Chapter 1

I had just walked out of the supermarket when three burly men pinned me hard against a car hood.

A young woman stepped out of a Porsche and shoved a chat log right in front of my face.

"You've been calling me 'babe' with voice messages in the game every day and scammed me out of five million dollars. Think you can run now?"

"That breathy voice of yours—I'll never forget it!"

The gangster thugs beside her went straight for my jacket, pulling out scissors to cut my hair.

"Look at you, all clean-cut on the outside, but you're a damn scammer. If you don't cough up the money today, we're stripping you naked and parading you through the streets!"

Passersby immediately crowded around, their contemptuous stares stabbing into me like knives.

"So young, and instead of doing honest work, he's running online romance scams."

"Serves him right for getting caught. Scammers like him deserve to be publicly shamed!"

I was being choked until my eyes rolled back. I flailed my hands desperately trying to gesture something, but couldn't make a single sound.

Breathy voice? What breathy voice?

I'm mute!