INICIAR SESIÓNTheir second dinner felt very awkward for Camellia, but Hagen felt the opposite. The man even seemed very at ease as he spooned soup into his mouth, spoonful by spoonful, making Camellia want to yell at him for acting so nonchalant while she was in a state of confusion. And once dinner was over, with Camellia’s plate still half-full, the two decided to just go back to their room. “Don’t waste food, Camellia,” Hagen said as he stood up and was about to leave. Hearing that, Camellia remained silent while wiping her mouth with the napkin on the table. “If you don’t want to finish your whole portion, give half to my plate.” The man’s words stopped Camellia’s hand in front of her lips, and that was when she turned to look at him with an unusual expression. “You want to eat… my leftovers?” Instantly, the man’s brow furrowed, and he stared at Camellia with knitted eyebrows. “It’s not leftovers when you’re eating at the same time.” Hearing that, Camellia simply shrugged an
After finishing her shower, Camellia stepped out wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her. Her half-wet body glistened slightly in the light streaming through the window lattice and from the overhead light. She dried her hair with a different white towel, and the moment her feet crossed the threshold of the bathroom, a scream suddenly escaped her mouth. Right in the middle of the room, Hagen was standing, staring at her. “What are you doing here?” the girl asked, half-hysterical, as she ran back into the bathroom. Her head peeked through the crack in the door at Hagen, who stood with his arms crossed over his chest. One of the man’s eyebrows rose toward his forehead, while his head tilted slightly to the left as he observed her. “You don’t need to cover yourself. After this, I’ll be able to see everything, so you don’t need to be shy,” Hagen said in a slightly vulgar tone, making Camellia’s eyes widen in displeasure. “I’m not comfortable being looked at like that!” C
“W-what happens next?” Camellia asked as she stood in the man’s room. The two of them were quite a distance apart. Camellia was sitting on the bed, while Blake Hagen stood in the middle of the room, staring out the window. From the start, the man had seemed reluctant to look Camellia in the eye, making her feel disheartened and a little melancholy. In fact, he would only look at her when she said something that provoked his anger. Suddenly, Hagen turned around and tossed his cell phone next to her. In a cold tone, he said, “You’ve read all those documents, but it seems you’ve forgotten.” After saying that, Hagen walked out of the room, leaving Camellia alone. His departure left a long silence, until finally Camellia clenched the bedsheet she was sitting on. Feeling slightly weak, the girl turned her gaze to the phone Hagen had thrown. She stared at the flat object lying beside her for quite a while, but after some time, Camellia finally picked it up and checked the screen.
Camellia’s body seemed limp as she walked toward the car that would take her to her new home. The girl didn’t even want to look at the man behind the wheel. She kept her head down and tried not to look at anyone around her—even though there was only one man in the car. And during the drive to the city, the car was filled with silence. Now, the girl felt that everything she owned was meaningless when she wasn’t in a familiar environment. With a mix of anxiety and conflicting emotions, Camellia rested her head against the car window while listening to the sound of her own heartbeat. She didn’t even care about the man who had also chosen to remain silent in the front seat. And when the girl closed her eyes, for some reason she caught the scent of a very familiar fragrance, but Camellia quickly dismissed it and chose to keep her eyes shut while letting her mind wander to a field of petunias at a castle atop the hills. “Hhhhh…,” Camellia exhaled heavily, clenching the front of he
“Two million dollars!” Instantly, all eyes turned to a forty-year-old man standing in the corner of the room. Everyone who had been bidding decided to back out one by one. Jaxon, sitting in the back row, simply looked at Camellia with sympathy, because ever since the auction began, Hagen hadn’t made a single move or voiced a bid. In fact, the man mostly remained silent while surveying his surroundings. His largely silent demeanor clearly showed his disapproval. The same was true for Brandon and several other members of Red Cage. At first, they thought Hagen would also participate in bidding, but it turned out he just stayed silent—he even seemed completely indifferent. Camellia, whose focus had been solely on Hagen since the auction began, seemed unable to accept the way he just sat there in silence. In fact, throughout the entire event, he remained mostly silent. The envelope that had been distributed to the guests earlier lay limp on the floor, right near his feet. S
Camellia looked around nervously. She even glanced repeatedly at Brandon, who was driving up ahead. “Is it that far?” Camellia asked, glancing around at the trees and dense forest blocking her view. “It’s been two hours already.” Brandon could see Camellia’s anxiety, but he didn’t know how to calm her down. “There’s still another hour to go,” Brandon said, further confusing Camellia. Why did it have to be that far away? “Why in the middle of the wilderness?” Camellia asked innocently. Brandon just chuckled softly. “It’s a secret event, Camellia. Everyone attending prefers their privacy to be protected, so this is the perfect location,” the man explained, deepening the furrow on the girl’s brow. “In the middle of the wilderness?” Once again, Camellia felt that it didn’t make sense. “No, more precisely, in the middle of private property owned by one of Denver’s most influential figures,” Brandon added, causing Camellia to bite her tongue to keep from firing off a bar
Their eyes met, but neither of them spoke; even Hagen no longer listened to Gavin, who kept talking on the other side of the call. It was as if his stare was glued to Camellia, who was standing very gracefully at the top of the stairs in her white pajamas.However, when he heard his name being called
“Who hit you?”Suddenly, Camellia asked after swallowing a bite of the warm soup that Hagen ordered from a nearby restaurant.Both of them were sitting opposite each other at the dining table. There was no sign of the chaos in the kitchen. The entire room looked shiny, which made Camellia wonder how H
Immediately, Hagen endured the pain that radiated along his arm because suddenly Camellia bit his hand that was about to stroke her cheek.“Argh, damn!” Hagen grimaced as he stared at Camellia, who was still sinking her teeth into his skin.With his hardened jaws and teeth clashing in pain, Hagen atte
“What did you do to that girl?”A man in a black suit stood not far from Camellia’s lying body. He gently rubbed his chin and glanced at the man, who was now standing still near the table.With gritted teeth and a cynical tone, the man in question said, “I didn’t do anything to the girl.”Getting that







