He Gave Me to His Boss, He Cried and Begged M

Chapter 3

I crashed to the floor and banged my elbow against the corner of the coffee table. Pain shot through my arm.

Ryan rose to his feet, his voice cold. "Your eyes look a little like my fiancée's, so I'll let you off this time. Next time, I won't care whether you're Mr. Hayes's woman."

As if I wanted his mercy.

I went straight to Damian to complain. I told him everything, with a few carefully chosen embellishments.

Damian listened to my furious rambling without the slightest impatience.

He cleaned the scrape on my arm and soothed me as if I were a child. "Don't be mad. I'll punish him."

That was more like it.

Then he added, "But don't mention his fiancée again. She matters more to him than his own life.

"Ryan has almost died several times. The only thing that kept him going was the thought of going home to marry her."

I listened in stunned silence.

Fine. I admit I would never go that far. His fiancée truly was his weak spot.

Curiosity got the better of me. "What's her name? What does she look like?"

Damian thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I've never seen her.

"I vaguely remember that her last name is Carter, just like yours."

That evening, Ryan came to my room again. There were fresh welts across his hand.

I grinned. "Serves you right."

He tossed a set of car keys onto the table. "The drug hasn't fully got out of Mr. Hayes's system. Go stay with him."

"That's none of your business!" I cried. "He didn't even ask for me!"

"You're not going?"

He looked at me with open mockery. "Still trying to save yourself for your fiancé?"

Then he delivered an even crueler blow. "It takes 7 days for that drug to wear off. If you don't go, whatever happens to him is on you."

I stared at him in disbelief. "You're disgusting..."

First, he drugged me, and now he was threatening me. Did other people's lives mean nothing to him?

He sneered. "That makes two of us. At least I didn't run to complain.

"Now go.

"Even your fiancé would be happy for you if he knew."

My whole body trembled with rage. I nearly cursed every generation of his family.

"You'll get what you deserve!"

He laughed. "Let's wait and see."

When Damian found out, he punished Ryan again.

Damian stayed with me for 7 days.

He was kind and incredibly gentle. The way he looked at me grew softer each day.

My feelings began to waver.

Maybe people were right when they said intimacy made feelings grow.

If that first night had been the only accident between us, Damian and I might never have reached this point.

On the seventh day, Damian said, "Maya, I've already told my family. When we go back, I'll make our relationship official."

I agreed.

If I was going to be with Damian, I owed Ryan an explanation.

I asked Damian for a sum of money and transferred all of it to Ryan as compensation. Then I wrote a letter ending things and asked the hotel receptionist to mail it to the address he had given me.

We had communicated through letters for years.

His work was sensitive, so he couldn't give me his real address. I always mailed my letters to the P.O. box he provided, and he collected them when he had time.

Several days after sending the letter, I suddenly remembered...

I still had our engagement ring.

Ryan and I had been promised to each other since childhood.

But our engagement had only been a verbal promise, never anything formal.

Even the ring was something he had hurriedly bought from a tiny jewelry shop before leaving for Bayhaven.

He hadn't mentioned it once in all his letters.

I figured it couldn't mean that much to him.

Besides, I had sent him so much money that he could buy hundreds of rings just like it.

That could be my compensation.

Having convinced myself, I made the decision alone.

I went to the small garden behind the hotel, found a corner, and crouched down to bury the ring.

I had barely scraped at the soil when a voice exploded behind me. "What are you sneaking around out here for?"

My hand jerked. The ring flew from my fingers and struck the stone steps, bending out of shape.

Ryan had appeared out of nowhere like a ghost.

I opened my mouth to curse him.

Then I looked up and saw his face.

Every trace of color had vanished. He was frighteningly pale.

He bent down, his fingers trembling, and carefully picked up the misshapen ring.

I stared at him in confusion.

He raised his head and fixed me with a hard stare. His voice cracked.

"That ring... Where did you get it?!"