**Chapter 9**
My hands and feet were bound, my head pressed firmly onto a filthy table.
The hulking man slowly dragged a knife across my body. The blade glinted, slicing open the fabric on my chest, revealing fair skin and a dangling silver pendant.
Julian was kneeling nearby, his face bruised and swollen, yet he smirked menacingly at me.
My heart pounded with terror; a wave of fury surged through me.
Julian had brought Dad’s body to the front of the research institute, loudly accusing me of being an unfilial daughter who refused to support her parents.
I was furious and about to argue when suddenly, a few people appeared by the roadside, shoved me into a car, and I was gone before the research institute’s security guards could even react.
“What do you want?” I stared coldly at the hulking man.
The hulking man chuckled lewdly. “I like stubborn ones like you; it’s more exciting to play with! But I have a little hobby: I love to watch a few people together putting on a lively show for me. Your husband owes fifty million. As his wife, you naturally have to help him pay off the debt.”
I tried my best to remain calm. “His wife Is Blair. We signed a divorce agreement right in front of you, and it clearly stated I wouldn’t bear any debt.”
“Son of a bitch!” The hulking man kicked Julian, sending him stumbling, then turned back to me with a smile. “His new wife, and even her mother, have already been filming‘ for me. Business is quite good. Don’t be so heartless, ex–wife.”
A shiver of disgust ran through my chest. Julian was truly at the end of his rope, completely beyond caring.
Seeing the man’s dirty hand reaching for my chest, my patience reached its limit. I shouted towards the door, “That’s enough! Time to close the trap!”
A tall man kicked open the door, and a group of people swarmed in. The hulking man didn’t even realize what was happening before he was pinned to the ground, yelping in pain.
Asher untied me, but kept his head down, not daring to look at my exposed chest.
“Young Master Sterling, why did you come personally?” I mischievously leaned closer to him, the silver pendant on my chest swinging back and forth.
“Hey, hey, hey, that’s enough!” Asher took off his jacket and draped it over me, frowning as he looked at the hulking man.
Since his recovery, he had actively cooperated with treatment and had been officially recognized and taken back by the Sterling family. That’s when we learned his name was Asher Sterling, a legitimate young master of the powerful Sterling family.
Three years ago, while studying abroad, he had unfortunately been abducted and made into a test subject, eventually making his way back to City A.
He seized an opportunity to destroy that illegal lab, but he also contracted the virus. Thankfully, I had knocked him out with that rolling pin just in time.
The silver pendant on his neck had a tracker installed. When I saw Julian appear, dragging Dad’s body, I had a premonition it could be useful, so I had to commandeer it from him.
I took off the silver pendant to return it to him, but he stammered that he was just giving it to me, his face flushing crimson.
*He’s quite cute,* I thought, then glanced back at Julian.
He stared expressionlessly in the direction I had come from, his eyes now filled only with a dead, stagnant silence.
I turned my head, no longer looking back at the humiliating past, and moved forward towards a brand new future.
