2

The city lights looked blurry behind the car's tinted windows. Lilith sat in the back seat of the black Rolls Royce, her hands folded tightly in her lap. Her palms felt cold, or maybe it was just her own feelings floating away.

Lucas sat next to her. Right next to her and close enough to her arm. Close enough that Lilith could feel the heat radiating from her own body. The driver didn't say a word. A glass partition was installed right in the middle between the driver and the passenger seat. The outside world felt so distant and unreal.

Lilith swallowed hard again. “Where are you taking me?”

Lucas didn't answer right away or look at her. He just stared at the passing road with an expression that was hard to read. “Home.”

That word made Lilith's chest feel tight. She didn't have a home anymore. The place she had always considered home had betrayed her. “Your home,” Lilith corrected softly with a sigh.

A faint smirk curved his lips. “For now, yes...”

Silence enveloped them again in the luxury car. Lilith could hear her heart beating faster and faster in her ears. But something felt wrong and unsettling to her. Her heart was beating much harder than even the small space in the car.

Suddenly, Lucas turned his head slightly, and his gaze immediately fell on Lilith, who had been standing silently with obvious tension on her face. Lilith noticed Lucas' sharp gaze and her breath caught in her throat.

“Are you afraid of me, Lilith?” Lucas asked in a soft voice, as if it were a normal conversation. Not like an owner and his property.

“Yes.” Lilith answered Lucas' question without hesitation. Something flashed in his eyes. Approval? Amusement? Lilith didn't know.

“Good. Very good.” Lucas looked away again, this time forward.

Lilith's fingers dug deeper into the fabric of the dress she had been wearing since she stood on the stage of The Masque Club.

“You don't seem surprised,” Lilith muttered immediately. “About buying a person at an unreasonable price.”

This time Lucas looked at Lilith fully. “I didn't buy a person,” he replied calmly. “But I claimed what was already mine.”

Those words sent a shiver down Lilith's spine. “I don't belong to you.”

“Not yet.”

The car slowed down at a red light. The city outside the car window flickered in the reflection of the neon lights on the window. Lilith tried to force herself to look directly at Lucas.

“You paid seventy billion dollars. For what? Is it for control? Or mere power?”

“For you.” The answer was immediate. Too immediate for Lucas to say.

Lilith shook her head, completely incredulous at the words of the stranger who had just bought her tonight. “You don't even know me.”

Lucas leaned closer to her. Close enough that Lilith could smell the perfume wafting from Lucas's body. A scent that was too masculine.

“I know more than you think, Lilith.”

Her heartbeat quickened again. And his eyes looked dark. For a split second, Lilith felt that she saw something glowing in the darkness inside the car. Right in Lucas's eyes, which were silent again. Until Lilith blinked, and it was gone.

“You should relax a little bit,” he murmured softly.

Lucas' left hand rose slowly. Then he deliberately began to brush a strand of hair from Lilith's neck. Making Lilith's whole body freeze. Lucas' fingers were cold. Unnaturally cold. Or maybe it was because Lilith was so tense that her body felt hot and cold all at once.

Lucas tilted his head slightly, staring at Lilith's exposed neck. Her pulse pounded wildly beneath it. His jaw tightened. Then Lucas suddenly pulled his hand away. The red traffic light turned green, and the car started moving again.

Lilith breathed in shakily. “Why did you stop?”

Lucas leaned back, his gaze returning to the road ahead. “Because I'd rather you be conscious,” he said softly.

Another chill ran through her. “What does that mean?”

Lucas didn't answer. Instead, he looked out at the darkening sky where the city lights began to thin, replaced by the silhouette of hills. “We're almost there.”

The mansion stood alone on higher ground, its iron gates slowly and silently opening as the car approached. It didn't look like a normal mansion. Instead, it looked like a hidden fortress. As the car passed through the gates, Lilith's thoughts returned to memories of the past.

A pain arose in Lilith's chest. A memory of a simpler home. There was warm light and fake laughter that deceived many people. Until the voice of her stepmother spoke a few days ago, before Lilith ended up in that terrible place.

“We just need a little help, Lilith. This is also to meet all the household needs that you can't help with.”

Everything changed after Lilith’s father’s sudden death, and at that time, she was only seventeen years old. The bills kept piling up. The business kept failing. And the debt collectors kept coming. Even though Lilith had dropped out of school and worked many part-time jobs, all the wages she earned seemed unable to pay off anything.

“Don't worry about anything, Lilith. We can definitely get through this difficult time,” her stepbrother had told her. “This is just for administrative purposes to settle the debt.”

The paperwork that required her signature. The paperwork that she never fully read. Because she trusted them. She trusted them too much, considering them family and believing they would never trade anything for money. But it turned out Lilith was very wrong, because they had only been trying to manipulate her from the start.

Until Lilith overheard a secret argument that night. “We can't pay that much debt!” said her stepbrother.

"Then just give us that useless girl! She's still a virgin and will definitely make a lot of money. That alone will be enough to pay off part of our debt!" shouted her stepmother.

At first, Lilith thought she had misheard. Until the black car arrived the next day and took her away without allowing her to take any of her belongings. The Rolls Royce stopped, bringing Lilith back to the reality of her current situation. The driver got out and opened the door. The cold night air immediately touched Lilith’s entire body, which was only covered by a dress that didn’t even give her any warmth.

Lucas got out from the other side of the car, still looking calm as before. Lilith got out slowly and looked around at the place that was so unfamiliar to her.

Lilith was completely trapped there with the stranger who had bought her. Lucas walked ahead of Lilith, who began to follow him slowly. Lucas walked toward the entrance without looking at Lilith at all. Until his steps suddenly stopped, as if he had remembered something. Lucas fell silent and Lilith stopped too.

“You're not a guarantee, Lilith.” Lucas' words made Lilith's breath catch.

“You were the debt.”

And for the first time, Lilith realized that she had ended up here not just because of debt and money. But something else made Lilith feel that she was in great danger.