I felt my heart aching as I looked at Riven. Why was he sick all of a sudden? He seemed perfectly healthy to me.

Riven's hands suddenly froze whilst he was drying his hair. His eyes were dark and empty, and there was no emotion in them whenever he looked at me. He certainly wasn't acting like any of the incubi I'd seen in those advertisements, whose eyes would lit up as soon as they saw their owners.

"If you still can't accept me a few days later, I'll bring you in for servicing," I said.

Riven seemed to sigh in relief and nodded.

I felt a slight pang of resentment. After all, he was exactly my type, but I could only stare at him without even laying a finger on him. It was truly unbearable and tested my patience.

I decided to get up and leave the room instead.

The reason why I even bought an incubus in the first place was because I liked it.

Dad suddenly called me then, and I answered the call rather impatiently.

"Tracy? Your grandma's missing you again. When are you planning to come home?" he asked.

I knew that this was just an excuse. Obviously, he was the one who missed me more than Grandma did.

Dad was my biggest, number-one fan. He doted on me a lot, and at times, it felt as though going a few days without seeing me would cost him his life or something.

I massaged my temples and said, "Fine. I get it. Later, I'll—"

I turned around just then and stopped short. Riven was already starting to pack.

I asked him, "Do you like going back to the Ashford villa?"

I hadn't even hung up on the call before Riven began packing. I noticed Riven's hand freezing for a split second, but he said nothing in response, and I didn't think too much about it.

I really didn't want to go back to the villa, but I couldn't stand Dad's constant nagging and moral blackmail.

"Grandma's not going to be around any longer. Is it wrong for me to ask you to come home and see her more often?"

So, I hadn't even left the villa for three days before I was summoned back there again.

As soon as I arrived, however, a young woman ran up to us.

I frowned and quickly stepped aside, casting her a cold glance.

It was my stepsister, Teresa Ashford. She looked at me with an aggrieved expression on her face and spoke in a high-pitched voice.

"You're finally back, Tracy! Did you know how much I missed you over the last couple of days?"

I found it a little hilarious. Even though Dad loved me very much, transferred all of the shares to his company under my name, and swore that he couldn't live without seeing me again every other day, that didn't stop him from marrying another woman and having another child.

I disliked Teresa not because of Dad, but because of how fake and pretentious she was.

I had caught her trying to sabotage me many times in the past, and she hadn't even managed to straighten her face each time I caught her red-handed.

She didn't feel awkward when I barely acknowledged her. Instead, she turned to address Riven behind me with a huge smile on her face.

"Hello, Riven! Aren't you tired of carrying so many things for her?"

Teresa then shot me a reproachful look and said, "How could you do this to him, Tracy? Riven is your incubus, not your butler! How could you make him do such tiring work?"

I scoffed. "Are you going to do it, then?"

Teresa's expression froze for a second. Riven just looked at me with a dark look in his eyes, but he didn't say a thing.

I felt irritated and headed straight for my room. I didn't want to deal with Teresa and her fakeness at all.

That was why I never noticed Riven smiling and nodding at Teresa behind me.

At dinner, Dad didn't look pleased when he saw that Riven was seated next to me at the table.

"He's just a toy. Why are you bringing him with you wherever you go like he's your baby?"

Riven stiffened next to me. I simply looked at Dad with a helpless expression on my face.

Before I could defend Riven, however, Teresa shot to his defense first.

"Dad! You can't say that about Riven! He might be an incubus, but he still has his dignity!"

Riven stirred. I turned my head around and looked at him.

His eyes were fixed on Teresa unwaveringly, and they were filled with emotion.

I scrutinized him closely with a frown on my face. Was I imagining things? Why did it look as though Riven's eyes were sparkling when he looked at her?

This was interesting. I had spent a fortune on Riven, feeding him and clothing him, showering him with all sorts of luxuries, and granting his every request.

After all that, he still told me that he couldn't accept me touching him, and I never laid a finger on him.

However, none of that seemed to matter compared to a single line Teresa said in his defense.

Teresa was still being her annoying self and chattering non-stop at the table. I soon got sick of her voice and said, "Can you just shut up?"

The table fell into an awkward silence at my words.

Dad frowned and looked at me, wanting to tell me to behave properly. Meanwhile, Teresa's mother, Gwen Whitmore, continued eating her dinner as if nothing was happening at all.

Teresa looked at me with an aggrieved expression. Then, she looked at Riven with tears welling in her eyes.

Then I heard the clatter of utensils against the plate. Riven's cold, aloof voice sounded across the table.

"Can you not be so aggressive with your words?"

Everyone at the table was shocked. After all, nobody had ever dared to talk to me that way ever before, not even my family members.

Dad slammed his hand on the table and jumped to his feet, his face red with anger.

"Tracy Ashford! Look at how much you've spoiled him! I've never ever seen an incubus speak to his master like that!"

On the contrary, I wasn't mad at all. I just looked at Riven thoughtfully.

Riven had been acting indifferently with me ever since I bought him. He acted like an emotionless robot whenever he was with me.

I thought that it was just his personality, but I realized that it wasn't the case anymore. Something felt off.

Wasn't he overreacting a little too much? I had simply chided my stepsister at the table.

Riven always looked at me with dark, hollow eyes, but I could clearly see the sparkle in his eyes every time he looked at Teresa.

Dinner was unpleasant. That night, Dad refused to let Riven sleep in the same room as me.

"Starve him for a night. Show him who's boss!"

I didn't dare to tell Dad that Riven had never been fed like that ever since his arrival. I also did not disclose that it was because he simply refused to feed.

It was just too embarrassing to admit that.

I got up in the middle of the night feeling thirsty and went downstairs for some water. However, I suddenly heard movement from the room next to mine.

I froze.

Was that a woman's voice coming from Riven's room?

I walked closer to the door, my eyes slowly turning cold.

I hadn't been hallucinating. It really was Teresa's voice, and it was exceptionally clear in the quiet of the night.

"Thanks for speaking up for me at the table, Riven. You probably don't know this, but nobody in this household is ever on my side. I purposely came here to thank you."

The voice Riven replied her with was gentle and tender, and I had never heard anything like that before.

"Tracy has quite a terrible personality, but she's not a bad person at heart. If she tries bullying you again, you should stand up for yourself and fight back. She can't do anything to you anyway."

A hint of mockery flashed in my eyes. Riven had only lived with me for a month, and yet, he sounded as though he knew me very well.

Right at that moment, I suddenly realized that Teresa was the one who had opened my parcels for me a month ago when he arrived in the box.

It finally dawned on me that I hadn't received a faulty or malfunctioned incubus from the company. It was just that my incubus had already fallen in love with someone else before getting bound to me.

No wonder Riven never let me touch him like that.

I recalled the conversation I had with the customer service representative. So, I went back into my room and brought the chat back up.

"My incubus still hasn't recovered yet. I don't think I want to send him in for servicing anymore. Please just replace him instead."

The reply was almost instant, as usual.

"Understood, Ms. Ashford. I'll put in the order for you and send out your new incubus tomorrow. It should take a week for him to arrive."

After thinking for a bit, I asked the customer service representative another question.

"Then what do I do with this current one?"

This time, the customer service representative took a long time to respond.

"You don't have to worry about it, Ms. Ashford. Incubi who are returned faulty or with negative reviews will be recollected when we have the time before getting resold for a lower price."

Resold for a lower price?

I thought about how Riven kept remaining steadfastly loyal to his celibacy each time I tried approaching him and found it amusing.

I bet that if Riven didn't end up getting bought by Teresa, he would keep getting returned by his next buyers with countless negative reviews, and he would never, ever be fixed.

The next morning, I came out of my room yawning widely and bumped right into Riven.

He was wearing casual sportswear and looked as though he had just returned from a workout outside the villa.

Teresa's voice was saccharinely sweet.

"Riven, your physique is simply gorgeous. You're so disciplined, too! If I had the money, I would definitely buy an incubus who looked exactly the same as you!"

Teresa's words sounded off. She was blatantly flirting with Riven and provoking me at this point.

Riven carefully observed my expression. He only relaxed when he noticed I didn't look the least bit bothered and returned Teresa's smile.

I watched their exchange and couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at them.

Riven and Teresa were both jerks for flirting right under my nose.

However, I had already requested for Riven to be returned and replaced, so he no longer had anything to do with me.

Teresa wasn't rich. Dad had given me all the shares to his company, and Teresa's and Gwen's jobs were to just live a comfortable life with Dad. That was all.

She would never be able to afford a brand-new, customized incubus with her allowance. However, she also looked down on all the cheap incubi on the market.

That night, I didn't even wait for Dad to hint at anything and chose to sleep in different rooms from Riven once again.

Riven was a little stunned as he watched my back. His long, slender fingers gripped the door handle just a little bit tighter.

He thought that things would be as usual, with him trying to stop me from sleeping in the same room as him while I forced my way in. And when he said he wasn't feeling well, I would just reluctantly give up and resort to spooning him from the back.

However, he felt his heart sink this time when he saw that the door to my room was tightly shut.

While poring over the incubus manual that the customer service representative gave me that night, I heard a knock on the door.

This time, I was determined to learn how to take good care of my personal incubus, and I was deeply engrossed in reading it on my screen when I went to open the door.

I thought that it was Dad, with a warm glass of milk, but to my surprise, Riven was the one standing there instead.

At first, he seemed a little impatient with how long it took for me to get to the door. However, he soon saw the manual on my iPad screen, and his expression softened considerably after that.

"These are all just textbook knowledge. What do you want to learn about me? I'm standing right here, aren't I?" he said.

I looked up from my screen and stared at him in confusion. I then looked at my iPad before looking at him again.

It soon dawned on me that Riven must have misunderstood me.

I found it hilarious. Dad was right. I had been spoiling him rotten, alright.

Was Riven thinking that I was doing my homework to try and get back in his favor?

Still, I didn't bother clearing up the misunderstanding. After all, he was going to be returned to the factory very soon. What else was there to say to him anyway?

"What are you doing here?" I asked, leaning against the frame with an indifferent look on my face.

Riven was stunned. He didn't think that I would be acting so coldly toward him.

He also didn't know what he was doing at my door. He had just lay on his bed, feeling hungrier and emptier by the second. He recalled my departing figure and suddenly found himself knocking at my door afterward.

I watched Riven standing blankly in the hallway, a hint of impatience flashing in his eyes.

"Is there anything I can help you with, in the middle of the night?" I asked.

"I think…"

Riven's voice was dry and hoarse. He fixed his gaze on my lips and said, "I-I think we can try tonight… Maybe I can accept you…"

I widened my eyes in shock.

The look on his face was that of satisfaction. He was smug, thinking that he was doing me a huge favor.

I nearly burst out laughing with how angry I was.