Chapter 81: Chapter 81: You Brought This on Yourself
Jean Shaw sat in the passenger seat without a seatbelt. She had hit her forehead and hadn’t yet recovered when Caleb Monroe grabbed her hair and slapped her hard across the face.
Jean was seeing stars from the blow, and her mouth fell silent immediately. She looked at Caleb in shock, meeting his irritated and disgusted gaze, and panic gripped her heart.
"Caleb, you’re hitting me?"
"Hitting you? I wish I could beat you to death right now, you venomous woman, Jean Shaw! Jean Shaw, I truly must have been blind back then, not to see how malicious your heart was?"
"Caleb, what are you saying? Leon Keane is framing me because of that little bitch Ivana Monroe, and you’re wronging me too?"
Jean’s tears suddenly flowed, as if she had suffered a great grievance.
"Daddy, Mom is innocent. It’s all Ivana’s doing. She’s orchestrated everything to maliciously frame Mom. If she really fell into the hands of a killer, she wouldn’t be standing here unharmed today," Michelle Monroe sobbed from the back seat.
"Daddy, can’t you see? Leon Keane has been completely deceived by Ivana; he’s become her accomplice. He says Mom can’t tolerate Ivana, but it’s the opposite. Ivana can’t tolerate Mom or me. She’s plotting to kill us, boohoo..."
Caleb Monroe turned his head to look at Michelle in the back seat, her eyes red and full of tears, a pitiful sight tugging at one’s heartstrings.
In the past, Caleb would have been heartbroken, but this daughter who once made him proud embarrassed him beyond repair with her shameless and self-destructive behavior at the wedding.
This daughter could never hope to marry into a wealthy family again, as if she had been raised in vain.
Caleb was a businessman, and he applied his business mind even to his own daughter. With a daughter who had disappointed him, no matter how reasonable her words seemed, Caleb would no longer believe her unconditionally as he used to.
"Enough, for so many years, your sister has suffered outside. You say she wants to kill you, yet you forced her to leave her home, to live abroad alone with her child for six years?"
"Daddy..."
"Shut up, I don’t want to hear you slander your sister anymore."
Michelle was stunned, he’s changed, Daddy’s changed. In the past, when Ivana was mentioned, he’d be disgusted, as if a nasty fly had fallen into his soup, wishing Ivana would just die and never appear in front of him again.
He shouldn’t be defending Ivana, much less calling her her "sister."
Ivana was just a bastard raised by that bitch mother, and she vowed to be her mortal enemy. Where there was Ivana, she couldn’t exist. Where there was Michelle, Ivana couldn’t exist, one of them had to die.
Michelle coldly smiled in her heart, determined it would be Ivana who died. She would live well, taking over the company left by Ivana’s bitch mother, and the assets left by the late Gavin Monroe.
"I couldn’t have given birth to a bitch like Ivana." Jean Shaw suddenly burst out, her eyes red as she looked at Caleb Monroe, "You’re also defending that bitch Ivana, trying to force us mother and daughter to death?"
Jean and Caleb had a big row in the car, which ended with Caleb opening the passenger door and forcibly dragging her out, throwing her on the road.
Michelle got out of the car too, but Caleb ignored her, started the engine, and the car sped away.
"Caleb Monroe, you heartless man, don’t think I don’t know you have a mistress outside. You wish for us to be driven to death by that bitch Ivana, so your mistress can take the position..."
"Mom~"
"Waa... Michelle, why is our fate so bitter..."
**
Leon Keane took Ivana Monroe home, watching her sit numbly on the sofa, her eyes lost and dull. His heart felt wrenched.
He wanted to hold her in his arms, to let the broadness of his chest be her support in helplessness.
"Thank you for bringing me back; I’m fine now."
Ivana’s voice had no emotional fluctuations, very mechanical. How could she make him believe she was fine?
Leon couldn’t stop worrying about her, wanting to ask her to stay at his place. Her back hadn’t healed, and he had an aunt there to cook and could arrange a caregiver for her. Most importantly...he could see her every day.
"Do you still have something to say?" Before Leon could figure out how to start, Ivana spoke mechanically.
Leon laughed out of anger. For all the considerations he made for her, she was now so eager to kick him out after using him?
"Drive me away? Ivana, is this how you treat your lifesaver?"
"What do you want?" Ivana asked, exhausted physically and mentally. She had no energy to argue with Leon or to guess what he was thinking. She simply asked directly what he really wanted.
Leon’s handsome face darkened. Had this woman forgotten how to speak properly? Did she feel no gratitude, whether he saved her or thought of her?
Was this all just him being sentimental?
Leon laughed at himself inwardly. Yes, it was all him being sentimental. If she had even a little feeling for him, she wouldn’t ask what he wanted.
"Good question, at least you have some self-awareness, knowing I wouldn’t save you for nothing. Besides, I wasted two days on you," Leon hooked his finger under her chin, smirking evilly, "I don’t have another female companion now, and I have unrelieved needs in certain aspects. I want your body."
Ivana’s face turned pale, batting his finger away, "You are really despicable."
Leon said with disdain, "In this world, except for those incapable, normal men have such shameless needs."
Leon stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets, "Of course, if you don’t want to, I won’t force you. But as repayment for saving you, I want you to be my companion for three years."
Three years?
Ivana’s eyes widened; three years was too long.
Accompanying him to social events, her reputation wouldn’t remain intact. She could endure a few months, but three years was too much.
Ivana struggled internally for a long while, then stood up, giving him a dazzling smile as she reached to unbutton her crystal blouse, "You want my body, fine, I’ll repay your lifesaving grace."
Her fingers trembled, removing her blouse without looking at his increasingly fervent dark eyes, courageously continuing to undress....
The air in the living room seemed to warm up, Leon’s blood was also heating up, and the beauty of her skin, perfect like snow, almost crushed his self-control.
Leon’s heart was pounding fiercely, eyes filled with intense desire. He wanted her, everything about him screamed to pin her down.
Leon pushed her onto the sofa, seeming to feel her skin’s delicate texture like white jade even through his shirt.
His breathing grew heavy, voice husky, "You asked for it."