On the screen, Stella Joyce’s WhatsApp message read, "Simon, I want you to rip my stockings and fuck me hard..."
"Shameless! What a slut!" she thought.
Zoe Lancaster sneered. "You guys sure know how to play wild." With that, she turned and left.
Simon Hawthorne had also seen the message on the screen. His thin lips curled into a cold smirk, a chilling glint spreading in his eyes.
Stella Joyce—
Halfway up the mountain, a party was in full swing at a vacation villa.
Stella stared intently at her phone, still not receiving a call from Simon. He had promised he would come to keep her company! Now, she couldn’t reach him at all, leaving her inexplicably irritable as she downed glass after glass of liquor.
Seeing her foul mood, a sleazy friend approached with a cigarette dangling from his lips. "I say, what exactly are your intentions with Simon Hawthorne? Isn’t he..."
"Shut up!" Stella shot him a frosty glare, cutting off whatever the man was about to say, as if it were an absolute taboo.
The man raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I won’t mention your family’s little secret. But it’s already past midnight. If he were coming for your birthday, he’d be here by now. A busy guy like him has no time to play house with you."
Stella’s expression darkened even further. After a long pause, she asked, "Did you do what I asked?"
The man flashed a wicked smile, his eyes filled with malice. "Don’t worry, I handled it. This was just a warning. The next time she goes against you, she’ll be the one getting gutted."
Stella’s lips finally curled into a smile, her mood instantly brightening. She had plenty of ways to teach Zoe a lesson. What could a sheltered woman like her, who had never weathered any real storms, possibly do to fight back? Especially since Simon didn’t love her, Zoe would just have to swallow the abuse in silence! Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if she just obediently agreed to a divorce?
"Since Simon isn’t coming, why don’t we have some fun?" A sudden gleam of excitement lit up the man’s eyes, his tone turning seductive. "Let’s shoot up a little. I guarantee you’ll feel absolutely phenomenal tonight. All your worries will disappear."
Stella checked the time. It was true. Simon would have arrived ages ago if he were actually coming. Even though he didn’t show up, knowing Zoe was having a miserable night brought her immense joy!
"Bring it on." She extended her arm.
As the needle pierced her skin, her expression grew increasingly euphoric until her mind was completely overtaken by the drugs. A bizarre look washed over her face. The whole world morphed, filling her with a thrill so intense she felt like she might die from it!
The man beside her climbed on top, eagerly tearing off her dress. There was no foreplay, but she moaned lewdly as she pulled out her phone. Her mind was entirely consumed by the noble, unattainable image of Simon Hawthorne, desperately wishing the man in front of her was the one she yearned for.
In her drug-induced frenzy, she sent that WhatsApp message...
Back at the Hawthorne Residence, Zoe had been arranged to stay in Simon’s master bedroom.
Perhaps because the nature of today’s incident had been so horrific, Simon lay beside her as if granting a favor, offering a silent form of comfort. But as Zoe thought about it carefully, she wondered if he would truly be so kind.
Unable to fall asleep, she kept her eyes closed and feigned slumber, having no desire to interact with him. For some unknown reason, she could feel the man beside her constantly staring at her face. He did nothing else, and she had no idea what was running through his mind. Refusing to back down, she remained completely motionless.
An unknown amount of time passed. It was likely already one or two in the morning. Mentally exhausted, she finally couldn’t hold on any longer and slowly drifted off to sleep.
She had a nightmare. She dreamed of Stella plunging a knife into her heart with a twisted expression, screaming, "Zoe, Simon will never love you, because he..."
She couldn’t make out the rest of the sentence. In her dream, she felt an inexplicable sense that the unfinished sentence was immensely important, and she strained to hear it clearly. However, the sensation of the knife plunging into her felt terrifyingly real, jolting her awake from the nightmare.
Her forehead was drenched in cold sweat. She instinctively reached out to touch the person beside her, only to grasp empty air. The icy chill of the sheets made Zoe’s heart suddenly sink.
Turning her head, she saw nothing but an empty bed. Simon had left at some point. The sheets were completely cold, meaning he had been gone for quite a while.
Zoe suddenly remembered the highly sexually suggestive WhatsApp message she had seen earlier... Her entire body trembled as her blood ran cold, chilling her to the bone.
Zoe laid there with her eyes open until dawn. Simon never came back.
She didn’t know how she managed to get through those agonizing hours. By the time she snapped out of her daze, she received a call from her mother-in-law, Ken Lowell. Her tone sounded quite grim. "Come back to the Hawthorne Residence for a bit."
Ken was always a woman of her word and never gave Zoe any room for refusal. Zoe was deeply wary of her. After all, her sudden appointment to the public relations department had been Ken’s idea in the first place. Since her mother-in-law already disliked her, there was no point in asking for trouble.
Due to her lack of sleep, Zoe ordered some dog food to be delivered for Scumbag. Only after feeding her dog did she head to the Hawthorne Residence. The Hawthorne Residence rarely intruded on her daily life. They absolutely would not summon her back unless something major had happened.
When she arrived, she found Simon’s car parked in the courtyard. Her eyes flickered slightly, and she clenched her fists tightly as she entered the drawing room. Inside, she discovered two strangers she had never met before. One was an elderly man with graying hair, and the other was a middle-aged man in his late forties.
At that moment, Simon was sitting in a chair, leisurely sipping his tea with an utterly unreadable expression. Mrs. Hawthorne, Florence Finch, sat in the hall with a slightly darkened complexion. Beside her were Ken Lowell, Cecilia Sloan, and several members of the third branch of the family who had come to watch the drama unfold. It looked like quite a massive gathering.
As Zoe walked through the door, Simon cast a fleeting glance her way and waved his hand. "Come here."
Zoe pursed her lips. With so many people present, it wasn’t the right time to throw a temper tantrum. She walked over to him in silence. She couldn’t help but study Simon’s demeanor, wondering if he had actually gone to see Stella last night...
Her thoughts were interrupted as the gray-haired elderly man spoke with an anguished expression. "It’s a failure on the Joyce Family’s part for raising her so poorly and letting Stella cause such a massive disaster. I truly had no other choice but to rush over overnight..."
The middle-aged man beside him looked at Simon with frantic eyes. "Mr. Simon, you have a way to fix this, don’t you? If we can’t suppress this scandal, Stella’s life will be completely ruined! The Joyce Family helped the Hawthorne Family build this business empire in the early years. Even if we didn’t achieve great merit, we poured in our sweat and blood. Furthermore, you’ve always treated her so well. You wouldn’t just leave her to die, right?"
Zoe was thoroughly confused. What did they mean? What on earth had happened to Stella?
Only then did Simon nonchalantly set down his teacup. "Mr. Joyce, you know as well as I do that a matter like this is no small issue. The video was exposed out of nowhere, and we can’t even trace who’s behind it. Not to mention the sheer severity of the situation. Do you honestly think the Hawthorne Family is so omnipotent that we can act with absolute impunity and blatantly spit on the law? Tens of millions of users on X are already crusading against her. Who could possibly save her now?"
Zoe immediately pulled out her phone on the sly to check. Once she understood what was going on, she shot Simon a look of utter shock.
The number one trending topic exploding across X right now was:
#StellaJoyceSuspectedOfGroupDrugUse!#
Attached to the hashtag was a video. Without even having to click play, Zoe could see the thumbnail featuring a group of naked men and women with only their most private areas censored. Anyone with eyes could tell this involved far more than just drugs, and the face of the woman smack in the middle of it all unequivocally belonged to Stella!
The post had already amassed 1.08 million likes and 630,000 comments. It was easy to imagine just how catastrophic the situation had become!
How could something like this happen so suddenly? How could a video like that be leaked? Zoe was truly astounded. How dared Stella do such a thing? Wasn’t she Simon’s woman?
Zoe couldn’t help but study Simon’s expression, only to find him completely devoid of emotion, as if the matter had absolutely nothing to do with him.
Noticing her gaze, Simon calmly raised his eyes. "What’s wrong?"
For some inexplicable reason, a sudden chill shot down Zoe’s spine. His reaction...
At this point, it wasn’t hard to deduce that the two men in the hall had to be Stella’s father and grandfather.
Hearing Simon’s dismissive attitude, Mr. Joyce broke down in tears. "Stella is still young! She was just tricked by someone! She’s not a bad kid! What kind of godforsaken bastard would try to destroy my daughter like this? Mr. Simon, you two have known each other since childhood and share a deep bond. You wouldn’t be this heartless, would you?"
Simon asked with genuine curiosity, "Then what would you have me do, Mr. Joyce?"
Mr. Joyce blurted out without hesitation, "The Hawthorne Family has monumental power. It shouldn’t be hard to protect one person, right? As for everything else..."
Zoe wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but Mr. Joyce seemed to cast a subtle glance in her direction.
Immediately afterward, he dropped heavily to his knees. "I went to the detention center to see Stella today. She told me the only person she ever offended was Mrs. Hawthorne! I apologize on Stella’s behalf! Mrs. Hawthorne, please show mercy and let Stella go!"