Chapter 7

After the bitter fallout with Freya at the hospital, Francis was so furious that he had someone leak her intimate photos online.

Once that was arranged, he headed to the hotel.

The online backlash had driven Chloe into hiding—she hadn't dared step outside her room.

Francis arrived with bags full of her favorite foods, and it took considerable coaxing at her door before she finally let him in.

Overnight, Chloe had lost all her usual radiance and confidence.

Her eyes were red-rimmed, like a rain-soaked rose—disheveled, yet somehow more beautiful for it.

"She still won't record a video clearing my name?"

Her voice was thick with congestion. Francis frowned, noticed the phone clutched in her hand, and immediately snatched it away.

"I'm holding onto this for today."

"Leave everything to me."

Chloe was silent for a long moment. She looked at Francis's refined, handsome face, and felt her heart soften despite herself.

Suddenly, she didn't care about the online attacks anymore—the accusations of being a homewrecker, a scheming seductress, a manipulative snake.

None of it mattered.

As long as Francis didn't believe those things. As long as he stood by her unconditionally. That was enough.

Chloe grabbed his tie and yanked him down, rising on her toes to press her lips against his.

Francis's body went rigid. Freya's face flashed unbidden through his mind, but the soft warmth against his lips made it impossible to push her away.

Chloe's hands wandered, stoking flames. Francis's pupils trembled as heat pooled low in his abdomen.

He gripped the back of her head and seized control.

Time lost meaning. Only when Chloe was gasping for air did he finally release her.

The temperature in the room climbed steadily, desire hanging thick in the air between their ragged breaths.

Chloe suddenly smiled, her beauty blazing like a rose finally touched by sunlight. "Do you know, Francis? I fell for you a long, long time ago."

"So... let me truly have you. Just once."

She undid his shirt buttons with deliberate slowness, her intention unmistakable.

Francis felt as if a feather were brushing against his heart—a maddening tickle that stripped away his reason.

His hands found her waist, and he bent to claim her lips again.

From the bedroom came the sound of tearing fabric and a muffled gasp.

There was no stopping after that.

Lost in passion, Francis kissed the seven crimson birthmarks on Chloe's back.

His voice came out hoarse and strained: "Your waist is so impossibly slender..."

Three hours later, it was over.

Francis carried Chloe to the bathroom and cleaned them both up.

Toweling his damp hair with one hand, he picked up his phone with the other to check his messages.

He'd silenced it to fully immerse himself in their encounter.

When he opened it, he found over a dozen messages from Freya.

His fingers froze.

For reasons he couldn't explain, panic stirred in his chest.

Francis glanced back at Chloe, already exhausted and asleep. He dressed quietly and left a note on the nightstand.

"These past few days, we've done everything we should and shouldn't have. Let's end it here."

Deep down, Freya had always meant far more to him than Chloe ever could.

He opened Freya's message thread.

But when he saw what was inside, he stopped dead in his tracks.

There were photos of Chloe at a tattoo parlor.

And a video—Chloe talking to that so-called Prophet from three years ago.

A terrible suspicion took shape in his mind.

He'd been played by Chloe this whole time?!

Before he could process this, his father's call came through.

"Get a pair of jade bracelets ready—fifty million dollars' worth. A wedding gift for Freya."

"In ten days, you're coming with me to her wedding."

Francis thought he must have misheard. He suppressed the panic rising in his chest. "Father, what are you talking about? Freya and I haven't even officially registered our marriage yet. The wedding last time may have been ruined, but it let everyone in the Capital know how I feel about her. There's no way she would marry someone else!"

Francis found the whole thing utterly absurd.

But his father's next words, spoken with genuine surprise, made his heart lurch. "Freya didn't tell you she's marrying Kieran James?"

Francis's mind went completely blank! He froze on the spot!