Chapter 1: Have I Become a Sold Out?
(First-Person POV version)
The first thing I felt was the softness beneath me.
A bed — large, cold, unfamiliar. The faint scent of tobacco lingered in the air, mingled with a perfume far too expensive for me.
I blinked hard, my lashes trembling as my vision adjusted to the dim golden light. Marble floors gleamed beneath a crystal chandelier, and soft curtains swayed gently with the evening breeze.
I sat up abruptly. My head throbbed. Bruises ringed my wrists. My heart pounded so violently I thought it might break my ribs.
Where am I? Who brought me here?
Clutching the blanket tightly, fragments from the previous night slammed into me — guns, screams, and that cold, commanding voice.
That man. Stafford Raymond. The billionaire everyone feared.
My eyes darted around the room. I wasn't dead.
I was on his bed.
My mind clawed back through the pain that had led me here — betrayal, ruin, and the vow I'd whispered to myself during nights drenched in tears and silence.
---
My life had once been peaceful — calm as my mother's lullabies.
Born into wealth, I'd been untouched by sorrow. I believed in fairness, in kindness, in trust.
But fate doesn't honor innocence. It tests it.
After my parents, Amelia Chris and Jake Lin, died, life became a cruel shadow. Smiles I once cherished now hid daggers. Everyone I trusted turned away.
Marcus — the man I planned to marry — betrayed me.
Charlotte — my best friend — stole him.
"Mum, Dad," I cried one night into my empty room, "if you hadn't left me, Charlotte wouldn't have stolen my life."
My voice echoed back at me. "She framed me at work, called me a thief, a whore — things I never was!"
Marcus believed her. He said I was unworthy of love.
The man I had loved and protected for five years had abandoned me.
I had lived by principle — I'd never given myself to him before marriage. I thought he respected that. I was wrong.
He had been sleeping with Charlotte.
And Martha — the coworker I trusted most — had helped them.
"You really thought people liked you?" Martha had sneered in the office. "Marcus made the right choice. If I'd met him first, I'd have taken him."
That day, I was fired — framed for a scandal I hadn't committed. I ran to Marcus's house, desperate for answers, only to hear laughter behind the door.
Charlotte's voice was sharp and venomous.
"She's been a pain. Why don't we just get rid of her?"
Marcus laughed. "No need. We've taken all her wealth. Maybe we should sell her next."
I fell to my knees. My world collapsed in that instant.
---
The betrayal went deeper than I imagined.
Marcus had drugged me once — during what I thought was a date — and made me sign documents while I was half-conscious. My parents' company, our mansion — all gone.
When the bank officer said the house now belonged to Marcus Berish, the truth hit like lightning. I laughed through my tears.
Everything was gone.
My wealth. My home. My car. My dignity.
Silence swallowed me. Then a whisper escaped my lips:
"I'm finished."
---
That night, I wandered beneath the bleeding sunset until I found a remote, half-built house hidden among overgrown bushes. I dropped my bag, spread my scarf, and lay down.
Sleep came, but voices soon tore through the darkness.
"Boss said track him down."
"Impossible! Stafford Raymond is a ghost!"
"Shut up! We hide here till his men pass."
Three men — Kay, Fire Arm, and Slaughter — crept inside. One of them spotted me.
"Leader, there's a woman here."
"A woman?" Kay snapped. "We don't have time for this!"
Fire Arm grinned. "They say Stafford never harms women. What if we use her as bait?"
Kay smirked. "Now that's an idea."
Rough hands yanked me upright.
"Hey, wake up! You either kill or get killed — no option to live," Fire Arm said, tapping my leg with a cutlass.
I screamed. "Please… don't kill me. I'll do anything!"
"Then cooperate," Kay said coldly. "Or die."
My wrists burned. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I thought Marcus had sent them. My whole body shook.
"If I ever get out alive," I vowed, "I'll make them pay. Every single one."
---
Engines roared outside.
"Leader! They're here!" Fire Arm shouted.
"Untie the woman! Now!" Kay barked.
Three men in dark suits stormed in, guns raised. A cold, low voice cut through the chaos.
"Stop."
Everyone froze. I knew that voice immediately.
Stafford Raymond.
Billionaire. Mafia lord. The man who never touched a woman.
He stepped forward, cigarette between his fingers, sharp gaze slicing through the smoke.
"You thought you could hide from me?" His tone was calm — too calm — yet it froze the air around us.
Kay aimed his gun. "Stay back, Raymond! Or she dies!"
A faint smirk curved Stafford's lips. "Is that your escape plan?"
Three gunshots cracked the air — Kpaa! Kpaa! Kpaa!
The gang members dropped, blood gushing from their legs. I screamed.
"Please don't kill me!" I cried.
Stafford glanced at me, his expression unreadable. "Take them underground. Let Spike handle them."
My vision blurred. I felt faint. He stepped closer. Something in his eyes shifted — something I couldn't name.
He lifted me. His arms were strong, steady. The world around me dimmed.
"Home," he ordered his driver.
"Yes, boss," Sky replied, eyes wide at the sight of me in his arms.
---
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the same bed I'd woken on.
He had brought me here.
Stafford Raymond — the man who feared women — had touched me.
He sighed, removed his jacket, and cleaned my wounds with quiet precision. His hands were cold, but his touch was unexpectedly gentle.
Then I heard him say, "Paris, come over. Now."
Minutes later, a woman's voice echoed through the hall. "Where's my little brother?"
"Upstairs," another man answered.
Paris rushed in and froze. Stafford sat beside me, expression unreadable.
"Who is she?" she asked.
"Someone caught in a mess," he said flatly. "Take care of her."
Paris blinked. "You… brought a woman home?"
He didn't respond. His eyes lingered on me one last time before he turned to leave.
For the first time, the man who feared women… had touched one.
Downstairs, his voice echoed through the mansion:
"No one disturbs her until I say so."