Two days passed, and Lina still had not received a call from the other company.
She had fallen into a monotonous rhythm—sleeping, eating, and sleeping again on repeat. To be honest, she enjoyed the treatment she was receiving here in Merra. The room service. The quiet. The lack of responsibility.
But not as much as she would enjoy proving herself to Carter.
At some point, she wondered if the deal had fallen through. She had asked Carter about it. He assured her it was still on. They would call. All she had to do was wait.
And so she waited. Still waiting.
A knock came at the door.
Lina checked the time. Just as usual—dinner was being served. She rose and crossed the room.
"Greg Ure here," Lina said as she unlocked the door. She was familiar with him already. The cheerful, handsome staff member who always smiled and asked how her day was going.
She opened the door.
And instead of Greg, it was Daniel Viggo.
His hand was braced against the wall beside the doorframe. His head was slumped forward, his face hidden in shadow. He looked exhausted. Unsteady.
Lina stared at the man standing before her. Her blood ran cold. Her heart stopped. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
Before she could react, Daniel raised his head. His eyes found hers. Dark. Unfocused. Ravenous.
He grabbed her by the arm, pushing her inside and closing the door with his foot. The lock clicked into place, the sound echoing in the quiet room.
He pushed her against the wall and pressed his lips hungrily against hers.
Lina tried to push him away, but he was too strong. He seized both her wrists and pinned them above her head. She struggled against him, but Daniel continued to kiss her aggressively. Relentlessly. His mouth was rough, demanding, taking what he wanted without asking.
She could smell whiskey on his breath—or something stronger.
He only released her when she was out of breath, gasping for air. Her lungs burned. Her lips felt swollen and raw.
He released her hands, and Lina almost collapsed. Her legs were weak. Her mind was spinning.
Daniel locked the door.
Lina's eyes went wide.
What is he doing? What is he trying to do?
Daniel turned back to her. Lina stepped away from the wall as he advanced. Her back hit the bed. There was nowhere left to go.
"What… what… what are you doing?" Lina asked, fear gripping her heart.
Daniel stopped walking and stared at her for a long moment. His expression was unreadable. His eyes were dark. Empty. But there was something else there too—something she could not name. Pain, perhaps. Or rage. Or both.
Just then, Lina's phone rang.
Daniel glanced at it. The caller ID made his eyes turn cold. He crossed the gap between them and pushed Lina onto the bed.
She tried to beg. She tried to scream. But Daniel acted oblivious to everything. His hands were rough. His grip was bruising. He did not stop. He did not care.
Lina closed her eyes and let her body go limp. She stopped fighting. She stopped begging. She simply lay there, waiting for it to be over.
When it was finally over, Daniel rolled off her and lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. He did not say a word. He did not look at her. He just lay there, breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling.
Lina curled into herself, her back facing him. Tears streamed silently down her cheeks. She did not make a sound.
She lay there for what felt like hours, staring at the wall, her body aching, her mind blank.
She did not know when he left. She only knew that when she woke the next morning, she was alone.
Daniel was gone.
She felt hollow. Her body ached everywhere. Her throat was sore from holding back screams. Her eyes burned from weeping.
Yesterday's memory was vivid—every touch, every sound, every moment. Tears—hot and humiliating—fell from the corners of her eyes.
What just happened?
She looked at the bedside, which was still warm. She felt nauseous. The sheets were tangled. The pillows were scattered. The room still smelled of him.
She had lost her first time to such a man. To Daniel Viggo. A man who was nothing but a nightmare to her.
She pulled the sheets up to her chin and hugged her knees to her chest. Her body shook with silent sobs. She felt dirty. Used. Broken.
She was so lost in her grief that she did not hear her phone ring the first time. It was after the second ring that she finally registered it from a distance.
She sat up and looked around for her phone. It kept ringing, but she could not locate it.
She rose from the bed. Her feet stepped on her clothes scattered across the floor—the evidence of what had transpired between them.
She felt sick.
Then she heard the ringing coming from beneath the bed.
She crouched down, reached under, and retrieved the phone.
It was Carter.
Seeing Carter's name would have once filled her with excitement. She would have smiled from ear to ear. But not today.
Seeing his name on the screen made her feel like filth.
She had done something shameful. Seeing Carter's name made her feel as though she had betrayed him. She did not know how she would face him. What would he think of her? What would he say if he knew?
Tears streamed down her face as she imagined his disappointment, as she thought about how Carter would see her after finding out what she had done.
The call ended. A few seconds later, it came in again.
Lina wiped her tears with her palm, steadied her breathing, and answered.
"Hello," she said, her voice breaking.
"Did I wake you?" Carter's voice came through, cheery and warm compared to Lina's. "I've been calling you for a while now. I called yesterday to check on you."
Lina thought about when he would have called that made her miss it. Probably when she was… she shook her head, which made her head ache.
Tears fell silently as she searched for words.
"How did you do it, Lina?" Carter continued. "I received a call this morning from the company. They said you had spoken with them and the deal has been finalized."
Lina listened, not fully comprehending.
"Remember," Carter went on, "this deal was about expanding Aurum Scents into Merra. Securing distribution rights and a partnership with a local manufacturer. It was a big opportunity—the kind that could open doors for us across the region. I've explained it all to you before. We had been waiting for them to finalize their terms. Initially, we agreed to forty-sixty. But they offered seventy-thirty. I did not expect you to secure eighty-twenty in our favor."
He paused, his voice filled with pride.
"I am so proud of you. You truly are Aurum's lucky star. The whole company is proud of you."
Lina listened to all of it, not even sure what he was talking about.
She had done nothing. Except sleep with Daniel, of course. She had not even received a call from the company. How could she have spoken with them?
"You are mistaken," she said, trying to explain. "I did nothing."
But Carter laughed on the phone.
"Of course you did nothing. Because if you had done something, we would have gotten the full hundred percent."
Lina shook her head, trying to explain further.
"I will call you back," Carter said. "My mother has just woken and needs me."
Then he ended the call.
Lina stared at the dark screen.
She did nothing…
Hold on. Last night?
Lina's eyes widened as she realized last night might have been what secured the deal. But Daniel was not connected to the other company.
With tears forming in her eyes, she searched the name of the company on her phone.
The result came back.
Lina slumped.
The company was one of the Viggos. Daniel Viggo—a man whose reach was unpredictable. A man whose power extended further than she had ever imagined.
It now made sense. She had waited for the call until Daniel appeared. And now the deal was done. In their favor.
It was obviously his doing.
Lina slumped onto the floor.
So she had secured the deal by granting him an audience in his bed.
She stared at nothing, hollow and possessed. Then she laughed—a broken, desolate sound that echoed in the empty room.
"I finally got an audience in his bed," she said, tears falling from her eyes.
She spoke to herself, her voice trembling.
"At least it was not in vain. The audience earned me eighty percent. A done deal. Something I certainly would not have achieved without his help."
She rose, wiping the remaining tears from her face.
Well, since it was like this, there was nothing she could do. She convinced herself she was fine. She told herself it was merely a transaction. Business. A means to an end.
But deep in her heart, she was bleeding.
She could not believe it was gone like that. Something she had kept for her entire life—taken forcefully by a man like Daniel Viggo.
She had imagined her first time would be special. With someone who cared for her. Someone gentle. Someone who would ask if she was all right.
Instead, it had been taken. Rough. Cold. Without a single word of comfort.
She was not even sure if Daniel remembered. He had been drunk—or something close to it. He likely did not even know what he had done.
But she remembered.
She would always remember.
Tears streamed down her face again. Hot and unstoppable. Her body shook with sobs.
She lay on the bed and wept.
She allowed herself to mourn. To feel the weight of what had happened. To grieve the loss of something she could never reclaim.
The tears soaked the pillow beneath her. Her body ached from the force of her sobs. She clutched the sheets, her knuckles white.
She had traded her innocence for a deal.
And the worst part?
She did not even have a choice.