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.

The door flew open as an enraged woman stormed in, clutching a handful of blue pills and cursing vehemently. I backed away, feeling trapped by despair. Only at this moment did I truly grasp the depth of Kylo's resentment towards me.

Desperate to escape, I smashed a nearby vase, grabbing a shard to cut my wrist. Blood flowed out, and the naked woman, shocked, stumbled back in fear. My laughter was faint, echoing emptily in the room. Visions of my mother became vivid before my eyes, but my sight grew increasingly blurry.

"Mom, are you here to take me away?" I reached out towards her ghostly image, but a comforting presence pulled me back.

As my vision cleared for a moment, I found myself looking into the concerned, weathered eyes of Adelaide Palmer. Then everything faded away.

I battled with the chaos inside me, finding no release until a stabbing pain in my wrist led me to a brilliant light at the end of a tunnel. When I finally opened my eyes, I was met with the fierce glare of Selena.

She had one foot planted on my hospital bed, the pointed heel of her shoe pressing harshly into my wound.

"Knox Rice, who gave you the audacity to defy me? You think you can ignore my commands now?"

Cold sweat covered my forehead, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the harsh reality of her words. Despite the distance between us, I had never truly believed she sought to ruin me. I blamed everything on Kylo’s schemes. Yet today, her words demolished my last illusions.

For the first time, I was overwhelmed by an urgent need to escape this place, to flee from her presence.

"Look at you, just staring! Even your mother's belongings couldn't survive because of that face!"

Selena wasn't satisfied yet. She pressed her heel even harder into my wound. Blood seeped through the gaps in the bandages, and I lay there, staring at her with vacant eyes.

Selena threw her head back, laughing with a chilling madness.

"I was the one who ordered your mom's cherished trinkets destroyed. What are you going to do about it?

“Everything you eat, wear, and possess comes from me. You despise me, but can you really leave?

"Knox Rice, if I want you to suffer, you’d better brace yourself!"