Chapter 58 - Too Late to Realize
"I'm coming with you." Luna stood up. "You're just a kid yourself. If she really is in danger, what are you going to do?"
Leo stood frozen for a long time. Even after Luna had changed her shoes and was about to leave, he was still standing there, dazed.
Luna glared at him. "What are you spacing out about?"
Leo raised a hand and rubbed his nose. "Coming."
It was odd for the two siblings to be taking a car at this hour. The driver, Dean, asked, "Where to?"
Luna looked at Leo.
Leo gave the hotel name. "Step on it."
Dean fastened his seatbelt, joking, "What's the occasion for a hotel?"
Luna said, "Just felt like going."
Her tone wasn't exactly polite.
A driver only needed to know the destination. But Dean always probed, asking what she was up to.
In her previous life, Luna thought Dean was just showing concern, so she told him everything.
Thinking about it now, it was pretty stupid.
Dean paused, then nodded quickly. "Sure thing."
Luna buckled her seatbelt and turned to Leo. "What exactly happened to Chloe?"
"She probably met up with that boyfriend of hers in person. She sent me the hotel and room number, asking me to save her." Leo pressed his lips together and looked out the window.
He rolled the window halfway down. Cold wind rushed in. The colorful lights outside played across his handsome features. His blonde hair was blown into a mess.
Luna looked at his profile and asked hesitantly, "Do you still like her?"
-
"I don't like this." Chloe pushed the man's hand away, resisting.
The man seemed displeased. "You're my girlfriend. What's wrong with holding hands?"
Chloe fought back her nausea. "But we just met today."
The man smacked his lips. "True."
His face had been unhappy a moment ago. Hearing this explanation, it cleared up. "Baby's shy, isn't she?"
"...Mm." Chloe forced herself to admit it. "Are you done eating?"
"No." The man smiled, lowered his head, and shoveled food into his mouth. He wolfed it down while taking in the anxious look on the girl's face.
He swallowed the last bite. "Pour me some water."
The man held up the sports bottle he'd brought. It had a wide mouth.
Chloe snatched the bottle and walked to the entryway. "There's only hot water."
"That's fine. Hot works."
The man's voice came from behind her.
Chloe filled the cup to the brim, then walked to the table and handed it to him.
The man took the cup and set it on the table. A nasty smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. He glanced at Chloe.
Chloe felt uneasy.
Before she could say anything, the man picked up her phone and dropped it into the cup full of hot water.
"What are you doing?"
Chloe hurriedly grabbed the cup. The water inside was scalding, and it completely submerged the phone.
She tentatively touched it. The boiling water burned her fingertip. "Tch..."
Chloe gasped sharply. She rushed into the bathroom. A sour stench hit her. She gagged, tears stinging her eyes.
She didn't care about anything else. She poured out the hot water. The phone was burning hot. She rinsed it with cold water.
But the phone was dead.
Chloe took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom with the phone.
She didn't even want to speak now. She walked to the table, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door.
She'd taken two steps when her arm was yanked hard.
"I've been too good to you, haven't I?" The man's face darkened. "Where do you think you're running?"
Chloe's chest heaved with anger. "I have nothing to say to you. From now on, let's pretend we never met."
"Never met?" The man sneered. "I've spent tens of thousands on you, front and back. That's my money for getting a wife. You spent my money, so you're going to be my wife."
Chloe's eyes went wide. "Excuse me! Get this straight. You tipped me on your own."
"If you didn't dress so slutty, why would I have tipped you?" The man's grip was strong. He squeezed Chloe's arm until it hurt.
Chloe nearly fainted from rage at that word. She endured the humiliation. "I dress perfectly normally. Maybe you're the one with the problem, old man."
She always wore student-ish clothes and skirts, because she went for the fresh-faced look.
"You're too pretty. One look at you and I... you know."
The man stared at her lecherously.
He was a grown man. Chloe couldn't break free no matter how hard she tried.
Her eyes reddened bit by bit from sheer terror. "Don't touch me."
The man just smiled. "Don't be shy."
-
Leo was silent for a long time. "I don't know."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "You don't know if you like her?"
"I don't know."
Leo said.
He looked out the window at the streetlights stretching on. Flecks of light reflected in his eyes.
At first, he'd just seen Chloe being bullied by a few thugs and stepped in to help.
Later, Chloe kept talking about how poor her family was, how she couldn't buy the things she liked.
Conveniently, Leo had money.
Back then, he remembered the medicine and bandages Chloe had bought him, so he started giving her a lot of things.
Until one break.
He was lying on his desk, about to nap.
Ryder turned his head. "Leo, the pretty girl from the next class is looking for you at the door. Probably wants to confess."
"Our Leo's heart already belongs to someone, don't you know?" The guy in front turned around, teasing.
Ryder asked, "Who does he like?"
"Chloe, obviously." The guy analyzed. "Giving her gifts, walking her home after school. If that's not liking someone, I'll eat shit."
Leo shifted position.
The break was noisy. He thought, so this is what liking someone is.
To this day, he'd belatedly realized it probably wasn't liking.
He just craved someone being good to him. Even if it was fake.
"If you can't figure it out, stop thinking about it." Luna patted his arm with a bottle of water.
Dean drove fast, and they happened to miss the evening rush. The car soon reached the hotel.
Luna knew very well that her rebirth had changed a lot of things. Many of them had happened early.
Like her uncle's family returning early. Like Chloe meeting her Top Donor.
A man nearly forty asking Chloe to meet at a hotel. What his real intentions were, no need to guess.
"Quick, what's the room number?" Luna asked as she pushed the car door open.
"9021." Leo said.
They wasted a bit of time at the front desk. After getting the key card, the hotel lobby manager, uneasy, rode the elevator up with them.
-
In room 9021.
Chloe huddled against the corner, clutching the blanket, tears and snot streaming down her face. "Please, please. I'll refund all the tips. I don't want the ninety thousand either. Just let me go, okay?"
"Wife, what nonsense are you saying?" The man took off his clothes and pulled open the nightstand. "We're family. No need to be polite."