When Dante arrived at the hospital, it was midnight and past visiting hours. However, he could sneak in with Alex’s help.In front of a closed door, he stood uncertainly. Moments later, he knocked softly on the door. It didn’t take long for Minerva to open the door.“Dante?” The old lady looked surprised, not expecting to see Dante there. Hadn’t Natalie hidden their whereabouts at the hospital?Dante pressed an index finger to his lips, asking Minerva to keep quiet. He glanced into the room and saw Natalie already sleeping. “Sorry, my arrival was too sudden and intrusive,” he whispered.Minerva immediately shook her head. “Not at all. Natalie must be happy to have you here. Please come in,” she said gently.Dante did not enter immediately. Instead, he walked to a waiting chair outside the room. Minerva sensed he had something to say, so she closed the door and followed him.“What is it? Do you have something to say?” Minerva asked.The man sighed. “Natalie hid everything from me. She
The next day, Dante drove Natalie and her grandmother home. Alex came with him, too.When they arrived, there were already several bodyguards standing guard at Minerva’s house. Natalie was surprised and asked Dante as soon as they got out of the car. “You arranged this?”“Your grandmother asked for it,” Dante replied casually.Minerva, who heard that, immediately coughed. How could that man take advantage of an old woman like her?“Grandma?” Natalie looked at Minerva in surprise. She never thought her grandmother would ask something like that of Dante.“You don’t mind, do you?” asked Minerva, supporting Dante’s lie. After all, the man was pretending not to know about the attack that night.Natalie shook her head slowly. The placement of bodyguards was a good thing. It wouldn’t be easy for Leon or George’s gang to get to her if there were bodyguards. It was better that she didn’t make a big deal out of it.“Thank you,” she said to Dante. She was just worried that he already knew someth
In a dark prison cell, a large, fierce-looking female inmate threw a bucket and a mop into a corner of the floor. She pushed another female inmate into the wall.“From now on, you’ll be the one doing this disgusting work. Aren’t you so arrogant and consider yourself still a famous model? Rubbish!”Natalie Hale, the woman who had just been violently pushed, unconsciously clenched her fists. The look in her eyes became cold. “You’re no better than me.”A loud slapping sound rang out immediately. “You still dare to answer me, huh?!”The anger and hatred in Natalie’s heart grew even more intense. She held her red cheeks with a trembling body. Before she could return the slap, someone suddenly came over.“You two, stop fighting! Miss Hale, come with me!” a warden ordered.Natalie closed her eyes, trying to compose herself. She glanced coldly at her enemy before finally stepping up to follow the warden. Moments later, she was in front of an unfamiliar and mysterious man dressed in black.Sh
“Young lady, please follow me.” An auctioneer said to Natalie after the whole auction was over. She gritted her teeth and then wordlessly walked after him.The man escorted Natalie out of the auction house. A black SUV was waiting for her outside the exit. “Miss Smith, please.”Natalie tried to look calm. She opened the car door. The man in the hat, who had bought her for an outrageous price, sat in the passenger seat. He stared straight ahead.“Get in!” he ordered without turning around.The passenger seats were not separated, so Natalie sat right next to the man. She closed the door, and the car drove off. Not a word was said between them, and the longer it went on, the more uneasy Natalie felt.Questions raged in her head. She silently glanced at the man next to her. Her action was somehow immediately noticed by the man. She immediately turned her face out the window.Dante raised the corners of his lips. “If you want to know something, why don’t you ask, Ms. Smith?” His voice soun
Natalie gasped. A woman wearing the uniform of the head housemaid stood behind her, looking alert and probing. She was about 40 years old.“I...” Natalie felt scared and confused. She glanced downstairs and then quickly shook her head. “Can you-““Of course!” The head maid interrupted loudly and gave her a sharp look. She grabbed Natalie’s hand and dragged her downstairs. “Sir, someone’s looking for you!”Dante sat in a large, classic armchair made of velvet. Alex stood beside him, while in front of him, a subordinate was beating Tomas mercilessly. The man with the surname Vittorio looked like a king watching over them with a cold heart.“Miss Smith, please help me!” shouted Tomas, whose body was already battered. Seeing Natalie was like seeing an angel to him. He tried to crawl towards her, but Brent’s subordinates immediately kicked him to the ground.“Why are you doing this?” Natalie asked Dante cautiously. She was still a little taken aback by the head maid, who pulled her to face
“He knows my identity. He must know.”Natalie paced the room. After talking to Dante, she was becoming more and more certain he knew her identity as Natalie Hale, who should still be in prison. It made her feel even more uneasy.Two cruel men had threatened her and made her lose control of her life. Thinking about it only made her heart grow cold.“Getting out of prison isn’t as wonderful as I thought it would be.”Natalie closed her eyes. She used to be a cunning woman. Being in the competitive modeling industry for so many years required her to be ruthless and not easily bullied. However, what happened recently was beyond her capabilities.She had never faced the cruelty of a mobster. She had never been involved with the people of the underworld.Recalling her life’s journey of dirty things, Natalie was eager to live a quiet life after getting out of prison. She was tired and wanted to be a good woman who lived simply and stayed away from any conflict.However, from the moment she e
In the car, Natalie felt her legs go numb. She roughly removed her stilettos, making Dante smirk. He wanted to see how far she could go with her pretense.Women who make it in the modeling industry are not weak. They were sometimes cunning, seductive, and deceptive. Dante was very wary of those types of women.The car was moving toward Manhattan. Natalie didn’t say a word to Dante during the ride because she was in a bad mood. After nearly an hour, they finally arrived at a five-star hotel in the city center.Dante watched Natalie, who still hadn’t put on her stilettos. She looked so reluctant to move, as if she wanted to stay in the car. “Why aren’t you wearing your shoes yet?”“Tell me what your plan is, who we’re meeting, and what I should do,” Natalie replied with a flat expression. If she wanted to escape, then she had to know the situation.The man raised the corner of his lips. He reached into his coat pocket for something. A beautiful diamond ring appeared in his hand. “Nothin
To reach the toilet, Natalie needed to pass through a quiet corridor. There, she deliberately took off her stilettos and leaned against the wall. She sighed wearily. “You know, this hurts,” she complained.Bryan looked down, noticing Natalie’s blistered fingertips. Those beautiful feet looked pathetic as they were covered in red on the fingertips and heels.“Being a woman is never easy,” Natalie said. Bryan was silent, with a foggy mind. He scrutinized her body from top to bottom. The allure of her body was so strong. He was no Dante who could ignore such a beautiful and sexy woman.“Do you have any ointment or something?” Natalie asked.“No, I don’t. We never carry things like that.”Natalie’s expression became sullen. She bent over until her narrow cleavage was visible from the front. Her hands rubbed the tips of her toes. “I can’t walk anymore.”“Let me help you,” Bryan smirked. He pulled Natalie to her feet and carried her to the toilet.Natalie smiled meaningfully. She hugged Brya
The next day, Dante drove Natalie and her grandmother home. Alex came with him, too.When they arrived, there were already several bodyguards standing guard at Minerva’s house. Natalie was surprised and asked Dante as soon as they got out of the car. “You arranged this?”“Your grandmother asked for it,” Dante replied casually.Minerva, who heard that, immediately coughed. How could that man take advantage of an old woman like her?“Grandma?” Natalie looked at Minerva in surprise. She never thought her grandmother would ask something like that of Dante.“You don’t mind, do you?” asked Minerva, supporting Dante’s lie. After all, the man was pretending not to know about the attack that night.Natalie shook her head slowly. The placement of bodyguards was a good thing. It wouldn’t be easy for Leon or George’s gang to get to her if there were bodyguards. It was better that she didn’t make a big deal out of it.“Thank you,” she said to Dante. She was just worried that he already knew someth
When Dante arrived at the hospital, it was midnight and past visiting hours. However, he could sneak in with Alex’s help.In front of a closed door, he stood uncertainly. Moments later, he knocked softly on the door. It didn’t take long for Minerva to open the door.“Dante?” The old lady looked surprised, not expecting to see Dante there. Hadn’t Natalie hidden their whereabouts at the hospital?Dante pressed an index finger to his lips, asking Minerva to keep quiet. He glanced into the room and saw Natalie already sleeping. “Sorry, my arrival was too sudden and intrusive,” he whispered.Minerva immediately shook her head. “Not at all. Natalie must be happy to have you here. Please come in,” she said gently.Dante did not enter immediately. Instead, he walked to a waiting chair outside the room. Minerva sensed he had something to say, so she closed the door and followed him.“What is it? Do you have something to say?” Minerva asked.The man sighed. “Natalie hid everything from me. She
Dante wasn’t very busy that day and didn’t want to overthink about Natalie, so he came to visit his grandfather’s winery in Napa Valley. It was only about an hour and a half away from where he was staying.Roberto’s winery and vineyard in Napa Valley was much bigger than the branch in New York. However, the old man was more comfortable living in New York, where he could oversee his family’s illegal business.The manager and person in charge of the winery was Javer, one of Dante’s uncles, with whom he had almost no dealings. Javer only focused on taking care of the winery and never wanted to deal with the Vittorio family’s illegal business. So Dante also rarely interacted with him.When Dante came to visit, Javer was naturally surprised. The tall man met him immediately. “Dante, what’s so magical about you coming here?” His tone was sarcastic.“Uncle, I see your vineyard is getting busy,” Dante said as he watched the planters tending to the vines.Javer snorted. “Does the sunrise from
At night, Dante sat on a bar stool, massaging his forehead. His eyes were closed. The whiskey glass before him was empty, but his mood still hadn’t improved.Alex walked over and patted him on the back. “What are you going to do after this?”“I don’t know,” Dante muttered. He looked lethargic and lackluster. His cell phone rang for the umpteenth time, but he ignored it.“Do you hate her?” Alex asked, after seeing how Dante repeatedly ignored Natalie’s phone calls. It made him wonder how he felt about her.“I don’t know.”Dante asked the bartender for another whiskey. He seemed reluctant and lazy to talk about Natalie. However, the more unwilling he was to talk about her, the more obvious his fear of facing his emotions and feelings became.Alex, who had worked with Dante for years, could certainly recognize his abnormality. Although the man didn’t say or express it, Alex knew Dante must be disappointed with Natalie.“You wouldn’t just leave her, would you?” Alex sat down next to Dante
Natalie had received many stitches on her arm. The palm of her left hand was also stitched up. She was hospitalized and didn’t regain consciousness until the morning.When she opened her eyes, the first person she saw was her grandmother. The old lady was sitting on the sofa beside the hospital bed with her eyes closed. Her face and skin looked tired.Unconsciously, Natalie’s tears fell. She cried and sobbed not because of the pain in her body, but because she remembered the horrific incident of last night. She still felt scared and shocked.Minerva, who couldn’t sleep well, heard Natalie’s sobs. Both of her eyes opened. “Oh, my dear...”She got up and approached her granddaughter. Her hand gently rubbed Natalie’s head. “Are you feeling sick? I’ll call the doctor,” she said.Natalie shook her head. She wanted to grasp her grandmother’s hand, but she couldn’t move her hand. It was excruciating. Her left palm was also bandaged, and she couldn’t hold on to anything.“Don’t move too much.
Again, it was about Dante. Natalie took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “Why do you think I know about that? He’s an acute paranoid. Do you think he’d tell me every time he traveled?”The man shoved the muzzle of his gun harder into the back of Natalie’s head. “If he were wary of you, he wouldn’t treat you like a lover,” he said coldly.Natalie clenched her hands into fists. “You must not know him. He’s good at acting.”“Where did he go?!” the man snapped slightly while pushing the gun hard out of impatience. Natalie’s head hurt from the weapon. She stifled her groan.“I don’t know,” Natalie hissed. She secretly held the scissors under her pants. If the situation was urgent, she might use it to stab the man.“You don’t seem to be taking my threats seriously.” Suddenly, the man kicked Natalie’s leg so hard that she fell to her knees. Both knees hit the floor, and it hurt a lot.Natalie’s eyes watered slightly. She gritted her teeth against the pain and anger. “Are you George and
That night, Natalie spent time with her grandmother in bed. She lay down and hugged the old woman warmly. “Grandma, what’s been going on for the past two years?”Minerva gently stroked Natalie’s head. “Nothing special. I went to London a few times when I was bored.”Before Natalie was imprisoned, she often took her grandmother out to shopping, to social gatherings, or simply to travel abroad on vacation. However, since her arrest and imprisonment, Minerva rarely went out.“Darling, can you tell me what really happened back then? I know you couldn’t have committed a crime, so who framed you so cruelly?”Natalie closed her eyes. “It wasn’t Brent,” she whispered.“Are you sure it wasn’t your ex?” Minerva asked to make sure.Natalie nodded. She had been imprisoned for premeditated murder. She was accused of hiring a hitman to kill Beverley by running her over with a car. However, Chris, Brent’s twin brother, saved Beverley, which made him hit by the car and killed.Brent Oliver investigat
An old lady wearing a cardigan and a long skirt came out of the house. Her graying hair was neatly put in a bun. She looked so elegant despite her age.The old lady walked to the fence of the house. Even her steps looked calm and graceful. Natalie, who saw the lady, immediately smiled with emotion. “My grandma hasn’t changed,” she murmured.“So gorgeous,” Dante praised. He was amazed by how graceful and gentle Natalie’s grandmother was, like a noble lady.“Grandma!” Natalie called out to her grandmother. The old lady, who initially felt a little confused, immediately smiled.Minerva Wentworth immediately asked her housemaid to open the gate. “Please, open the gate!”The housemaid opened the gate. Natalie immediately ran inside and hugged her grandmother. Her long-held longing turned into tears.“Grandma...”“Oh, my dear, you’re finally home,” Minerva whispered as she rubbed Natalie’s back. Then, gently and lovingly, she kissed her granddaughter’s head.“Grandma, I’ve missed you,” Nata
Natalie slept in Dante’s arms. The fever made her dream of something unwanted.In her dream, she saw a group of assassins chase Dante and injure him badly. However, the dream suddenly changed, showing a scene where the man slashed her body with a knife and whipped the incision until it tore.“Why did you betray me, Cavendish?!” shouted Dante angrily. He whipped and tortured her body until it bled.She screamed and cried, but Dante cried, too. He tortured her while shedding tears. His eyes were filled with pain and disappointment.“I’m sorry...” she whispered.On the bed of the private jet, Dante frowned. He looked down at Natalie’s tear-streaked face. Her expression looked so painful. It confused him.“Cavey?” He tried to wake her up. However, Natalie seemed to be lost in her dream. She kept mumbling apologies while crying.“Cavey, wake up!” Dante shook Natalie’s body until she gasped. Her eyes opened, and she immediately got up to sit. Her face was pale, and her breathing rose and fe