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CHAPTER ONE

Chapter 1 Moan

“Help me...”

“Help me...” Rachelle Cloudington was taken aback when a large hand grabbed her by the ankle while she was gathering herbs. She was still shaken when she lowered her head to see a strange man covered in blood beside her on the ground. It was impossible to tell what he looked like because of the blood on his face. She then checked his pulses and managed to figure out how to help him. Unfortunately, after hurriedly taking out the antidote on her, Rachelle realized that the man could not swallow it since he was already unconscious. Hence, she popped the pill into her mouth to crush it and squeezed the corners of the man's lips before leaning in to feed him mouth-to-mouth. Rachelle's ears immediately turned bright red, for she had never gotten so close to a man before—not even once in the past twenty years. Suddenly, thunder boomed in the sky as dark clouds gathered. Knowing that it was about to rain, Rachelle realized that she does not have a moment to lose. Gritting her teeth, she summoned all her strength to pull the unconscious man into a cave nearby. Rachelle could see that the stranger's clothes were also covered in blood. God knows how badly injured he really is underneath. If I don't treat the wounds in time, the infection could kill him. Then, I would have wasted my antidote on him. Just when Rachelle tried to remove the man's shirt, she suddenly felt the cold tip of a gun pressed against her temple. “What are you doing?” questioned the man in a cold and hostile voice from above her head. Rachelle froze like a statue before she heard footsteps and fierce shouting outside the cave. “Search the cave now! He has been poisoned, so he couldn't have gotten far.” Before Rachelle could react, the stranger suddenly pulled her on top of him and ripped her shirt off, revealing her snow-white skin underneath. “Moan!” ordered the man in a deep voice. He held the gun to her waist with one hand and pressed the other against her chest forcefully. “Ah!” cried out Rachelle in pain. At that point, Rachelle had already figured out what the man had in mind. It would not be difficult to convince others that a half-naked couple was making out in the dark cave. “Go on! Do it, or I'll kill you!” threatened the stranger, who reeked of blood. Enduring the humiliation and the pain, Rachelle did as told and let out a series of awkward and tender moans. As soon as the man heard it, he got excited. Naturally, Rachelle went stiff and disgusted when she felt the change in his body. Fu*king hell! However, she dared not to stop, for the man had already turned off the safety on the gun. Rachelle knew she would be lying in a pool of blood if he decided to pull the trigger. “There's somebody here!” The footsteps stopped right at the entrance to the cave before two beams of light pierced the darkness. Rachelle was almost naked, and her skin seemed to glow when the light hit it. Shocked, she screamed before embracing the man under her. “Look what we've found. A pair of love birds in action! What do you say the three of us join in on the fun?” asked one of the men at the cave entrance with lecherous chuckles. “Like hell we're going to do that! Carry on with the search now! If we don't find him, we're not going to live to see the next sunrise,” rebuked another. Only after seeing the three men turn around did Rachelle finally breathe a sigh of relief. Still, she was quickly reminded that she was not out of the woods yet when three shots were fired beside her ear. Bang! Bang! Bang! The men at the entrance collapsed to the ground and did not even have a chance to make a sound after getting shot in the head. In response, Rachelle covered her ears and quickly lifted her head to look at the man, only to discover that he had his eyes shut when shooting. Suddenly, Rachelle remembered that the stranger had temporarily lost his vision due to the effect of the poison. “Sorry about that. The remedy you fed me; it's working, so thank you.” The man then placed the gun on Rachelle's head before ordering, “Give me more.” Since he was not completely purged of the poison yet, the stranger needed more of the antidote. Seeing that as an opportunity to save herself, Rachelle deliberately handed the stranger a pill that would paralyze him once ingested. However, he refused to take it. “Feed it to me as you did before,” commanded the stranger as he pressed the gun even harder against Rachelle's head. Hence, Rachelle had no choice but to hold the antidote in her mouth and lean forward in disgust. The man suddenly clasped the back of Rachelle's head forcefully and pried her teeth open with his tongue. The bitterness of the pill then filled both their mouths. As hard as Rachelle struggled, the stranger had her completely locked in place; his agile tongue had already forced some of the drugs down Rachelle's throat. “If you're feeding me poison, then we'll both die together!” threatened the stranger after biting Rachelle's lower lip with force. B*stard! Rachelle desperately wiped her mouth with one hand while secretly grabbing a silver needle that fell out of her pocket with the other. The unwitting man casually ripped off an emerald pendant on his neck and tossed it to Rachelle. “This is for saving me today. Keep it. If I ever-” Before the man could finish his sentence, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck. He tried to shake off the blurriness in his vision but to no avail. Rachelle's seemingly fuzzy figure was the only thing he could see before blacking out. After the man had passed out, Rachelle pulled the silver needle out of his neck and kicked him to vent her frustration. As if I give a da*n about his pendant! I shouldn't have saved this ungrateful b*stard! Then, Rachelle quickly stripped the stranger of his clothes and left him only in his underwear. Yucks! I wouldn't want to touch that. Since her shirt was torn, Rachelle had to put on the stranger's top As for his pants and shoes, she put them in her basket and took them away. Before Rachelle left, she even took the man's gun and the seemingly expensive emerald pendant. I'll accept this piece of jewelry as my consultation fee. Rachelle decided to leave the stranger to fate since she could not kill him herself. An hour later, a group of well-trained mercenaries arrived at the cave. “Mr. Jensen!” “Get out!” roared the man in the cave. The antidote needed time to work, so it was only then that Jensen Hawk's vision returned to him. The man realized he was almost naked. “You should put your clothes on first, Jensen.” Rocco handed Jensen a fresh set of clothes while trying his best not to laugh, for he had never seen Jensen so miserable before. “Did somebody take advantage of you?” After putting the clothes on, Jensen glared at Rocco. “Do you want to go back to coal mining in Alendor?” Oh no, The Quirky Daimon is awake! Immediately after realizing that he had made a mistake, Rocco awkwardly cleared his throat. “The Cloudingtons have agreed to the marriage proposal, so your bride will be arriving by tonight. We have to hurry back. Old Mrs. Hawk is convinced that the celebration will bring you luck.” The Cloudingtons have agreed? There really isn't anything they wouldn't do for money, huh? With that thought in mind, Jensen instinctively frowned in disgust. “I'll have her begging to go back home!” Suddenly, Jensen changed the topic and ordered, “The woman who left me unconscious must live in the nearby villages. Do whatever it takes to find her!” That insolent woman better prays that I don't find her. Otherwise, she's dead meat!

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CHAPTER TWO

Chapter 2 The Secret Passage

Meanwhile, at the Cloudington residence. Joanie Cloudington was sitting in front of her mother, Pamela Reese, on the floor complaining, “Mom, I don't want to marry that sickly man of the Hawk family! Everybody knows that psycho has a tiger as a pet. Even if I somehow managed to survive his torture, I'll likely become a widow! I promise you that I'll kill myself if you force me to marry him for money!” “What are you babbling on about? Who said anything about marrying you to a sickly man?” inquired Pamela rhetorically as she helped her daughter up. “The two hundred million from the Hawks is going to be more than enough to solve the financial problem of your father's company. The rest will go to you as dowry in the future, so I see no reason why we should back out of the deal. Of course, you're not going to be the one to marry the miserable man,” assured Pamela, who had already had a plan in mind, with a devious smile. When Joanie heard that, she stopped crying and stared expectantly at her mother instead. “Mom, are you thinking about using Ruth's good-for-nothing daughter?” inquired Joanie before frowning with concern. “But didn't we make that b*tch deaf and mute? Do you think the Hawks are going to be okay with that?” In response, Pamela chuckled coldly before explaining, “The Hawks simply wanted a wedding because they believed it'd bring luck, so I don't think they'd care who we're offering. If Jensen killed her somehow, that'd be even better for us!” Thrilled, Joanie immediately held Pamela's arm as she flattered her mother. “That's brilliant, Mom! Not only will we get the Hawks' money, but we'll also rid ourselves of that trash girl. Now that we have two hundred million, I can buy whatever the heck I want!” “Of course. My daughter deserves only the best!” promised Pamela. “The butler is delivering the trash girl to the Hawks as we speak.” At that moment, Rachelle was indeed on her way to Beshya. Seated in the backseat of a car, the young lady sheepishly kept her head down in silence. The butler in the front glanced at Rachelle through the rear-view mirror before shaking his head regretfully. “What a shame that a pretty woman like you ended up deaf and mute. Now they're even marrying you to that sickly man of the Hawk family out of superstition. I guess a handicapped woman like you would make a good match for the frail man. It's pretty much your ass luck that you were born a Cloudington.” As soon as the butler looked away, Rachelle looked up to sneer at the back of the man's head. Hidden in the depths of her seemingly innocent eyes was fierce determination. Ass luck? The Cloudingtons will soon learn the true meaning of those words. Secretly, Rachelle glanced at the phone she slipped out of her sleeves to read the message Liam White, her subordinate, sent her: Boss, I've found the person who saw your mother last eleven years ago. She's Old Mrs. Hawk of the Hawk family, and she lives at the Hawk residence! Rachelle's biological mother was Ruth Giniger, someone born to a family of perfumers and was the most popular socialite in Beshya. Ruth was also an expert in formulating perfumes. However, she fell in love with a poor man, Casey Cloudington, and ended up blowing through her dowry. After Casey became successful with Ruth's help, he revealed his true self by bringing a mistress and a daughter home, causing Ruth to get so emotional that she fell terribly ill. The year Rachelle turned nine, Ruth suddenly disappeared. All alone, young Rachelle was at the mercy of Pamela, who had officially moved into the Cloudington residence along with Joanie. Young Rachelle turned deaf and mute at the hands of the mother and daughter and only escaped the brutality when her maternal grandmother took her away to live in a remote village in the mountains. The elderly woman could not bear to see Rachelle getting tortured any longer. Rachelle humbly endured eleven years of hardship until she was ready to search for Ruth, for she believed that her mother was alive and waiting for her somewhere out there. After so many years, she finally found a clue. Rachelle was still trying to figure out how to get close to the Hawks, the most prominent family in Beshya, when an opportunity presented itself to her on a silver platter. Pamela immediately had a makeup artist work on Rachelle when the woman arrived at the Cloudington residence before shoving Rachelle into the car sent by the Hawks. Weddings were supposed to be cheerful celebrations, but since Rachelle was only married into the Hawk family for good luck, she was denied access to the front door and had to enter from the back. To call the event miserable would be an understatement. Wearing a bridal gown, Rachelle was guided by Bram Farren, the Hawk's butler, to her new room. As soon as she was left alone, Rachelle lifted the veil on her and looked around. However, she did not see her sickly groom. Even though the Hawks were the most prominent family in Beshya, Jensen was nothing but a sick joke. It was said that Jensen had suffered from a disease since he was a boy. On top of that, he was also cruel and had unpredictable temperaments. Nevertheless, that did not bother Rachelle because she was sure she could handle a sick man. Where is he though? Is he hiding because he's embarrassed that he's sexually incapable? The room was indescribably eerie since its walls were mostly black and had only one dim light on one side of the wall. When Rachelle tried to find the switch for the other lights, she accidentally touched something that triggered the wall to split open and reveal a dark secret passage. Suddenly, Rachelle heard a blood-curdling scream from inside. At the behest of her curiosity, she furrowed her eyebrows tightly as she carefully entered the passage. The deeper Rachelle got, the stronger the smell of blood in the air. When she finally reached the end, what she saw almost made her throw up.