Alanna couldn't deny she'd complained about Melanie. Last night, she'd repeatedly told Hades that she'd only gone to Blake because Melanie had refused to work with her. She hadn't expected Hades to warn Melanie, though.After all, Melanie was his first love and someone to whom he'd never raised his voice. Perhaps he had only done it to make their work go smoothly, but Alanna couldn't stop her heart from skipping a beat. It was as if there was a little sparrow hopping around inside it.Then again, she found herself rather pitiful. Hades had only been the slightest bit nicer to her, yet it was enough to secretly make her jump with joy.Alanna didn't say anything else to Heidi. She focused on arranging for the photoshoot. She spoke to the photographer and the crew. When she was done, Melanie's makeup was also done.Melanie stood before her and smiled. "Hades said he's going to throw me a homecoming party. You should join us when the time comes."Alanna turned her down without any hes
This was one thing about Melanie that Alanna admired—the fact that Melanie could adapt to any situation for the sake of tormenting her. She knew that if she didn't go for the meal, she'd probably be made out to seem like she and Melanie were sworn enemies.Alanna suppressed her annoyance and nodded with a smile. "Alright, then. I'll go."Melanie broke into a wide grin. "You're the best, Ms. Jacinto."Renee was disgusted by this. After Melanie left, she leaned close to Alanna and muttered, "Mr. Florentine must be blind. Why is he in love with someone like her?"Alanna laughed. Indeed, she couldn't understand it either. Hades had countless women swarming him—naive ones, alluring ones, gorgeous ones, classy ones… He had plenty of choice. Why was Melanie the one who'd won his heart?It wasn't that she was looking down upon Melanie, but she genuinely didn't have anything going for her aside from her looks. But what could anyone do about it if Hades liked her? She said, "Well, it all bo
It was Melanie. She approached Alanna with two glasses of wine. Alanna looked at them, immediately knowing what was going to happen next. Her temples started throbbing.Sure enough, Melanie held out one of the glasses to Alanna. "I want to apologize to you, Ms. Jacinto. Before this, I delayed your work and caused some unnecessary misunderstandings. I'm sorry for that."Alanna looked at the wine glass before meeting Melanie's gaze. "There's no need to apologize; it's only normal for these things to happen when it comes to work. Everything will be fine as long as we communicate properly. There's also no need for us to drink. I haven't been feeling too well, anyway."She didn't accept the wine glass. With that, she turned to leave. But Melanie quickly moved to stand in her way again. "Are you unwilling to forgive me, Ms. Jacinto? Why else won't you even have a drink with me?"Alanna smiled. "I've already made it clear that we only had a small disagreement over work, Ms. Smith. There's
Melanie didn't drop the pitiful act. "I don't mean anything else by it, Ms. Jacinto. Please don't be mad at me.""You're overthinking this, Ms. Smith." With that, Alanna left the private room. As she shut the door, she saw Hades handing Melanie a tissue. The latter didn't take it. Hades helplessly wiped her tears away."Look at you, still crying when you're at this age," he said."It's not like I wanted to.""You look so ugly." Despite his words, the smile on his face remained in place.Alanna tightened her grip on the doorknob. Her knuckles turned white from the force. The night before, Hades had cruelly told her that crying was useless and that she shouldn't even dream that her tears would soften his heart.She'd always felt that he had a heart of stone. Indeed, he'd been incredibly cruel to her over the years. He wouldn't soften his stance when faced with her tears, nor would he back down because of her pleading.But when Hades was with Melanie, he was the complete opposite o
Alanna hung up her coat. "I went to the shopping street.""Whom with?"She paused, then decided not to hide anything from Hades. Judging from the way he was acting, he had to already know something. "I went alone, then ran into Mr. Lawson on my way home. He dropped me off."Hades looked at her from his perch on the couch. "A coincidence?""Yes.""How coincidental, then." He sneered and patted the space beside him. "C'mon, sit here and tell me just how big a coincidence it was."Alanna stiffened. Hades was obviously angry. There was a bitter taste in her mouth as she explained, "I was waiting to hail a cab by the roadside when he passed by. Then, he offered to drop me off. I'm not that charming, Mr. Florentine. I can't summon someone with a single phone call."Hades had an extremely ugly look on his face. He sneered again and snarled, "You'd better remember what I told you before, Ms. Jacinto. Stop fooling around with other men. If you dirty yourself, you won't be worth your curr
Hades knew Alanna's body too well. It only took a short while for him to make her turn into putty in his hands. She instinctively opened her mouth, allowing him to deepen the kiss. In the darkness, the two bodies came together intimately like every other couple in the world.Hades seemed to be even more out of control than he'd been the night before. He was punishing her and also relieving himself, but there wasn't a hint of love in his actions. He'd always been domineering when it came to sex—all men who were control freaks were probably the same in this.Tonight, however, he did things differently. He gripped Alanna's waist tightly as he moved her to hover above him. As he traced his fingers over her waist, he sat up and nibbled on her earlobe. She subconsciously tightened her hold on him.Just then, her phone rang. Alanna wasn't in the right state of hand, but Hades still grabbed the phone and answered it. Shane's voice rang out on the other end of the line. "Do you have time tom
Alanna collected her thoughts and dried her body off with a towel. She then returned to the bedroom.Hades' phone kept ringing non-stop. Someone was bombarding him with message notifications, but he didn't know who.He just cast his phone an impatient glare before dialing a number."Just send her home."Terrence's voice appeared on the other end of the line. He said in an unsure tone, "Hades, Melanie is drunk and she keeps calling for you. She said you didn't like her anymore. Did you both fight?"Hades lit up a cigarette and took a drag of it. "No," he said.Melanie was a stubborn young woman who often did as she pleased. She would also kick up a fuss over nothing more often than not like she was today.She hadn't been pleased to learn that he would be returning today, but he'd insisted on it."Then hurry here and bring her home."Hades frowned. "If you don't want to take her home, then call up her home and get her driver to send her home."Terrence responded, "Hades, what a
That was why Hades still gave up in the end and let Alanna do as she wished.As long as she didn't dirty herself with other men during their contractual time, he just couldn't be bothered.Hades held a cigarette between his fingers without lighting it up. The expression on his face was unfathomable. He also completely ignored Melanie in the room. They just stared blankly at each other the whole time.Terrence could tell just by reading the tension in the room that these two lovebirds were at odds with each other again.Melanie was truly upset this time. She got up and went out of the room.Terrence saw what she was doing and hurriedly pulled her back before pushing her toward Hades. Melanie looked utterly crushed."Are you mad at me because I made her drink all the alcohol?"Hades lifted his eyes and looked into hers. "Since you know that it would make me angry, don't ever do that again, understand?"Melanie pouted and said, "I didn't mean any harm. I just thought that I'd been