The Tired Bird Rests

Sienna Lewis had been with Sea City’s cold and distant CEO, Zayden Scott, for four years, but he still refused to get close to her.

So, she called her mother. “Mom, you can go ahead and arrange that pilot interview for me now.”

On the other end, Helen Bennett sounded shocked. “Really? Didn’t you want to stay in Sea City and marry Zayden? You even gave up your dream of becoming a pilot.”

Thinking about the stupid things she had done four years ago, Sienna smiled self-deprecatingly.

She had given up her career for Zayden.

But in the end, it was all for nothing.

“I was just too full of myself.”

She thought he would warm up to her.

But she had lost completely.

Helen chuckled and said, “Silly girl, when your career takes off, you’ll have any man you want. Don’t waste yourself on just one man. Leave Zayden and come back to Helmswick.”

“Okay. I’ll get ready.”

With that, Sienna hung up.

The sounds of pleasure from the next room continued without an end in sight. When she reached the door, she heard Zayden’s low, muffled groans.

Peeking through the crack, she saw the dimly lit study in utter chaos. A white dress hung around Zayden’s waist as his hand moved up and down.

In the end, he leaned his head back and softly called out a name.

“Riley.”

A strawberry brooch was pinned to the white dress.

Sienna recognized it instantly. The dress belonged to Zayden’s adopted daughter, Riley Scott.

Sienna clenched her fists. The pain of her nails digging into her flesh was nothing compared to the stabbing ache in her heart.

This had happened a dozen times in the past month.

At first, she was shocked. Then, she broke down.

In the end, she felt nothing but disgust.

So, the heir of the Scott family in Sea City, who everyone said was cold, distant, and acted high and mighty, actually had urges he could not control. Also, the person he used to satisfy them was not his girlfriend, Sienna, but his own adopted daughter.

Sienna numbly walked back to her room.

She looked at their photo hanging on the wall, and her mind drifted back to four years ago when she had first met Zayden.

It was her first year in Sea City. She had joined a flying competition, and Zayden was there as an investor.

No one expected an accident to happen during the competition. She had almost been trapped inside a model plane. It was Zayden who saved her.

With just one glance, she fell hopelessly in love with him.

Later, she asked her friends about him and learned that he was the only son of the Scott family in Sea City, a cold CEO famous for never indulging in sexual pleasures.

“You like him? Just give up. Zayden said he’ll never get married or fall in love with anyone. People like us aren’t even in his league.”

But Sienna did not believe them.

She kept asking around and got a job at Scott Corp using her family’s connections.

She gave up the flying career she loved so much and worked as his assistant. She ran errands for him all day. She had never done any housework in her life, but for Zayden, she spent an entire year learning how to cook.

She had tried getting him into bed by getting drunk and dressing up in a maid outfit, but he tied her hands and feet up without hesitation.

She tried to act pitiful and stood outside in the pouring rain. She hoped he would feel sorry for her and let her stay in his room for the night. But he asked the housekeeper to bring her some cold medicine and told her to stop going out in the rain.

Her most desperate attempt was to hide under Zayden’s desk at the office and tease his calf while he worked. But he coldly called security to throw her out and tossed her a towel.

He looked down at her and said, “Since you like cleaning so much, spend the day doing housework.”

Helen’s heart ached seeing Sienna throw herself at him like she was chasing the wind. “Why humiliate yourself for someone who doesn’t even love you?”

Sienna refused to give up. “Mom, if I don’t try, how will I ever find out what’s possible?”

For four years, she followed Zayden everywhere.

Everyone in Sea City knew she was Zayden’s lovesick fool.

In the end, all her devotion was for nothing.

When people mocked her, Sienna sometimes doubted herself.

She even thought about giving up.

On Valentine’s Day, she decided to make one last effort. Just as she was about to leave, she got a call from Zayden.

“Sienna, let’s get together.”

Even after all these years, she remembered the heavy rain that day.

Zayden stood outside in the rain with a bouquet of wilted flowers.

She burst into tears of joy and threw herself into his arms. She thought her suffering had finally paid off.

She treasured those flowers and kept them in her bedroom as if they were something precious.

Looking back, they were probably flowers someone else did not want.

But she was so caught up in her fantasy of love that she never realized it.

During their first year together, Sienna never even held Zayden’s hand.

Whenever she tried to get close, he would frown, move away, and go back to reading his finance magazine.

Sienna thought he had been celibate for too long. A man who had never touched a woman would need some time to adjust.

So, she patiently waited for almost three years.

Eventually, she could not take it anymore and wanted to confront him about it. That was when she found her answer in the study he always kept locked.

Inside the place she was never allowed to enter, Zayden held someone else’s dress. His eyes were dazed and frantic with desire.

It seemed he did have desires after all. It was just that the person he wanted was not her.

All along, the person who could awaken his desire had been his adopted daughter, Riley—the girl he had adopted for eight years.

He was only with Sienna to cover up his forbidden relationship with Riley from the world.

At that moment, all the love Sienna had held onto for the past four years crumbled to dust.

When she came back to her senses, the noises from the study had stopped.

Zayden took off the dress and held it close to his chest. He inhaled its lingering scent like a madman.

He was no longer the untouchable man he pretended to be for the world.

Sienna’s stomach churned.

She leaned over the trash can and retched until her stomach was empty.

Tears streamed down her face.

She yanked the matching couple ring off her finger and hurled it out of the room with all her might.

From that moment on, she swore she would never shed another tear for Zayden.