“Wah—” she cried out loud, thinking that by saying this, by ruthlessly exposing him, he would unleash his beastly nature, violate her, and abuse her, which wouldn’t make her soul feel so painful and conflicted. It was as if he had been scalded by her tears, seemingly trying hard to suppress his anger, silently exiting her room, just because he didn’t want to see her cry. She looked towards the low windowsill; in the night, the car started, heading down that familiar old road. The empty windowsill became unclear in her eyes, as her tears had blurred her vision…
Her tactic indeed worked; he no longer set foot in her room, although he still returned to the house every night. She had never intended to provoke him and was glad for the peace, but the atmosphere had been too quiet these past few days.
She even began to suspect that his interest had shifted to the new beautiful maid, as he had called her into his room several times, and it was a long while before she emerged. Khanyi couldn’t help but feel a bit sympathetic towards the girl; she looked so restrained, awkward, obedient, and pure—how could she possibly deal with someone as cunning and scheming as him…
This time, Khanyi saw the new tall and beautiful maid, her pale face unusually flushed, rushing down the stairs from the second floor in disarray, bursting into the shared restroom on the first floor. Khanyi took a few steps forward but did not enter the restroom, instead hearing the sound of running water inside. After quite a while, the maid finally came out, a hint of uncontainable panic still lingering in her blue eyes.
As Khanyi locked eyes with those blue eyes, a charming smile floated around the rose-red lips, and she opened her mouth to emit a voice as sexy and elastic as a Persian cat, “Gianna, my pure little angel, we meet again.”
“Irina! Is that you?” The maid, breaking from her usual reserved demeanor, made Khanyi a bit suspicious, and the question she had repeated several times without a response slipped out again.
“If it’s not me, who else could it be?” She smiled even more brightly, her lips curling.
Khanyi grabbed her arm and exclaimed, “It really is you! Why are you dressed as a maid? And pretending not to know me! By the way, how did you end up here? Weren’t you at Samuel Art School? Has my brother been released? How are the teachers at the school? Have the SS and the police been bothering them again?” She bombarded her with questions, and Irina maintained her smile throughout. At that moment, Khanyi gradually realized a fact: Irina’s background was definitely not as simple as she had imagined. “Irina, who exactly are you?”
“Gianna, I didn’t mean to deceive you. You know, those days at the art school were quite happy; I considered you my only confidante.” She pulled Khanyi’s shoulder, guiding her to sit down, gazing into her dark, sparkling eyes as she continued, “Friends should be able to talk about anything, but you have kept quite a few secrets from me, haven’t you? You never mentioned your relationship with the owner of this house—the SS General Ryan…”
Under her gaze, Khanyi lowered her head and said softly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to deceive you; I just didn’t want to bring it up. I escaped, I managed to flee from this house. That day, I ran for a full four hours in the snow… Later, I was rescued by the organization responsible for relocating refugees, which is how I ended up in that country. At the art school, I just wanted to live quietly; I haven’t told anyone about those things, not even my brother…” As she spoke, tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
“Alright, alright, don’t cry,” Irina tore off a piece of tissue to wipe her tears, softly comforting her, “That’s all in the past. Isn’t he treating you well now?”
“Treatment… let’s not talk about that. How did you end up here?” She blinked her dark eyes at the brown-haired, blue-eyed woman. Although she wasn’t as sexy and charming as when she had golden hair, she was still so enchanting and beautiful.
“You should be able to guess my identity,” Irina looked at her with sapphire-like eyes.
Khanyi understood her gaze and nodded, not pressing her for her identity, but she couldn’t help but worry about her friend’s situation. “Irina… what you’re doing is very dangerous! You need to be careful; I have a feeling he is not an easy person to deal with.”
“Let’s talk about that later. Will you tell anyone about my identity?”
“Of course not! Irina… ah.” Khanyi quickly covered her mouth and corrected herself, “I mean, Ross.”
“With that, I feel a bit more at ease. Just as you said, he is indeed a formidable character.” Irina said, raising her beautiful eyebrows.
“I have a question that I don’t know if I should ask…” Khanyi spoke very softly, her cheeks slightly flushed.
“What is it?”
“Just now, you came out of his room looking a bit flustered. Did he force you to do something?”
“Hmph, if that were the case, it would be easier to say. I’m not afraid of dealing with those lecherous and rogue types,” Irina said, pulling the corners of her mouth into a sexy and charming smile, “But the truth is quite the opposite, Gianna; he didn’t make me do anything at all, and that’s the most difficult part…”
