I woke up in the dorm. Dazed. Barely held together by a few hours of feverish sleep.
By late afternoon, the sun was a dying ember.
I hit the communal showers. Cranked the water scalding hot. Scrubbed my skin raw. Desperate to wash off the phantom touch of the man from last night.
I hopped on my bike. Pedaled through campus.
Whispers followed me like vultures. Thanks to the incident with Chief Guo's son, I was the university's favorite new scandal.
I didn't look back. I just rode.
---
Leo's place was a high-end fortress near campus.
When I arrived, he was sprawled on the living room floor. Mid-slaughter in a video game. He didn't look at me. But the tension in his shoulders? A dead giveaway.
He dropped the controller. Heavy thud. Stalked into the study without a word.
I sighed. Cleaned up his trail of mess. Followed.
He was leaning against the mahogany desk. Eyes burning with dark, restless energy. Seventeen going on thirty. Handsome. Jagged. Radiating a rebellious heat that made my skin prickle.
I felt exposed. Like he could see right through my skin to the bruises underneath.
"Let's start." My voice came out flat. Forced. I avoided his gaze.
I was there to drill English grammar into his head—part of his mother's grand plan to ship him off to an Ivy. But I hadn't even finished ten minutes when the fuse blew.
Leo slammed his textbook onto the floor.
The sound echoed like a gunshot.
"Liulian! Tell me! Where the hell were you last night?!" He roared. His face flushed a dangerous shade of red.
I flinched. Heart skipped a beat.
Before I could stammer an excuse, his hand shot out. Fingers clamped around my wrist like a shackle. He hauled me out of the chair. Dragged me toward the hallway.
"Leo! Stop! What the hell are you doing?!" I shrieked. Clawed at his grip.
He'd had crushes on me before. Sure. But this? This was animalistic.
He was stronger than he looked. He shoved me into the master bathroom. Pinned me in front of the massive, lighted mirror. Pointed at my reflection. Chest heaving with a rage that bordered on heartbreak.
"Look at yourself! Look at those marks!" he hissed. "You told me you had the flu? You told me you were on a drip? I didn't know a fever left *hickeys* all over a girl's neck!"
I froze.
In the harsh LED light of the mirror, the truth was undeniable. I'd worn a high-collared shirt to hide the damage. But in the struggle? The fabric had shifted.
There they were. Blunt. Violet-red. Blossoms of shame branded onto my pale skin by the "Master."
My silence was the final insult.
Leo's eyes turned bloodshot. "You don't have a boyfriend, Liulian. I know your life. So tell me… who touched you? Who did this?!"
Something in me snapped.
The exhaustion. The violation. The fever. All of it boiled over.
I yanked my collar back into place. Glared at him with defiant fire.
"Leo, this is my private life." My voice was a gravelly rasp. "It's none of your damn business!"
Leo's fists were white at his sides. His eyes dark with a possessive, suffocating heat.
My skin crawled under his stare. I didn't want to talk about last night. I wanted to bury it in a shallow grave. But he stood there. Relentless. Picking at my scabs like they belonged to him.
I brushed past him. Face a mask of cold iron.
I was done. Rich kids like him were all the same. Spoiled rotten. Thinking they could demand the truth from the world just by raising their voices.
I took two steps.
His hand snaked out. Grabbed my shoulder.
"You're not leaving!" he barked.
I twisted away with a violent jerk.
The force of my own momentum sent me staggering. My heel caught on the rug. I slammed onto the hardwood floor with a bone-jarring thud.
A sharp, white-hot pain flared in my wrist. I hissed through my teeth.
"Liulian! God, are you okay?"
Leo's face went pale. His bravado vanishing in an instant.
But before he could reach down to help me, the front door swung open.
"Liulian? Why are you on the floor? What's going on here?"
Miranda. Leo's mother. A powerhouse in the fashion industry. Sharp. Polished. Observant.
She rushed over, helping me to my feet. Leo stood back. Jaw set in a sullen, guilty line.
"It's nothing, Miranda." I rubbed my aching wrist. Avoided Leo's burning gaze. "I just tripped. My own clumsiness."
Miranda shot her son a suspicious look. Ready to tear into him.
Leo beat her to it.
"Class is over." His voice jagged. "I'm not in the mood. You can go now, *Teacher.*"
He spun on his heel. Stormed into his bedroom. Slammed the door so hard the framed art on the walls rattled.
Miranda sighed. Gave me a weary, apologetic smile.
"I am so sorry, Liulian. He's been a nightmare lately. Let's call it a day. I'll make sure you're paid for the full session regardless."
"No, Miranda." I forced a professional smile, despite the throbbing in my arm. "I only take what I earn."
---
A few days later, Miranda called.
Leo "needed space." I should take a break from tutoring.
I didn't fight it.
I needed the time to hunt for a real job. Senior year was almost over. I needed a salary. A health plan for my mother. A way out of this city's shadow.
Strangely, the scandal with Chief Guo's son vanished.
One day everyone was whispering. The next? It was like it never happened. The media went silent. The police didn't call.
I felt that invisible hand again. The one that had dressed me in silk and blue sandals. Quietly smoothing over the cracks in my life.
Haunting.
A cage I couldn't see.
My life settled into a fragile, artificial peace.
Until the phone rang.
My mother.
Her breath hitched and rattled in the receiver. Sounded like a dying cicada in the late August heat.
"Liulian... your father... he..."
"Mom? Slow down. Take a breath." My heart leaped into my throat.
Her asthma was severe. One panic attack could be fatal. And she was hundreds of miles away with no one to hold her up.
She let out a ragged, desperate gasp. Her voice rising into a terrifying wail.
"Your father... something happened! He's in trouble!"
Through my mother's frantic, broken gasps, I pieced together the wreckage.
My father had been blindsided.
Someone leaked a dossier on bribery and corruption. Right before the state elections. He was being detained. Stripped of power. Ruined.
To the world, I was just a girl living with a single mother.
But the blood in my veins told a different story.
My father wasn't just anyone. He was Xu Dingbian. Deputy Mayor of a massive northern metropolis.
And me? I was his secret. His shame. His illegitimate daughter, kept in the shadows of a secondary city.
I knew he loved my mother.
My name, Liulian, was his silent vow. On the surface, it meant "eternal attachment." But it was a hidden code—a promise that he would remain devoted to my mother, Lian Su, even as he lived a lie with another woman.
I never understood why they couldn't be together.
Why he married someone else while my mother raised me in struggle and silence.
They never told me. I never asked.
I just lived in the quiet center of their storm.
---
I hung up the phone. My hands shook so hard I nearly dropped it.
I scrambled to book a flight home.
Too late for the red-eye.
I snagged the earliest seat for tomorrow morning. Prayed my mother's heart wouldn't give out before I touched down.
---
**Midnight. The Executive Suite of Shen Yuan Group.**
The office was a tomb of glass and steel. The only light came from a computer screen.
Lu Zhouyue was a silhouette of focused intensity. His fingers flew across the keyboard like he was conducting a war.
Shanni hurried in.
He finished his final task. Leaned back. His tall frame sinking into the heavy leather executive chair. He closed his eyes. Rubbed his temples with a weary, jagged motion.
"Shanni." His voice was a low rasp. "Set up a dinner with her for tomorrow night."
He said it like a man making a final, desperate gamble.
He hadn't seen her since that night in the penthouse. He'd buried himself in billion-dollar deals just to keep from losing his mind. Terrified of the look she'd give him when she realized who had claimed her in the dark.
Shanni hesitated. Her expression tightened.
"Sir… I'm afraid that's not possible." She paused. "I've just received word that Miss Xu's father is in serious trouble. She's already booked the earliest flight to her hometown tomorrow morning."
Lu's eyes snapped open.
The exhaustion vanished. Replaced by predatory, electric sharpness.
"What?" he hissed.
He didn't need the details. He was already three steps ahead.
"Book me on that same flight. Now."
He leaned forward. His gaze boring into Shanni's.
"And Shanni… you know exactly which seat I want."
"Understood, Mr. Lu."
Shanni backed out of the office. Her heart heavy with familiar, bitter chill.
She knew exactly what he wanted.
He wanted the seat right next to her.
And she would move heaven and earth. Bribe every airline official. Pull every string in the industry.
To make sure he got it.
---
**The Next Morning. International Airport.**
I arrived at the terminal three hours early.
A ball of raw nerves and grief.
Every minute felt like an hour.
I paced the marble floors. My mind racing between my father's cell and my mother's gasping breath.
I just wanted to be home.
I just wanted to be safe.
I had no idea that the very man I was running from had already bought the air I was about to breathe.