Caleb Scott hit himself hard enough to cause his lip to burst. Even after doing that, his knees kept trembling repeatedly.
He couldn't die! He absolutely didn't want to die! He would willingly eat shit if Andrew Sterling commanded him to; he didn't care about the humiliation, at least it was much better than death.
It might be a secret to some, but Caleb knew this fact well enough: if you step on the toes of the Monster, you die.
Caleb Scott raised his gaze and met Andrew's indifferent ones; he immediately looked away.
"If you could strike him that hard, why did you hold back?" Andrew drawled with a bored tone in his voice.
Briggs, who witnessed his friend slap himself upon the instructions of this man who was way younger than them, could hardly believe his eyes.
"You must be insane, Caleb. I'm done with this...!" Before Briggs could push himself up to his feet again, Caleb Scott held him down by the shoulders, whispering something inaudible into his ears that made the man stiffen with eyes wide as if he'd seen a ghost.
Andrew's gaze turned to Anne. "When someone disrespects you, hit them. And when you do, make absolutely fucking sure that they bleed."
Anne couldn't speak. She was looking at the man with her mouth slackened open. The effortless ruthlessness of his words made her feel like this man... was so much more dangerous than he seemed.
"Try again," he instructed, watching her steadily without blinking, his gaze urging her to hit the man.
Briggs, however, shakily raised his left hand; his right fingers were dangling, completely broken.
"I'll... I'll do it," he quickly supplied in a shaky voice.
His eyes were wide now, like someone who'd seen a ghost, but his expression only turned that way after Caleb whispered something to him.
Before anyone could react, he raised his left hand and struck himself.
One slap!
Two slaps!
Three...
Until blood oozed from the side of his lips.
Anne flinched at each slap he landed on his own face. She couldn't help but feel frightened by the sight of this wealthy businessman now looking like a deranged maniac, slapping himself repeatedly.
Even as this evening faded away, the sound of the man crying in pain while slapping himself repeated in her head like a nightmare.
Andrew Sterling had taken her by the arm, pulling her along with him as he wordlessly exited the room after Joshua Briggs had fallen unconscious. The man didn't say a word to her, nor did she to him, out of shock from what just happened.
He left her on the pavement outside the club and disappeared afterward.
By the time she came to her senses, she was alone outside the building of Nightscale.
Where did the man suddenly disappear to? He didn't even give her a chance to thank him. Realistically, she wouldn't have been able to escape that room full of predators after she'd dared to fight back at Joshua Briggs if he hadn't helped her.
Speaking of which, why did he even help her anyway? Right from the moment they met, it was absolutely obvious that he didn't like her at all.
She looked up to the sky, dotted with a handful of stars, and sighed deeply.
To think today was her first day at work in a new department. What a way to end a first day.
But... those coworkers of hers.
Immediately she thought this, Anne's expression changed from weariness to cold.
Since they could all heartlessly send her into a lion's den, it was no longer necessary to be polite.
She would only fight back when fought. If they dared to do something like this to her again, she wouldn't take it lying down.
"You were in there for far too long, brother. Was it because of her?"
When Andrew settled inside the silver Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV, he heard his younger brother's voice next to him.
Andrew could still see her standing on the pavement, head tilted up to stare at the sky. He made no comment to reply to his brother's question; there was a deep frown on his face as he watched the girl across the road, as if there was a puzzle he was trying to piece together—questions in his mind that he was trying to answer.
"I didn't think she was anything special, but now I think she's quite interesting," Donald added, then focused on his game once again, which he'd been playing before Andrew entered the car.
Interesting? Andrew thought internally. Was that why he'd spared the time to punish those men when they'd played with her?
He'd been there for another reason entirely, but it was certainly not to destroy a man's fingers and cause him to slap himself till he passed out.
He stared at the woman for longer than he wanted to, silently wondering how this innocent looking creature could be do calculating and greedy for money to the point she sold her own body.
"Let's go." Andrew shifted his gaze away from the woman on the road and instructed the driver.
The questions kept swirling in his mind.
Wednesday...
Thursday...
Friday...
He counted the days internally as the car ignited and drove off smoothly on the road.
Three days till he would go to the manor again and she would be there, to fulfill the contract.
---
Rebecca: [What happened last night, does anyone have any idea?]
Mathew: [The new girl won't come into the office today, I'm sure of it.]
Jessica: [Who knows what Scott and Briggs did to her last night. I'm actually feeling a little bit guilty.]
Rebecca: [What do you have to feel guilty about? She went there on her own.]
Jessica: [I don't know, Tracy quit the very next day she went to see Scott and Briggs, so I'm feeling a bit bad for the new girl.]
Lukas: [Haha, what a bad liar. Jessy can never feel bad for anyone. This time it was Becky, but last time it was you who pushed Tracy to Scott and Briggs. They used her like a doll.]
Jessica: [Damn you, Lukas. I still have some empathy in me, okay? At least let me pretend that I do.]
Kendra: [Holy f*ck! Guess who I just saw in the elevator...]
Immediately this last message entered the group chat, the sliding doors within the department office slid open and someone walked in.
Everyone raised their heads from their cubicles, mouths hanging open in shock.
Anne could feel their gazes burning her immediately she entered. She strode in, not bothering to say a word of greeting to anyone as she bypassed their cubicles to her own.
Immediately she was seated, their heads lowered back to their phones, everyone typing rapidly.
Lukas: [F*ck! She's actually here.]
Rebecca: [Relax, she must be here to turn in her resignation.]
Jessica: [Haha! This is going to spread across the whole company. An employee actually resigned after a day.]
While they were having their conversation, Clara came out of her office.
A beautiful rosy fragrance permeated the entire space; it felt like a real rose had entered their midst.
Her facial features were arranged on her beautiful heart shaped face in perfection. Every single step she took was graceful; even a swan would recoil in envy.
Whether she liked it or not, Clara always attracted the admiration of whoever sees her wherever she goes, and what made her more likable was her personality.
Soft-spoken and ladylike—traits that many men desired in a woman.
"Morning, Clara!"
"Morning, Clara!"
Greetings reverberated through the office, everyone immediately putting smiles on their faces the moment she appeared.
But strangely, she didn't reply to their greetings. Instead, she walked toward where Anne was seated. Her smooth fair hand suddenly laid on Anne's, which was rested on the table.
Anne jolted, looking up at the woman in shock as she asked kindly:
"Are you okay?"
Anne blinked twice before replying, "Yes, I'm... I'm fine," feeling confused as to why the woman asked.
Hearing this, Clara sighed and turned to everyone else with a strict face.
"Everyone in the meeting room, now!"
No one argued with Clara or showed reluctance; they all filed into the meeting room. Anne remained the last to enter.
Everyone was seated in their place when she entered and took her seat too.
"This is so low. I'm disappointed in you guys," Clara began, looking each employee in the eyes one after the other. "How many times should I tell you to give up on Scott and Briggs? There are so many other investors lining up to—"
Rebecca suddenly cut her off. "But Clara, our team has been falling behind Team B for a very long time. If we lose another investor under our team, we'll lose all respect in this company."
Clara gazed at Rebecca calmly.
"That doesn't mean you send any members of our team into danger without authorization."
"Who was sent to danger? Are you talking about the new girl?" Mathew chimed. "She went through the files and came asking about Scott and Briggs by herself. She wanted to impress you on her very first day, so she went on her own despite our warnings."
Anne, who didn't say a word, raised her gaze to Mathew when she heard what he'd just said. "Warnings?" she queried softly, yet a cold look was fixed in her eyes.
"What? Are you going to pretend we didn't warn you about Scott and Briggs?" Jessica shot.
Rebecca smiled silently at the backing from the others and also added, "Yes, Clara. We warned her that it would be dangerous, but I guess she was desperate to impress you, so she didn't heed our warnings."
Clara sighed and said to Anne, "You should have listened to them, Anne. Those men are insane. I wouldn't have known you went to them last night if someone hadn't reported it to me this morning. Please be careful from now on. Don't try something like that again."
Anne looked at each coworker one after the other. No guilt was visible on their faces even after what they'd done—there was only silent mockery.
Without taking her eyes off them, she replied, "Yes, Clara. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again."
She had been naive thinking everyone was nice, but this had certainly taught her a valuable lesson. She wouldn't give them the chance to put her in such a situation ever again.
For the rest of the working hours, Anne could hear them make strange remarks while laughing at her.
Words like: she actually didn't resign and was waiting for more.
She ignored every single one and focused on her work. By lunch break, she felt the familiar sharp ache in her stomach—one that always occurred if she hadn't eaten for a long time. She was planning to ignore it, determined to conclude what she was working on, when an unfamiliar hand knocked on her table.
She had been too focused on work to hear the echoes of gasps the other employees let out as this person walked in. When she raised her head, a captivatingly attractive, youthful male face was smiling down at her.
This youth's smile wasn't one a lot of people saw. He was usually found with his head lowered, and if he bothered to glance at someone, it was always with laziness and disinterest.
Why was he here? That too, standing by the new girl's cubicle.
"Have lunch with me," he said without mincing words, shocking everyone who heard those words of invitation.