Chapter 5

As the initial shock began to wear off, Lauren became painfully aware of her injuries, especially the excruciating pain in her ankle.

After chasing off the thugs, Yale turned and caught sight of her sitting on the ground, her face deathly pale and her body still trembling. His heart gave an involuntary lurch. What he'd just witnessed had nearly frozen the blood in his veins.

Lauren looked up at him through the thin mist hanging over the deserted street. Even after her family had gone bankrupt and she'd been reduced to working as a maid, she'd never looked this frightened or helpless.

Almost instinctively, Yale started toward her. He'd barely taken two steps when the sharp click of high heels sounded behind him.

"Lauren, there's a convenience store right around here. How did it take you hours to buy a box of condoms? Where exactly have you been?" Yvonne demanded. "And if I remember correctly, doesn't Henry Hartwell live somewhere around here?"

She gave Lauren a suspicious look. "You sneak off to fool around until the middle of the night, get yourself into trouble, and then make Yale come rescue you. Did you plan this whole thing?"

Yale stopped. When he looked at Lauren again, the concern in his eyes had gradually turned to ice.

Henry had been Lauren's childhood friend. Even after her family forced her into an engagement with him, she'd treated him coldly and repeatedly found excuses to postpone the wedding. She'd even gone so far as to invite seven or eight male models over right in front of him, deliberately trying to make him angry.

Furious, Henry had left the country.

Later, when the Scott family went bankrupt, the Hartwells promptly sent Lauren a formal notice canceling the engagement. They had no relationship anymore.

Henry had since approached her to explain.

"I had no idea they called off our engagement. Those old fools in my family made that decision behind my back. You're still my fiancée, and that hasn't changed. Let me pay off your family's debts. Consider it my wedding gift to you. How about it?"

But Lauren had refused, insisting that the matter was between Yale and her.

Now, she was beginning to regret that decision.

"I didn't," she said, her voice trembling with pain.

"Then where were you all this time?" Yvonne demanded sharply. "Don't tell me you were just buying condoms. Do you think Yale's an idiot? I saw Henry's car around here yesterday. You two must have been meeting in secret!"

Lauren lowered her eyes. Without another word, she took the box of condoms from her pocket and held it out to Yale.

His voice was so calm it was frightening. "You went to see Henry?"

"No." Her answer was quiet but firm.

Yale suddenly snatched the box and hurled it to the ground.

"Lauren, would it kill you to tell me the truth for once? You went to see Henry, then deliberately got yourself into this mess so I'd feel sorry for you, didn't you? Is making a fool of me that much fun?"

Lauren knew there was nothing she could say that would make him believe her, so she simply fell silent.

Her silence, however, only made him angrier.

He seized her and dragged her back to the mansion as though she were a battered rag doll, then threw her down outside the second-floor bedroom.

"Lauren, you're nothing but a cheap slut who can't stand being without a man. Stay right here and wait for my orders. Serving Vonnie and me is all you're good for."

The bedroom door slammed shut.

Before long, suggestive sounds began filtering through it, growing increasingly explicit. Lauren could hear Yale's ragged breathing between his low, satisfied sighs.

"Vonnie..."

With her back against the wall, Lauren slowly slid to the floor and covered her ears. It felt as though her blood was turning cold, inch by inch. Her nails dug so deeply into her palms that they drew blood.

She took out her phone and called Henry.

His voice was as casual and carefree as ever. "Lauren, have you finally made up your mind?"

"I have, Henry." Her voice was flat, almost lifeless. "Could you lend me some money? I want to pay off my debts."

He went quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, the teasing note was gone, replaced by an unfamiliar seriousness.

"What's mine is yours, Lauren. You don't have to call it a loan."

An instant later, a bank notification appeared on her phone.

Henry had transferred enough money to clear everything she owed Yale. The transaction was marked [Unconditional gift].

Lauren's eyes stung with tears. "Thank you, Henry," she whispered, her voice breaking.

She had barely finished speaking when she heard the sharp crack of knuckles behind her, as though someone had clenched a fist so tightly that the joints had popped.

Instinctively, she ended the call and turned around.

Yale stood behind her, his face dark with rage. She had no idea how long he'd been there.

"Lauren, are you really that desperate for a man? You still can't get over Henry, can you?" he demanded. "He broke off your engagement, and you still went crawling back to him! If you need a man that badly, I'll give you one!"

He grabbed at her clothes and began tearing them off.

Lauren slapped him hard across the face.

"Yes! Henry is better than you! A thousand times better! Ten thousand times better!"

The force of the slap turned Yale's head to one side. When he slowly looked back at her, his eyes were dark with a fury that threatened to consume everything in its path.

Just then, Lauren's phone chimed.

It was a message from her father's caregiver, Martha Ellis. He had briefly regained consciousness, but his condition was still poor. He'd been calling Lauren's name over and over.

Before she could do anything, Yale yanked her to her feet and threw her onto the bed where he'd just been intimate with Yvonne.

His large frame pinned her down, leaving her no room to move.

"If you're so desperate for a man, I'll give you what you want!"

The sheets were rumpled and filthy, and Yale still bore traces of his encounter with Yvonne.

Lauren struggled desperately beneath him. "Let me go, Yale, you bastard! My dad isn't doing well! I need to get to the hospital!"

But he was far stronger than she was, and every attempt to break free proved useless.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. For the first time, her voice softened into a desperate plea.

"Yale, please. Not here...

"Please, just let me go to the hospital first."

The thought of that bed disgusted her. Even if Yale could never bring himself to love her again, did he have to destroy the last precious thing she still held in her heart?

Yale paused.

"So now you're begging me?" he said coldly. "Lauren, you're so desperate to get away from me that you'd even lie about your own father!"

His expression twisted.

"You think this is filthy? And you think you're so clean?"

"Lauren Scott, you're never getting away from me. Not for the rest of your life!"

He forced himself on her, his every movement fueled by vicious, unrelenting anger.

Tears streamed down Lauren's face, but her eyes gradually lost all expression. The pain and despair gave way to a hollow, numb stare.

Seeing her like that, Yale felt as though he'd been plunged into an icy abyss.

He abruptly pulled away and sat up, leaning against the headboard as he lit a cigarette. Smoke curled around him, obscuring his unreadable expression.

Lauren lay curled up on the bed, staring blankly ahead. Yale watched her, his fists tightening and loosening at his sides.

Suddenly, he got up and crushed his cigarette into the ashtray.

"Lauren, don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

As he looked at her, there was a faint trace of anticipation in his eyes, so slight that even he didn't seem aware of it.

Lauren's eyes moved slowly toward him. A mocking smile curved her lips, and when she finally turned her head, she looked down her nose at him with the same contempt she'd shown him years ago.

"Yale Sutton, you're trash."

It was as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. Every trace of color drained from his face.

When he spoke, the words came through clenched teeth, cold and venomous.

"Maybe I am trash, but you're still at my mercy. I'm your creditor, Lauren. Everything you have belongs to me."

Lauren didn't answer. She simply turned her gaze toward the window, where the first pale light of dawn was beginning to appear.

Yale was so certain she could never escape him.

But he had no idea that the only thing keeping Lauren tied to him had ever been the love she'd felt for him when they were young.

And now, she'd finally given up on him completely.