Chapter 6
938words
Zachary Porter opened the door with a look of unfinished business.
"Lily, are you part turtle or something? Why are you so slow?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he let out a miserable cry, before I could even react.
Sterling was already straddling Zachary, who was down to just his underwear, raining punches on him while Zachary wailed loudly.
The woman in the room was about to call someone on her phone.
I rushed over and grabbed the phone from her hand, throwing it into the toilet in the bathroom.
I hadn't expected to enter this state of alertness in just three seconds.
When I came out, I saw the woman wrapped in a towel holding a crystal ashtray, intending to go help.
I shouted anxiously.
"Watch out behind you..."
Still too late—the woman's ashtray smashed into the back of Sterling's head.
The pain made him unable to support himself, and Zachary beneath him took the opportunity to push him to the ground.
Without a second thought, I rushed forward and forcefully kicked Zachary Porter who was already unsteady on his feet.
Don't let my sweet appearance fool you. I'm tough on the inside and have never lost a fight since I was a child.
"Lily, you bitch, how dare you bring someone to beat me up, I'll fucking..."
His vicious words weren't as fast as Sterling Grant's fist.
"Who do you think you are to insult her?"
At that moment, I thought Sterling, with his shirt torn by Zachary, was radiating light.
After several rounds, there probably wasn't a single unbruised spot left on Zachary Porter's body, his face swollen like a pig's head.
And that woman, who happened to meet me on a day I was ready to go all out, didn't fare much better. I pulled out most of her hair, and multiple fake implants in her body shifted and deformed.
I was just worrying about the compensation afterward.
Sterling had already put on his suit jacket and tossed a business card in front of the two of them.
"She has nothing to do with this. If you have any issues, come find me, Sterling Grant."
Upon hearing the name Sterling Grant, Zachary Porter's pig-like face froze. He didn't even dare to let out another "ouch" and immediately crawled up from the ground, kneeling in front of Sterling Grant, stammering through many words.
I couldn't make out a single word clearly, possibly because he had lost a few teeth, causing his speech to be slurred.
Walking out of the hotel, Sterling suddenly stopped.
"I've already dealt with that person for you. Whether you want to break off the engagement or maintain the status quo, it's your choice."
I blinked my stinging eyes.
He turned around and looked at me.
"Today I'm teaching you to know how to leverage power. When dealing with someone beyond your capabilities, you need to learn to utilize those around you who can be utilized."
"Being threatened, fearing harm to others, and choosing to endure silently—repeatedly handing over your vulnerabilities to others, allowing them to better manipulate and control you—that's not wisdom, it's foolishness."
"Also..."
He seemed to have many more words unsaid when suddenly he collapsed.
Sterling Grant had unabsorbed blood clots at the back of his head. The doctor instructed that he needed someone by his side for 48 hours and should remain in the hospital for a week of observation.
The doctor's words sounded scary, but the actual situation didn't seem that serious.
"You're planning to leave me here alone?"
I was thinking about this but hadn't acted yet, just made a phone call to his special assistant, when he happened to catch me and overheard it.
"Ungrateful."
Because of these four words, I had no choice but to request a week's leave from school.
During this time, a little girl from the next room kept running into our room.
I never knew Sterling was so fond of children; he could play with the little girl from next door for a long time every day.
"Big sister, the uncle keeps taking my toys from me. It's like he never played with these toys when he was little?"
"Whenever he wins a game, the uncle gets really happy. Did he not play these kinds of games when he was little? But Mia thinks that as long as you have friends and playmates, everyone plays these kinds of games together."
Mia looked at me with her big eyes.
And these things I did not know.
I met him during his adolescence.
It was only for a brief three months, we weren't even friends.
When grandmother passed away, my mother and I were driven out of the Lawrence family.
After more than ten years apart, we met again the year I finished my college entrance examination.
I was working at a nightclub to earn tuition money, while he was a business elite with great power.
An accident made him interested in me.
I don't know if he remembered our childhood interactions, but I became his caged bird this way.
Such arrangements are common in high society.
Many women wanted to be Sterling Grant's kept woman.
All I needed to do was behave, be obedient, provide valuable emotional support, and I would get what I wanted.
So, I didn't need to understand him or try to know him better - when the money was right, the service would be better.
