Chapter 3

Michael and Shane both cheered and wished him a happy birthday.

I looked at the screen, scoffed, and sent a one-word reply: "Okay."

That evening, when the dinner party was over, it was already past ten.

Jeremy, his face flushed from drinking, wrapped an arm around my shoulder without a word and half-dragged, half-pushed me into his car.

"Come on, come on, the second half is the main course. Alan, your brother's gonna broaden your horizon tonight. You shouldn't be chained by that tigress at home. If a man goes his whole life without seeing the wild side of the world, he's lived in vain!"

The car twisted and turned through the night, finally pulling into an extremely discreet high-end club's underground parking lot in the suburbs.

The moment I stepped into the private room, I knew this was no legitimate place.

There was no karaoke. Eight scantily clad, heavily made-up girls sat on the couches, and the air was thick with the pungent smell of cheap perfume and hormones.

Jeremy immediately had an arm around a girl on each side, then casually pushed the prettiest one into my arms.

"Alan, this is Scarlet, she's yours tonight. Go wild. Things that happen in here, stay in here. No one will ever know." Jeremy winked at me, his smile utterly lecherous.

Scarlet immediately coiled around me like a snake, her hands with luxurious manicures reaching for the buttons on my shirt. "Alan, Jeremy said you're always under a lot of pressure at work. Let me give you a massage."

I pushed her hand away, stood up, and looked at Jeremy expressionlessly. "Is this what you call freedom?"

Jeremy was stunned, clearly not expecting such a strong reaction from me.

He stood up and clapped his hands. The wall behind the private room turned out to be a secret door.

The secret door opened, revealing a smoky, chaotic scene behind it. People gathered around a huge long table. The clinking of chips and the shouts of gamblers pierced my eardrums.

It was an illegal underground casino. Jeremy pulled out a handful of colorful chips from his pocket and forcefully shoved them into my hand, his eyes gleaming with a wild light.

"The front room is for soft fun, while the back room is for hard fun. Alan, it's my treat tonight, so go play a few rounds. If you win, it's yours, if you lose, it's on me! This is a playground for adults!"

I looked at the cheap plastic chips in my hand, reeking of sweat, and then at Jeremy's twisted, excited face. I finally understood just how vicious the "plan" that he mentioned in the voice message was.

Prostitution, gambling, drugs – if I touched even one of those, Melody would definitely divorce me, and my life would be ruined.

Without a moment's hesitation, I flicked my wrist and threw the handful of chips onto the glass coffee table in front of me.

The chips scattered, and the room fell silent.

"Jeremy," I looked down at him, my gaze as cold as ice, "You call prostitution and gambling a man's freedom? You can rot in the dirt yourself, but don't try to stain me. Don't ever take me to this kind of place again."

With that, I grabbed my jacket and strode out of the room, leaving the ashen-faced Jeremy behind.

But I knew he wouldn't leave it at that.

Sure enough, the moment I turned to close the door, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jeremy give a signal to the girl named Scarlet.

Scarlet suddenly let out a soft cry and lunged at me with her collar wide open. She practically pressed her chest against mine.

Jeremy held up his phone and a flash went off. A perfect "suspicious-looking photo" was thus born.