Anna slept soundly yesterday. She hadn’t had such a good sleep for a long time.Were she not in the middle of a test, she would have continued sleeping.She raised herself from the bed forcefully, but the person beside her was long gone.“He left.”She sighed, feeling down for no reason.Does he not sleep at all? Every time he would go to sleep in the wee hours of the morning but still wake up before her.She wrapped the blankets tightly around her body. Suddenly she smelled something like the smoke from burning cigarettes. She quickly went to the living room to check.As she expected!He was in the living room.She stood near the bedroom door, her eyes squinting to look at the window. Liam was there smoking quietly, as he stood facing the bright sun.The morning sun was bright. The sunlight brightened up his face and their surroundings, making everything clear including his eyes.She wanted to approach him, but at the same time, she did not want to break the peaceful bubble that envel
Liam and Anna were lying on the bed face to face. He squeezed her beautiful face.“Who told you we will never meet again? Who told you to keep your distance from me? How could you even treat me like that?”He was pressuring her, and his questions made Anna speechless.“That’s because… you had been treating me that way! Always looking down on me, being mean and nasty to me!”“I… have my own temper too, okay?”Liam tightened his grip around Anna, which made her frown painfully.“It hurts…”She tried hard to loosen his grip, but her hands got dragged away and locked near his waist.Liam recalled how cold, emotionless, and distant Anna was. All those thoughts agitated him and made him gloomier.His hold around Anna’s wrists strengthened, green veins bulging visibly beneath his skin. He looked at her with bloodshot eyes, “You are so smooth when it comes to dumping guys. You must be a player.”Anna shook her head weakly, “I’m not! My first love was Bryan and everyone knows I stayed single si
“Even if I am forcing you, what can you do about it?”Liam’s dominant attitude made Anna speechless.“Indeed, I can’t do anything, but the agreement is void since I didn’t sign it willingly!”“The agreement is valid as long as it has your handprint!”“You are acting like a dictator! Such a disgrace! I can sue you in court for offenses like coercion and limiting other’s freedom.” Anna protested loudly, though it looked like a useless struggle to Liam.Liam started laughing. “You could try, but I doubt anyone will accept the case!”“I will… appeal it somewhere else if no one in the city dares to accept the case.”“Appeal? Where do you think you can appeal if not even the lawyers here dared to accept the case?”“I…”“Just accept it, Anna!” Liam patted Anna’s thin shoulder.Anna was more certain than before that Liam had been acting weirdly these days to force her into signing the agreement!She could tell just from the evil grin on his face!“Liam. Ackman.”Anna glared at him without blin
Lobby of the Grand Lexus Hotel.It was 5 pm, everyone had gathered on time.All of them looked like they were wrung dry. They had dark and heavy eyebags, their breaths light and shallow. Most couldn’t even stand steadily on their feet.Anna was in much better shape than them, even though she lacked sleep too. At least she didn’t feel like she was going to fall at any moment.“Anna, you’re good, how can you still be standing? I’m dying here.” Nina yawned widely, pointing her thumb up at Anna.Anna scratched her head awkwardly, she napped for a while in Liam’s room, of course, she was in a better condition.“Ah, uhm, Nina… are you ok? Did the customers pick on you?”Nina shook her head hurriedly, “She’s so hard to please! A heartbroken woman is harder to please than an angry teacher! She tortured me, I tried everything, she even made me dance. In the end, I finished a bottle of wine with her and she finally went to sleep.”“Oh.”“What about you, Anna? How was your customer?”Anna scratch
“Yeah, Jennifer, when will you pay up?”“Don’t forget, 50 million dollars and work as a slave for a year!”“She can’t get out of it; we have video evidence. Ha-ha…”The students started discussing amongst themselves. Jennifer opened her mouth and looked at Liam’s cold expression. She couldn’t say a word. Her body trembled, almost falling. Luckily, Mindy caught her and steadied her on her feet. “Jennifer, stop, you lost…” Mindy looked at her worriedly. Jennifer stared at Anna, Hatred flowed in her eyes, but with Liam there, she didn’t dare say anything. She forcibly suppressed her rage. The crowd started laughing, everyone taking turns to congratulate Anna. Jennifer gritted her teeth in anger, fire shooting out of her eyes.Nina laughed and said, “Jennifer, when are you going to pay up? Don’t think about getting away!”“Jennifer will never do that! It’s just 50 million, it’s nothing to the Wurst family!” Mindy stood in front of Jennifer and shouted.“Unlike someone else who’s nothi
Anna and her classmates arrived at the karaoke hall. Her classmates stuffed a microphone into her hands, urging her to sing.Unbidden, Anna was reminded of Liam condemning her singing, and hurriedly passed the microphone to Nina.“You guys have fun, my throat isn’t feeling very well.”“Anna, you have a great voice, and you don’t want to sing? Come on!” Nina stuffed the mic back into her hands.Anna whispered under her breath, “Really? My signing doesn’t suck?”Nina exclaimed in shock, “Anna, have you heard yourself? Your voice is beautiful, till the point where you could enter a competition. If your singing sucked, mine would be background noise!”Anna insisted on passing the mic to her classmates then found an empty seat in the corner and tried to get some peace and quiet. They knew Anna was shy and often kept to herself. She rarely joined in on social events, so they let her be.Nina accompanied Anna and sat in the corner, “Anna, about your bet with Jennifer, why did you give it up
Anna felt like she was burning up as she leaned on Nina. She was seeing stars while her muscles softened uncontrollably. “Anna, are you drunk? You shouldn’t have finished those two cups with Jennifer.”“All of them were watching, I had to! I’m fine, I know how high my tolerance level is, I’ll be fine after I get some rest.” Anna patted her cheeks, sobering herself up.“I’ll send you back now?”Anna shook her head, “I’ll take a nap now.”“Ok.”Jennifer flanked at Anna, approached her, and sat beside her. “Anna, are you drunk? It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have made that toast to you.”Nina glared at Jennifer. Nonetheless, Jennifer continued as if she was blaming herself, “Anna, why don’t I send you home first? I’m not drunk, I can take care of you.”Anna shook her head, her body was burning uncomfortably. She didn’t want to move. All she wanted was a glass of ice water to lower her temperature.She tugged at her collar and took in a few deep breaths as she attempted to suppress the heat
Anna was pulled into a room. She couldn’t see who was pulling her but felt the door being shut and locked behind her. The room was pitch black, she couldn’t see anything. She swayed on the spot for a few moments. Her body increasingly heated up as her footsteps grew lighter and lighter. “This feeling…”She muttered under her breath. She was instantly reminded of the last incident. Panic rose in her chest, and she shook her head furiously, trying to remain alert.When she tried to escape, a strong pair of arms caught her from behind and threw her onto the sofa in the room.“Ah! Who is it? Who are you?”She screamed in shock.The person straddling her forced her further into the sofa, pulling at her clothes, his intent obvious.She struggled as best she could, she didn’t know what or where her fleeting hands hit, but the room gradually filled with a warm red glow.The color she hated the most!She widened her blurry eyes and finally caught a clear look at the man straddling her, a figu