The next day.

The clock at the bedside said 10:00 and the thick curtain could not stop the strong sunshine anymore, but Freya showed no sign to wake up.

Last night, she talked about a magazine interview at 12:30 am.

Though it took only a call from him to reschedule the interview, she was a new model and the people from the magazine had already prepared for this. If she canceled it now and left a bad impression on the journalist, it might badly affect her future career.

Chris decided to wake her up.

"Freya."

"Freya?"

After that, Freya only changed her sleeping position.

Chris knew her too well and realized it was useless to do that again. Thus, he directly carried her into the bathroom and slowly told her. "It's 10 o'clock and you have an interview at 12:30. And before the interview, you need to pick your car at Joanne's apartment."

Freya mumbled something. Chris didn't hear it quite clearly, so he didn't know if she was protesting or something. However, she seemed to be going to bury her head in his arms to continue the sleep, he quickly put her down on the ground.

Then, Freya reluctantly opened her eyes and took the brush Chris handed to her.

Chris was brushing his teeth as well. At that time, in the spacious bathroom, only the humming of the two electronic brushes was heard. The two people stared at each other in the mirror. They didn't talk but didn't feel anything wrong or awkward at all.

As if they should wake up just like this.

After washing her face, Freya finally sobered up and saw the salmon mark below her collarbone.

She angrily knitted her brows and glared at Chris. "Didn't I tell you... not... to...?" Embarrassed, she couldn't utter a complete sentence.

Nevertheless, Chris must have known what she wanted to say. Yesterday, she told him about the interview and photo shoot and commanded him not to leave any mark on her.

Chris acted indifferently. "It won't affect your work today."

"Who told you that?" Freya thumped. "I'll change into many outfits today."

Chris, who was washing his hands, stopped.

He slowly turned off the tap. With his slender finger, starting from the salmon mark, he drew a line under her collarbone. "I don't care how many outfits you'll be in, but the openings can't be larger than this."

"..."

Freya was finally sure that Chris deliberately left that mark...

She didn't reject his occasional domineering acts at all.

However, it was another story if she would fight back or not.

After breakfast, Chris sent Freya back to Joanne's apartment. She went from the underground parking lot to fetch her car and found the bodyguards Mr. Norris hired were still there. One was standing beside her car, and the other was taking rest.

They've worked hard...

Freya bought breakfast for them and drove to the company.

It was past the morning rush hour. Her red Ferrari drove smoothly on the road. On the way near the company, the traffic light went red, so Freya slowed down and looked outside the window in boredom. She widened her eyes at a pair of familiar figures.

She checked again and found they were Aaron, who got punched up by Chris. Moreover, the girl in Aaron's arms was the one who challenged her in the last game.

At that time, she lashed out on the girl, saying instead of worrying about someone else, the girl should care more about her rank in the game. The girl looked indifferent back then. It turned out that the girl had had Aaron as her benefactor.

Freya thought this might be something you needed to wait for a long time to witness.

Then, the traffic light went green, so Freya quickly put this behind. She stepped on the gas and arrived at the company soon. Candy took her to put on the makeup and dress. Noticing the bruise under her collarbone, she tut-tutted. "Quite good for Chris! You've been grounded, and he still can do this to you."

Freya swiftly covered the mark. "I take it as a compliment to him!"

Candy. "..."

At the moment, the one who got the compliment was trying to reach Mr. Norris.

Chris called the secretary office of the Norris Group in person, and the female secretary sounded sweet and rigid on the phone. "Mr. Scott, I'm sorry, but..." Maybe someone had just instructed her, and she changed her tone quickly. "President Lamberto is available now. Please hold while I put you through to him..."

Soon, there came Mr. Norris's voice. "Hello."

"Uncle Norris." Chris tried to sound as polite as possible. "Could I have a conversation with you at some place when you're available?"

"There's no need to waste your time." Mr. Norris sounded tough and left no room to negotiate. "I picked up this call because I wanted to tell you to stop wasting your time. You can't fool me like you've fooled Freya!"

Chris sounded neither humble nor arrogant. Instead, he slowly continued, "Uncle Norris, I know the things Maya told you. Could you give a chance to explain to you?"

"Explain?" Mr. Norris scorned, not trying to conceal his sarcasm. "I'll tell you straightforward now. No matter how you explain, I won't accept you and Freya, unless Freya doesn't want me as her father anymore!"

Before Chris could answer, with a "bam", Mr. Norris hung up on him. He could only swallow back his words and helplessly put down the phone.

Headache.

It was causing him more headaches when he was facing stubborn clients.

Jack dropped the coffee table. "Boss Scott, what about... confessing everything to Miss Norris?"

Chris pondered for a while. "Not now."

He knew Freya too well. If he confessed the things he had done behind her now, in the heat of the moment, Freya would break up with him.

Even if she did that out of anger, it would still take a lot of effort to get her back. By then, he couldn't make sure that Travis wouldn't steal her away.

This was how the three reached a deadlock.

Mr. Norris wouldn't listen to Chris's explanation and had people watch over Freya all the time.

Freya was unwilling so that she occasionally talked back to Mr. Norris and said she would defend her lawful rights. Then, Mr. Norris's would go red with embarrassment. Thus, they couldn't quite ease the tension between them.

At last, the one who suffered the most was Chris, because he could only meet her when she was out on business sessions, but this kind of temporary solution couldn't ultimately solve the problem.

However, there was no other way.

Joanne tried to help Chris out, but in fain. Furthermore, she was also in trouble.

On the tabloids, paparazzi wrote about her argument with her stepmother and her bad relationship with her father they witnessed that day in President Frenk's birthday party. Then, people in the police station started to gossip about her.

Some said that she didn't let others know that she was born into the Scott Family because she had a lousy personality and was on bad terms with her father as well as her stepmother.

Others said because she married Brian and found a rich benefactor now, she dared to publicly fall apart with Steven.

They gradually started to judge her personality. In the party, she had asked Mia if she would die, and then, after a few rounds of gossiping, people were saying that she had viciously told her half-sister to die.

In a word, they were all nasty remarks. Thought they could not impact her life, she still found those words annoying and could not help feeling upset.

Shawn told her not to take it to heart. She thought what he said made sense and nodded, trying to let them slip off their mind.

Thus, Brian failed to notice anything wrong about her. Meanwhile, she also thought the gossip would die down after some time and peace would be restored to her life.

However, what she said at the party had already cast a curse on her life.

On Saturday, Brian left home for some business matter, and Joanne was watching the replay of Freya's game last night alone at home.

The scandal about Freya had gradually died down, and Freya performed pretty well in this round of the game. She took first place again, and the runner-up was again Kaylee.

The last scene saw Freya's bright smile and the miserable Kaylee with a dry smile against Freya's glowing face.

Joanne felt amused and turned off the TV, and suddenly, her phone on the coffee table vibrated.

Mia texted her.

-Room 1401, No. 125, Kangzhuang South Road. I'm in trouble, come rescue me.

Joanne knitted her beautiful brows and put down her phone.

She wanted to ignore her, but in the end, she still picked up the phone and called Mia back.

Mia soon picked it up, and there came loud dance tracks and cheers of people who seemed to have gotten carried away.

Joanne knitted her brows tighter. "Mia?"

"Joanne..." Mia's voice sounded unsteady like a wisp of smoke floating in the air. "You're a medical examiner and you must know a lot like a doctor, right?"

Silent for a while, Mia suddenly sobbed in pain. "Can you help me? Can you save me?... I feel so much pain... It hurts so much..."

Having seen many junkies' bodies, Joanne started to realize something.

She hung up the phone and told Simon that she was going out. Then, she grabbed the car keys on the table and stormed out.

The white LaCrosse sped down the road and it took less than 40 minutes to arrive at the place in Mia's text.

It was a remote block in the suburbs, and a few people were on the street. Building 125 looked old, and its walls were covered in dust. However, a few luxurious cars worth millions parked downstairs. One of them was the car Steven gave Mia as a birthday present.

Joanne pulled over and went upstairs. She pressed the doorbell of room 1401.

Though she had expected this, the moment she opened the door, Joanne was startled.

The people hung a thick curtain to stop the sunshine from getting in and only lit a few dim chandeliers in the spacious living room. There were a long couch and a long coffee table. On the table, like a demon, the white power was coaxing them into smelling and sniffing it.

Some were lying on the sofa and looked in a trance. Their smile crooked and they stumbled to Joanne at the sight of her. "Mia, is this your big sister?"

Joanne snapped on the lights, and the incandescent light bulb lit up the entire room. Those young men seemed to sober up. Two of them approached her and reached out to her face. "So pretty. Come, let me taste you."

Shawn had taught her how to protect herself, so she easily warded off the man's dirty hand. "I've called the police. If you don't beat it right now, you'll be sent to the rehab."

Then, everyone collected themselves and glared at Mia. "This was not what you've told me, right?"

Joanne had a bad hunch. "What did she tell you?"

The man smiled unpleasantly and eyed Joanne's good figure up and down. Then, he reached out again. "She said she would send a pretty lady for us..."

Joanne's face fell and she grabbed the man's hand. The next second, with a snap, the man flopped to the ground, howling in pain.

She was not so good at Taekwondo, but it was enough for her to handle a few skinny boys.

As expected, they became startled.

Joanne stared at them coldly. "Since you know I'm her sister, you must know that I'm also Brian's wife. If you touch me, you'll be courting your own deaths. Get lost!"

Brian...

Not to mention the man in person, they could not even say something disrespectful about these three words.

In less than one minute, all the boys and girls in the room all vanished, leaving only Mia lying on the couch, laughing hysterically and coldly staring at Joanne like a poisonous snake.

Joanne didn't find it quite right, so she fished out the phone to call for backup. However, just then, she felt dizzy and the phone in her hand slapped onto the ground...