Chapter 3

Sienna POV

To stop Oliver from being sent abroad, I stood outside Ethan's villa all night.

The autumn night rain cut through me with bone-chilling cold. I was soaked to the skin, but I didn't care.

It wasn't until the next morning that Ethan's black sedan finally pulled through the gate.

The car window rolled down. Ethan saw me standing in the rain, his brow furrowed deeply.

"Get inside."

He threw out those cold words.

I followed him into the living room. Rainwater dripped from my hair onto the expensive carpet.

Ethan removed his suit jacket and loosened his tie, his sharp gaze fixed on me.

"Playing the victim? Sienna, when did you learn these underhanded tactics?"

I stood there numbly, my voice so hoarse I could barely speak.

"As long as you don't send Oliver away, I'll do anything."

Ethan let out a cold laugh and walked up to me, his long fingers hooking open my soaked collar.

"Anything?"

His tone was mocking.

"Besides this body of yours, what else could possibly interest me?"

I closed my eyes and didn't resist as he scooped me up and threw me onto the bedroom's large bed.

What followed was a conquest without foreplay, only punishment.

Ethan seemed to be venting some unknown fury, his movements rough and brutal.

I gritted my teeth and didn't cry out once in pain. Only silent tears slid from the corners of my eyes, soaking the pillow.

I let him tear into me.

When it was over, Ethan looked at me, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Oliver can stay for now."

Ethan lit a cigarette, dispensing his mercy in the coldest tone possible.

"But you have to move out of your current apartment and live in my villa in the western suburbs. You're not allowed to leave without my permission."

The western suburb villa was where Ethan kept his "pets" in a gilded cage.

"Okay."

I agreed without a moment's hesitation.

As long as I could protect my brother, I would give up even my life, let alone my freedom.

For the next two weeks, I was completely confined.

Ethan came almost every night.

He adorned me with the most expensive jewelry and possessed me with the most extreme control.

He was trying to prove that I still belonged completely to him.

But during the day, I was forced to do the most humiliating work. Ghostwriting for Yolanda.

"The Deer Above the Clouds" was a huge success, and the publisher demanded Yolanda produce a sequel as soon as possible.

Yolanda couldn't write a single word herself, so Ethan forced the task onto me.

"Ten thousand words per day. If you don't finish, Oliver's medical expenses stop."

Those were Ethan's exact words.

I sat at the computer, staring at the screen filled with fairy tale elements that should have been mine, now bearing someone else's name. Every keystroke felt like a knife cutting into my heart.

I wrote faster and faster, but the stories grew sadder and sadder.

The princesses in my stories no longer had knights to protect them. They could only bleed alone in dark forests.

One afternoon, the villa door opened.

It wasn't Ethan who entered, but Yolanda.

Yolanda looked at me, a triumphant smile playing on her lips.

"Sienna, do you think Ethan comes to see you every night because he loves you?"

Yolanda walked to the desk and casually flipped through my discarded drafts, her tone contemptuous.

"He just doesn't want to hurt me. My wrist was injured, my body is delicate. He can't bear to touch me. So he uses you as a tool to vent his frustrations instead."

My fingers froze on the keyboard.

"Do you know Ethan bought me a wedding dress yesterday?"

Yolanda leaned closer, lowering her voice.

"At next month's book launch, he's going to propose to me. And you? You'll always be nothing but a dirty woman who can't see daylight, who doesn't even deserve to have her name on her own work."

I stared at the screen, my nails digging deep into my palms. I said nothing.

I thought my heart had already died, but hearing the word "propose" still made it convulse with pain.

Seeing that I wouldn't fight back, Yolanda seemed to lose interest. She scoffed and left.

The room fell silent again.

I looked at the sentence on my screen. "The deer finally died on a night without stars." I covered my face and let out a desperate, muffled cry.