A sharp pain drilled into Claire Hayes's skull.Her eyelids felt heavy, glued together by dried sweat. The air in the room was cold, smelling of damp concrete and cheap soap.She shifted beneath the rough blanket, her muscles aching.Then, her bare skin brushed against something solid.Something warm, hard, and breathing.Claire froze.A chill raced down her spine. Her breath locked in her throat, and her heart began to hammer like a trapped beast.Slowly, she lifted the blanket.Her clothes were gone.Her designer dress, her earrings, her underwear. Everything was scattered across the cheap floor in torn pieces.Between her thighs, a dull ache told her the brutal truth.She was completely naked. And she was no longer a virgin."No... this cannot be real," she whispered in horror.She whipped her head to the side.Lying on the single pillow next to her was a man.He was sleeping soundly, bare above the waist. His chest was wide and corded with lean muscle, marked by pale scars. Dark h

Claire Hayes stared at Ethan Cole as if she were looking at a ghost.Her fingers dug into her designer leather purse. Her chest rose and fell with sharp breaths under her silk blouse."You followed me here!" Claire shouted, stepping into Ethan's path. "Five thousand dollars was not enough for you?! You took advantage of a drugged woman in a cheap motel, and now you have the nerve to track me to my home?!"Ethan looked at her with calm indifference. He adjusted the rope of his wooden toolbox over his shoulder."Miss Hayes, you have a very high opinion of yourself," Ethan said in a steady voice. "I arrived in Riverdale yesterday. I do not know you, and I certainly did not follow you. I came here for my own business.""Business?!" Claire scoffed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "At my family's private estate? In those dusty sneakers and that faded shirt? What business could a homeless vagrant have at the Hayes Villa?!""I am here to meet someone," Ethan said, pulling a folded piece of p

Two hours later, outside the Riverdale Civil Affairs Bureau.The afternoon sun reflected off the glass doors of the government building.Claire Hayes stood on the sidewalk, clutching two red booklets with gold state seals in her trembling hand.Married.She was officially married to a man she had met only that morning in a thirty-dollar motel room. A man who wore dusty sneakers and carried his life in a battered wooden toolbox."Are you satisfied now?" Claire spat, turning to glare at Ethan Cole with blazing hazel eyes. "You used my grandfather's gratitude to force your way into my family. I hope you are proud of your dirty scheme."Ethan walked beside her with his hands tucked into his canvas trouser pockets. His wooden box hung lightly over his shoulder."Miss Hayes, you flatter yourself," Ethan replied evenly. "If I wanted money, your family's entire company would not buy one hour of my time.""Still bragging!" Claire scoffed in disgust. "You have no shame at all! You do not have a

The sound of George Shaw's heavy breathing was the only noise inside the VIP martial arena.Nobody moved. Nobody dared to take a breath.The wealthy heirs of Riverdale sat frozen, champagne glasses trembling in their hands. They looked at George Shaw, the powerful General Manager of the Apex Club, kneeling on the floor before a man in torn sneakers.It felt like a fever dream.Ethan Cole looked down at George Shaw with calm indifference. He adjusted his wooden toolbox over his shoulder."Stand up," Ethan said in a quiet voice. "I told your men I came to watch a show, not to receive your bows. You are making too much noise.""Yes, Master! Forgive my disturbance!" George scrambled to his feet, keeping his head bowed low, his hands folded like an obedient servant.On the floor, Richard Vance struggled to sit up.Blood trickled down his chin from his split lip. A gap in his front teeth made his words sound wet and slurred."Manager Shaw!" Richard yelled, his voice cracking with rage. "Hav

The operating theater was dead silent, save for the hum of ventilation.Lying on the steel table, Lily Cross looked like a statue carved from gray stone. Her limbs were stiffening. Her body temperature had dropped below eighty degrees.Standing near the glass observation window, Claire Hayes held her breath. Her hands gripped the strap of her handbag so tightly that her knuckles ached.She had seen Ethan bring her grandfather back to life earlier that morning. But her grandfather had only stopped breathing for a few minutes.Lily Cross had been dead for fourteen minutes. In the medical world, brain cells began dying after four minutes without oxygen. At fourteen minutes, irreversible brain death was absolute law.Ethan Cole did not look at the flatline monitor.He reached into his wooden toolbox. His fingers plucked three slender black needles from the velvet lining with uncanny precision."The three souls wander, the seven spirits scatter," Ethan murmured under his breath, his voice