking time bomb with antisocial tendencies—by her side.

I eventually collapsed right outside the door of the old house.

When I woke up, before I could even process where I was, the bed beneath me was vibrating with a steady rhythm.

Then I heard the sound—a soft yet compelling moan that quickly reached my ears.

Suddenly, I froze, turning my head mechanically toward the source of the noise.

There was Selena Anderson, lying naked under Kylo Rice. Her body arched in contrasting curves—hips lifted, back bowed—hands desperately clutching the sheets, with an expression of mixed pain and pleasure.

Kylo had one hand around her throat, the other reaching toward her core... manipulating. Next to the bed stood a man, Jaylen Wallace, also stripped bare, camera in hand, capturing every moment.

I stood there, completely stunned, my eyes wide with disbelief.

They were so absorbed in their activities that they didn't even notice I had come to.

Nausea churned in my stomach, and I clamped a hand over my mouth and nose as I ran from the scene.

I didn't stop until I found myself blocked by a group of naked women outside the room. Their leering gazes made me realize I was just as exposed as they were.

The overpowering stench of sweat and flesh made my head spin, and I couldn't hold back any longer—I bent over, retching violently.

The women stepped back, eyes filled with contempt as one of them scoffed, "Mr. Thomas told us to get him, record the whole thing and upload it to the cloud. He didn't say he was so disgusting."

"Yeah," another chimed in, "Mr. Thomas mentioned he was a virgin, said we should really savor it."

At that, they all burst into laughter.

Saoirse Ryan, a woman of a larger build, added, "You came late, so you missed the backstory. Didn't you notice how provocative Mr. Thomas was today? There's even a cameraman inside."

"It's all part of Mr. Thomas's new scheme."

Through Saoirse, I finally pieced together the day’s events.

Apparently, since the moment I defied Selena’s orders and left, her people had been tailing me.

Once I fainted, they wasted no time dragging me back to Selena’s manor.

Under Kylo’s manipulation, she had ingested a substantial amount of an aphrodisiac.

The irony was that despite knowing how much Kylo despised me, she had still handed over full control of her manor’s security to him.

Today’s ordeal was Kylo’s calculated revenge. Not only did he want me to witness the degradation of the woman I loved, but he also intended to have a group of women ruin me.

The thought filled me with a cold dread.

Before they could react, I covered the crucial parts of my body and bolted to a bedroom on the ground floor as fast as I could.

Locking the door hastily, I grabbed whatever clothes were within reach and started dressing.

The women, realizing my escape, shouted after me, pounding on the door relentlessly.

The door trembled under their assault, and my anxiety soared.

I knew if I couldn’t escape from here right now, my fate would be unimaginably dire.