Inside the room.
A scantily clad woman was straddling Preston Quincy, having already unbuckled his belt. Just as she was about to take the next step, Mrs. Quincy stormed forward in a fury. She shoved the woman aside, pointed at her, and cursed, "Have you no shame?! Where did this cheap tramp come from?!"
She then shook Preston. "Wake up, son!"
Preston finally opened his eyes in a daze. Feeling a sharp pain at the back of his neck, he couldn’t help but reach back to rub it. Seeing the chaotic scene in the room, he asked in confusion, "Mom? Why are you crying?"
Martin Lancaster’s face darkened with rage. "Preston Quincy! I was wrong about you! On such an important occasion, you’re... you’re doing this kind of dirty business!"
Only then did Preston notice the young beauty clutching her chest beside him. She said innocently, "Mr. Quincy, you were the one who called me here. You said the fiancée your family arranged for you was wooden and boring, and asked me to come serve you..."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Preston’s mood instantly darkened, his voice terrifyingly cold. "I have absolutely nothing to do with you!"
The young woman seemed hurt. She immediately covered her face, burst into tears, and turned to run out of the room.
Martin didn’t buy Preston’s excuse; after all, he had seen it with his own eyes! If they hadn’t shown up when they did, that woman would have been riding him!
"Fine! Just fine! The Lancaster family isn’t without our pride. Since Preston wants to humiliate my daughter like this, Mrs. Quincy, it seems the Quincy family is truly out of our league!" Even though Martin’s heart was bleeding, there were outsiders watching. If he didn’t take a stand now, wouldn’t he look like a spineless father?
Leaving those words behind, Martin waved his hand and stormed off.
Mrs. Quincy slapped Preston’s shoulder in sheer disappointment. "Even if I look down on Zoe Lancaster, she is at least a girl from a decent family! What was that just now?! Wasn’t she just a club escort?! It’s one thing to fool around, but to be caught red-handed by the Lancaster family? Do you have no shame? You’re going to be the death of me!"
Preston couldn’t defend himself, no matter what he said. It obviously wasn’t like that!
Riley Lancaster trembled with anger. Her entire scheme had been ruined in a flash! With her father still in a fit of rage, wasn’t it even more impossible for him to give her the shares now?! She gritted her teeth, wondering where that jinx, Zoe, had gone. However, she couldn’t afford to worry about Zoe right now, so she hurried to chase after Martin.
The father and daughter left.
Preston suddenly realized something. He scrambled to his feet. "Where’s Zoe?! Has anyone seen Zoe?!"
Mrs. Quincy gave him a dark look. "Now you know to ask? I doubt she’ll ever speak to you again!"
Panting heavily, Preston rushed out the door in a panic. "Check the surveillance cameras! Something might have happened to Zoe. She was just..." He was about to say that she might have been kidnapped and her innocence ruined, but he slammed on the brakes. "Manager! Pull the security footage!"
Zoe had been completely wasted, and she hadn’t seemed normal—she looked a bit like... Preston’s heart twisted in agony; he hardly dared to think deeper into it. His rationality snapped, and he roared, "Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find her!"
Stella Joyce was also surprised that the situation had turned out this way. The scene she had anticipated hadn’t played out, which only fueled her frustration.
Beside her, two media personnel looked at the sensational photos on their cameras of the escort straddling Preston and stripping. They couldn’t help but marvel, "This is so wild! A wealthy family’s scandal! If we publish this, it’ll generate massive buzz!" They turned to Stella and asked, "Miss Joyce, where are we shooting next?"
Stella felt an inexplicable wave of irritation. Failing to add fuel to the fire and deal Zoe a fatal blow left her feeling faintly uneasy, and her expression turned ugly. "I’m not feeling well. We’re done shooting." She looked at them and added, "There’s no need to publish these photos." It wasn’t a sex tape of Zoe anyway. What was the point?
Stella turned to leave, but then she spotted Shane Shaw standing not far away. He was watching the farce with a calm expression, seemingly treating it as none of his business. Yet Stella’s heart sank heavily, and a vague sense of panic began to amplify within her.
Shane was Simon Hawthorne’s special assistant and bodyguard; he never left his side. But right now, Simon was nowhere to be seen, and Shane had no intention of looking for his boss... The more Stella thought about it, the more erratic her breathing became. Her hands trembled uncontrollably as a terrifying speculation haunted her mind like a vengeful ghost, nearly causing her to lose her footing.
Meanwhile, Preston was already running around like a headless chicken, knocking on doors everywhere on the second floor. Mrs. Quincy had never seen her son in such a furious and anxious state, and she stood there momentarily stunned. Soon, the hotel manager brought a group of people up to help search the second floor. The corridor was a complete mess.
Just a single door away.
Zoe was pressed against the door in agony and tension. She was being held up, her back against the door, her legs wrapped around his lean, powerful waist. The noisy commotion from the corridor seeped into her ears. After more than half an hour of madness, the drug’s effects were no longer completely destroying her willpower, and she was finally able to grasp a sliver of her rationality.
In an instant, she realized her current predicament. Through just this one door, over a dozen people were searching for her outside. Yet inside, she was being relentlessly taken, unable to close her legs. She even had to suppress her voice, biting her lip hard for fear of being heard by the people outside.
Simon leisurely scrutinized the woman’s flushed cheeks. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes as she held back her voice, enduring it until her entire body trembled. Even their point of connection squeezed frantically tight. His movements didn’t stop. His voice was hoarse but still carried a chilling edge. "If the security footage is pulled, we’ll be exposed. Tell me, what would happen if our secret marriage agreement was voided right here and now?"
Zoe’s already fragmented thoughts, which she couldn’t piece together, were jolted by his words. She bit her lip and looked at him. "Simon... no..." No! They couldn’t be exposed! She could lose her life, but she couldn’t lose the money promised in that agreement.
Simon let out an ambiguous scoff, his fingers digging deeper into her thighs. "Who knows if Mr. Quincy slept with that club girl or not. Do you think that just by stringing him along, knowing he likes you, you can sit back and relax?
"Doesn’t he still sleep with other women all the same?"
Prompted by this remark—whether it was a taunt or something else—Zoe’s limited lucidity drove her to snap back sharply, "Just like... you?"
Simon’s eyes darkened. The aphrodisiac had ruined her focus, and Zoe felt as though she had forgotten something important. Her body was currently out of her control, yet a fatal bitterness swelled in her heart, causing her to raise her defenses. "Stella is outside, isn’t she? Don’t you feel sorry for her?"
She had just heard a very faint conversation. She was certain it was Stella.
As her words fell, Preston seemed to stop right outside their door. Simon’s gaze grew colder and darker, staring deeply at her while she stubbornly met his eyes. Lifting his eyelids, Simon naturally sensed the approaching commotion outside as well. He tugged at the corners of his lips and stopped his movements.
Just when Zoe thought he was actually showing mercy, he thrust into her heavily. In the next instant, he lowered his head and captured her lips, ruthlessly prying open her tightly clenched teeth. Completely caught off guard, Zoe let out an uncontrollable cry from her throat. "Ah..."
In that split second, the person outside seemed to hear something. A knock sounded on the door, accompanied by a voice filled with suspicion and panic. "Zoe...? Zoe!"