Chapter 9: Sold Her Out
691 Words
Before Nina Walker left, she glanced back at him once more.
Lucas Parker sat by the window smoking. The swirling smoke made his eyes appear even more deep and unreadable. His shirt collar was slightly open—elegant, yet with a hint of rebellion.
“If your old injuries are flaring up, smoking and drinking won’t help. "You’d better quit and apply heat to the wound,” she said softly.
Her voice was gentle, like a cool breeze on a midsummer day, calm and unhurried.
Lucas raised an eyebrow, glancing at her.
She wasn’t very old, yet she already had the posture of someone giving advice.
Seeing that he didn’t respond, Nina sensibly stopped talking.
When she left the hot spring club, she realized it had started to rain. She hadn’t driven, and cabs couldn’t enter the club area. She could only shield her head with her hands and run through the rain.
From the 8th-floor window, Lucas’s gaze followed her until her figure disappeared into the rain. Then, he lowered his eyes and extinguished his cigarette.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something on the sofa.
It was her pendant.
The corners of his mouth curled into a mocking smile.
Left it on purpose?
Young, but full of schemes.
.......
Nina had deliberately left the pendant behind, thinking it might be their last meeting.
She knew that her little tricks were probably nothing in his eyes, but she still held onto a sliver of hope.
Hope that one day, Lucas Parker would contact her first.
But after days of waiting, she didn’t hear from Lucas, only from Bryan.
He pressured the Walker family business, causing their capital flow to nearly collapse.
At home, her father, Victor Walker, was furious, smashing plates and cups. “Didn’t you go talk to Bryan? What did he say?”
“He said he won’t call off the engagement,” Nina replied.
“If he’s not breaking off the engagement, what the hell is he trying to do? Drive me to death?” Victor’s veins bulged on his forehead.
“He said... he won’t call it off because he wants us to beg him for humiliation.”
“That bastard! Me? Beg him? "In his dreams!” Victor shouted, smashing the ashtray. “Back then, when the Parker family was in trouble, who helped them? And now this ungrateful traitor!”
He turned to Nina. “You’ve been engaged to him for five years and still couldn’t win his heart? Useless!”
“Enough, it’s Bryan who’s being ruthless. Why yell at her?” her aunt, Linda, stepped in to defend her.
Victor looked over at Nina. “Do you have a night shift tonight?”
“No.”
“I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, and I even hit you the other day. I’m sorry. Let’s go out with your aunt tonight and have a good meal—my treat.”
After work, Nina received a message from her uncle:
[Eterna Hotel, Room 5001.]
She didn’t think much of it and headed straight to the private room.
But when she opened the door, what she saw made her eyes tremble.
“Miss Nina, your uncle will be here shortly. Come, have a seat,” said a man in his fifties. Everyone else called him Mr. Gao.
He had thinning hair and a bulging beer belly. His beady eyes roamed over her like invisible hands, making her feel sick.
Several other men soon entered. Except for the host’s seat, all were filled. Still no sign of her uncle or aunt.
A chill crept through her.
She understood.
Her uncle had sold her out.
He brought her here to drink and entertain, and use her body in exchange for money.
“Sorry I’m late,” a deep voice said.
Nina looked up.
The man was dressed in black, a coat slung casually over his arm. His aura was sharp and overwhelming—arrogant and dangerous, not the usual refined restraint.
It was Lucas Parker.
And in this group of men’s eyes, she was nothing more than a dish on the table.
- Writer
