The room erupted in laughter, fingers pointing and mocking the three men. Ryder, who had known nothing but deference since joining me, could not bear this kind of humiliation. His eyes instantly filled with bloodshot fury, glaring at me, Watching his murder-
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te the trio. Now, the people in the cage were being gazed upon like animals in a zoo. Their faces flushed crimson, filled with humil-
lation and resentment.
I subtly signaled to a balding man nearby. The man, seeing my cue, grew excited. He eagerly raised his paddle, “I bid one hundred!”
Everyone stopped, seeing no displeasure on my face, and understood immediately. “One hundred once, one hundred twice, one
hundred third time, sold!”
“However, sir, you may only choose one to take.”
The man was startled, having thought he could take all three. He glanced at my expression, then quickly pointed to Zane. “I’ll take
him.”
Zane, seeing this, looked at me in horror, trembling all over with fear. The balding man stepped forward, yanked Zane out, and leaned in, sniffing him. He wore an expression of sheer pleasure. Zane’s face was ashen. He struggled continuously, and the inten- se nausea and despair somehow allowed him to break free from the man’s grip. He crawled to my feet, kowtowing repeatedly,
begging for forgiveness.
Scarlett, I beg you, please don’t do this. Let me go, please? For the sake of us brothers saving you back then, just give us a chance
to live.”
The man before me bore no resemblance to his former arrogant self. But I didn’t want to speak. Suddenly feeling utterly bored, I
called out to the balding man.
“Mr. Davies, leave Ryder here. You can take the other two.”
The balding Mr. Davies was overjoyed, quickly nodding and bowing, signaling his bodyguards to take the despairing and terrified
Zane and Knox away. Unlike the despair of the other two, Ryder’s eyes lit up when he heard I was keeping him. His face was filled
with a look that screamed, ‘I knew it!‘.
I stood up and walked to Ryder’s cage. Just as I was about to squat down and tell him not to be delusional, that something far
better awaited him, the grand doors opened once more. A low, magnetic voice filled the room.
“Scarlett.”
My mocking expression towards Ryder froze on my face. I turned back in disbelief. And saw that face, the one I had yearned for day
and night.
I stared blankly as the man walked towards me, his eyes full of tenderness.
“Xander? Xander Sterling?”
“You’re alive?”
The man smiled, reaching out to pat my head. “I’m back.”
Xander Sterling was my cousin’s best friend. From the moment I could remember, I felt something special for him. As a child, I clung to this older brother, but when my heart first stirred with romance, I realized I was in love with him.
However, when I confessed my feelings, he cruelly rejected me. I thought it was all unrequited. Until that night, when I accidentally overheard a conversation between my cousin and him. “You clearly like the girl too, why-”
“People like us, who live on the edge, shouldn’t have too many attachments. Rejecting her was for her own good.”
But the next news I received about Xander was from my father. “He was captured while on a peacekeeping mission abroad. He died.”
I was devastated. That’s when I went exploring the wilderness alone, trying to vent my pain. My longing for Xander was torturing ‘me But I never expected that precisely when I missed him most, fate would send me Ryder, who was seven–tenths similar to Xan-
