Chapter 3

3.

I turned around and saw Ian leisurely counting a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills.

He looked up at Zach, his voice dangerously soft. "Not even close."

"You raised the stakes by twenty times. Your total loss is three hundred thousand dollars."

My heart stopped, and I bolted up from the sofa in shock.

I thought they were just playing a casual game for fun.

I had no idea the stakes were that insanely high.

Zach's face turned paper-white.

"Mr. Mercer, please, cut me some slack! It's my first time playing with these rules, I didn't know―"

Trina quickly stood up, batting her eyelashes to plead on his behalf.

"Mr. Mercer, for my sake, could you let this one slide?"

Before coming here, she bragged that she and Ian were on friendly terms.

Ian looked at her, his eyes dead cold. "Who are you?"

"Why the hell should I care about your sake?"

Trina's smile froze, clearly unprepared for his brutal dismissal.

She bit her lower lip nervously. "I... I delivered a contract to your corporate tower last week. I said hello to you in the lobby."

"Oh," Ian replied with utter boredom.

"Mr. Mercer, so about the debt..." Trina asked, looking at him with desperate eyes.

"When you sit at my table, every single cent counts," Ian said, his voice flat yet terrifyingly dominant. "You seemed to know the rules so well just a minute ago. What happened?"

The entire room went dead quiet.

Trina shrank back, lowering her head in utter shame.

Zach looked like he was about to throw up.

"Mr. Mercer, I swear to God, I don't have that kind of money!"

Seeing him look so pathetic, I reached into my purse, ready to pull out my black card to pay off his debt.

Right then, one of the guys at the table chuckled mischievously.

"Hey, Zach, that little sidekick of yours isn't half bad. She might be a bit naive, but she's got a pretty face. Why don't you offer her up to Mr. Mercer to clear your tab?"

"Deal!"

Zach blurted out the answer instantly.

He marched over, grabbed my wrist, and shoved me straight into Ian's chest.

"Mr. Mercer, she's a good girl, and I can guarantee she's completely untouched. What do you say?"

Every drop of blood in my veins turned to ice.

Looking at Zach's cold profile, he felt like a total stranger.

He was never like this before.

Back in high school, he took a beating from his father just to save a stray kitten.

He would spend his entire allowance buying groceries for lonely seniors down the street.

Even though he didn't return my feelings back then, he walked me home from school every single day.

His mother once told me he did it because he worried I would get scared walking through the dark alleys alone.

That small act of kindness stole my heart completely.

From that day on, I became his shadow―buying him drinks, running errands, saving him seats, doing his homework.

When we graduated, I confessed my feelings, but he just said, "I don't love you. I just see you as a little sister."

If I was just a sister, why did he set our profiles as a romantic couple in video games?

If I was just a sister, why did he constantly drop leading remarks?

He would whisper, "You know, I do feel something for you."

Or, "Being with you actually doesn't feel half bad."

His hot-and-cold games had kept me dangling on his hook for seven agonizing years.