Chapter 02

AUTHOR'S POV

Sara's eyes opened when she heard alot of annoying loud noises around her. Groaning, she grabbed her hair, feeling the strong hangover and then looked around with her eyes widening up.

The flutters of alot of cameras started causing her anxiety, when she looked beside her and noticed the man from previous night still sleeping.

“ Ms Sara Lexington! Is this your boyfriend? ” A reporter shouted out his question, as the club's guards tried to push them out.

Sara's life flashed in front of her eyes, as she felt her senses numbing. She tried to remember what happened last night but everything was blurry in her mind. Unconsciously, she pulled the duvet closer to her body realising what must have happened.

She could still hear the reporter's voices, but she could not understand what they were saying anymore. She was too shocked to accept that she, Sara Lexington, slept with a random man and then reporters took photos of the scene.

A scandal. A scandal which was going to turn her world upside down. Her body started trembling, thinking about the reactions of her Father, Her Uncles, Her Aunts, Her Grandmother and lastly...

Her Grandfather.

With his face coming into her mind, she shivered and took in a shaky breath, refusing to look at the man, who was still sleeping like no one could ever wake him up from this beauty sleep.

“ We are sorry for this Ma'am. ” The guard apologized after pushing the reporters out of the small suffocating room, but what was his apology worth now, when those reporters were going to cause her a big reputation crisis. Her mind suddenly started working.

She needed to stop them. She had to stop them.

“ Get out! ” She hissed at the guard and he hurried out of there, closing the door behind him.

Stealing a last glare at the sleeping man, she started finding her clothes and wore them back quickly. She had not bothered to fix her hairs or face before running out of the room and straight to her car, where she had dropped her phone last night in anger.

Regret was weighing her down and dread was making her want to jump off a bridge to die.

With her fingers trembling and tears blurring her vision, she dialed Secretary Liam's number. He picked up on the first ring and before she could say something, he started informing her about the situation worriedly.

Hearing what he said, she hanged up the call and threw the phone on the passenger seat.

' Ma'am Where are you? There are pictures of you with a man all over the media and your family is furious along with the Board members. They all need you to explain who that man was. This scandal is too far gone out of our hands. ' Secretary Liam's words echoed in her ears and she hit her hands against the steering wheel, shouting in frustation.

She kept hitting her hands against it, until they went numb with pain and she was sure, that the skin was ruptured internally.

Tears started pouring out of her eyes, but she sniffled, trying to dull down the ache.

Looking up at the roof of the car, she fanned her face with her hands and sniffed loudly, pushing all the overwhelming emotions back.

Shaking her head, she turned the engine on and pulled her car out of the parking lot, speeding towards her penthouse to change and head to the Lexington Villa to explain herself, as they had called it.

When she made her way inside her lavish penthouse, her knees gave up on her and she fell down, before pulling herself back up again.

All she had worked on for her whole life, was about to be blown up, just because she couldn't control her desire and lust. How could she do this?

She ended up trading all her life for a petty one night stand. To think about it, she gave up her virginity without even realizing what she was doing. She hit her head against the cold wall and tried to get herself back together.

She needed to find a way out of this. She couldn't just let all her life go down the drain, because of a drunken mistake.

Wiping the betraying tears away harshly, she headed to her room and rushed to change her clothes into more presentable one's.

When she stood in front of the mirror, her eyes trailed the purplish marks down her neck and all over her body heating up her cheeks with the blurry memories of last night still not making any sense.

Clenching her already hurting hands into tiny fists, she looked away and wore a black pant with a white button up shirt. She didn't forget to hide all the marks with the concealer. Even if she was miserable right now, she wouldn't let anyone know. She forced a smile on her lips and refused to turn on the TV to watch the news.

Walking out of the penthouse with the coat and giving herself a pep-talk to be neutral, she drove off to the Lexington Villa.

Her family was the 3rd richest in the whole country, that's why all eyes were fixed on them.

She gulped the lump in her throat down, when the castle like Lexington Villa came into her view. She refrained from staring at it for longer and slowed down her car, as the main gates were opened, letting her drive inside the Villa to park her car in the driveway.

She got out of the car with her hands still trembling and made her way inside the Villa, ignoring the respectful bows of the guards and maids. She knew all of them must be waiting for her in the family living room.

Just like she expected, they were all sitting in the living room and when she stepped forth, all eyes went to her, scaring her even more.

Aunt Leigh, her Father's sister was sitting with her husband Uncle Joseph and their daughter Maria.

Aunt Leigh was a vengeful and cunning woman, who knew how to twist every situation to her advantage.

Her husband, Uncle Joseph on the contrary, was a calm and mysterious man with the eyes of a hawk. No one could know what went through his head, but it was always evil - Sara was sure of it.

Their daughter Maria, Sara's cousin was ambitious and a well-known Bitch, who knew how to pretend innocent to get what she wanted.

Uncle John, Her father's brother was sitting with his wife Aunt Aria and their son and daughter, Ryan and Camelia.

Uncle John was the epitome of sinister, the one who was interested in seeing other's suffer for his own entertainment.

His Wife Aunt Aria, was surprisingly the only good and generous person in their whole family. But was she really what she made others think or not...That was a mystery.

Their son, Ryan was a fuckboy and useless, not knowing anything about the way everything worked here. He was only interested in having fun with the money and women.

Their daughter Camelia was the complete opposite of Ryan. She was interested in business and was one of the two favoured children of this family.

Rowan, was also sitting there like a king with his expressions neutral as always. He was her Grandfather's supposed to be adopted son, who was never officially adopted. He was raised by her Grandmother and Grandfather, making him the most favoured child. His intentions were still unclear. It was impossible to know what he was really like.

Her father, Henry Lexington was not in the room, she had noticed. Maybe, they didn't let him sit between them, as he was the most hated person in this family except for Sara, herself.

Lastly, her eyes went to her stern Grandmother Eloise, sitting on the single sofa like a queen. She was the mastermind of this household, after the ultimate mastermind, her Grandfather whose words were rules here. But as always, her Grandfather was not present. He rarely met his family.

“ Sara Lexington! ” Her Grandmother's threatingly low voice called out to her and she felt shivers run up her spine.

“ Grandmother! Sara ruined our reputation. All my friends are laughing at me right now. ” Maria hissed and complained to Grandmother Eloise, to get even with her for how Sara tried to expose her at the party yesterday.

Sara gulped and her palms started sweating, not finding the right words to defend herself.

“ Wow. Cousin sister, I thought you were heartless, but you turned out to be quite...Slutty and Wild. ” Ryan snickered and sipped on the glass of juice, that was held in his hand, as Sara's cheeks started heating up in embarassment and humiliation.

“ Quiet! ” Her Grandmother raised her hand and everyone went silent, still glaring at Sara. They had finally found the fault in her and they were going to drag it to the end. They were going to drag HER to the end. Sara gulped keeping her eyes down.

“ You will be punished for ruining Lexington family's reputation, Sara! No wonder, you are just like your father who didn't know how to keep it in his pants and married that bitch who then gave birth to a dishonourable woman like you. ” Grandmother Eloise threw the dagger of words once again at Sara, who clenched her hands into fists, hearing her mother being shamed once again.

' She was a dead woman now so let her rest in peace atleast ' Sara wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, but her voice was stuck in her throat just like it had been for years now.

“ Do you have anything to say? ” Grandmother Eloise asked and Sara regretfully shook her head in No. Even if she had so much to say, she knew it was not worth it. She had to endure this, until she somehow managed to inherit The Lexington Group - The purpose of her life.

“ Then you are punished to get down on your knees repeatedly for 100 times in the yard and say that you are sorry and you regret what you did. ” Her Grandmother proudly announced her punishment and Sara's eyes went wide with her head snapping up to gaze up at her Grandmother and notice the grin on everyone else's faces except for Rowan's.

“ Do you have any objection? ” Her Grandmother raised her eyebrows, challenging Sara to say something.

“ No, Grandmother! ” Sara choked out on her breath and her mind already started spinning, while thinking of the punishment. She was sure, that she would faint halfway through it, but she started walking away.

“ I have an objection! ” A loud powerful voice boomed in the living room, stunning everyone for a moment, as Sara's dull eyes went wide again.

She abruptly turned around only to find Grandfather Magnus standing on the other side of the living room, with his head held high and his aura radiating off power.

“ Only I have the right to decide her punishment. ” His eyes turned to glare at her and Sara's breath hitched.

“ And that punishment is... ” He stepped forth, revealing her father behind him, as sweat started dripping down Sara's forehead.

“ She will marry the same man she slept with, last night! ” He declared and the collective happy gasps of everyone rang in the room, freezing Sara's blood in her veins.

No...She stumbled back on her feet.

Maybe, she really ended up trading her whole life for the pleasure of just one night.

But in the end, was The one night stand with a man she didn't even know the name of, worth her lifetime?