Chapter3 A Man Without Empathy
Caius's face instantly darkened. He gripped her hand forcefully and sneered. "Linnea, I'm not interested in women who pry too much into my privacy."
This matter, apart from his most trusted family doctor, he had only told one woman. But she had long since disappeared. How did she know?
Meeting his cold gaze, Linnea instinctively felt afraid, but she didn't dodge. "I only studied medicine for one year. I observed that even when you drink, the veins on your forehead are always tense, only relaxing a bit when you're in close contact with me."
"Studied medicine? You switched from medicine to finance?"
"Is that not allowed?"
Linnea wasn't lying. Before cutting ties with her family, she had indeed been a medical student.
"Why?" He pressed aggressively.
Linnea recited her prepared lines. "Because I admire you and wanted to follow in your footsteps, Mr. Thorne. When I was still a freshman in medical school, I would cut out your photos from financial magazine covers and paste them in my notebook."
The man had no reaction to her confession. Countless people had done the same. He said perfunctorily, "Well. If that's true, I'm honored. But..."
He looked her up and down. "I'm a married man. And I hate infidelity and adultery the most."
Linnea called him out. "You and your wife have no feelings for each other at all, do you?"
Three years after marriage, Caius still lived in his bachelor beach apartment.
"You're right." Caius chuckled. "Arranged marriage. Only met five times in three years."
"What about the marriage certificate? The assets?" She hoped these things hadn't been stolen by her stepsiblings.
But he was displeased. "Are you planning to keep interrogating me about my privacy?" Then suddenly he pushed her down on the bed, both of them rolling into it one after another.
He seemed to have run out of patience. He urgently tore at her silk jacket, his large hand rubbing against her belly. She couldn't help but call a halt. "No, wait!"
She remembered again that sex from five years ago. She had almost been fucked to death there.
To dilute her fear of the enormous thing about to penetrate her, she desperately tried to seize control of the conversation. "You're having sex with me because of the scent on my body?"
"It's curiosity. Curious about when I'll lose patience with your clumsy seduction and pick up the gun on the nightstand to kill you."
"You're so brutal!"
The next second, she directly experienced Caius's brutality.
He tore her shirt to shreds.
In the last moment reason remained in his consciousness, Caius pressed down on her, using his lips to block all her clumsy seduction attempts.
"Darling, can we stop with the annoying nonsense?"
"Don't be afraid. I'll make sure you have a great night."
The next morning, Linnea woke from the soft covers, her body already clean. She pinched the brand new nightgown, thinking groggily that a man of such noble status and pride as Caius would actually clean his bed partner's body.
"Sleep well last night?"
The man's voice sounded behind her, rough fingers touching her eyelids.
She was grumpy upon waking and didn't want to open her eyes. "Mm..."
The next second, something hard and cold pressed against the center of her brow. Linnea's eyes flew open.
Before her was that pitch black gun. Last night she had reacted too intensely and pushed it from beside the pillow to the floor, and he had mocked her for it.
And Caius was kneeling at her side in standard shooting position, staring at her, expressionless.
Her face instantly went pale. She stammered, her brain awake to the point of pain.
"Just a little joke with you." But Caius moved the gun away a bit and even rubbed the mark the gun had left between her brows. "I'm not interested in destroying a happy family."
Linnea didn't believe it. The way he had just looked at her made her think that killing her would be as easy for this man as defeating a boss in a video game. He was just a moody tyrant!
But he had brought up last night's family topic.
“To be precise, my family isn’t a happy one.” She couldn't help but correct him, then said angrily, "Please take the gun away."
But he became interested and put the gun back on her forehead. "No. Answer my question first. Tell me about your background."
"I'm an orphan."
"An orphan... Ha." Caius clearly didn't believe it. "Even if you've been to prison, I wouldn't fire you for having a criminal record."
"If you don't believe me, there's no point in me saying more."
To continue the conversation, Caius went on. "You don't look like one."
"To be precise, I was born into an ordinary family. My mother devoted herself to raising me, but she died very early. As soon as she died, my sewer repairman father brought his mistress and illegitimate children home."
"That's really unfortunate." He responded coldly.
A man without empathy. Linnea pursed her lips uninterestedly.
"Please take the gun away."
This time, Caius finally complied.
This made her feel like she was regaining control of the rhythm. She proactively asked the man wiping his gun with a cloth, "You knew I had ulterior motives toward you. Why were you still willing to sleep with me?"
"Oh... the feeling you give me is very familiar."
Linnea immediately didn't dare breathe.
He wouldn't recognize her, would he?
No, he wouldn't. After all these years, he had never looked for her.
"Everything goes back to that exciting one night stand five years ago."
Now it's two nights. Linnea muttered in her heart.
"Five years ago, I was caught in a shooting on my father's yacht. A girl saved me."
He briefly described what happened that night, the same as in her memory, then immediately continued, "But in the final struggle with the terrorists, I accidentally drowned, resulting in a coma that lasted three months. After waking up, I only remembered what happened with her but forgot all her characteristics. Until now, I still haven't found her..."
Linnea listened attentively, not noticing that his palm was pressed against her waist in an intimate gesture.
"However, I seem to smell her scent on you." He said playfully. "I want to know if she might be you."
His eyes seemed able to see through everything.
"I'm afraid I'll disappoint you. Five years ago, I was working as a waitress in a mall restaurant." Linnea stiffly changed the subject. "Do you like her?"
He shrugged. "If it were you, perhaps. But who would fall in love with a bed partner they only slept with for one night?"
Linnea thought she was the same. After that night, she rarely thought of him.
"Then why are you looking for her?"
But he interrupted her. "Are you jealous? Linnea, do you really have a crush on me?"
After making Linnea's face tighten, he finally felt satisfied and said with a smile, "Of course it's to treat my condition. Oh, if she needs it, I'm willing to give her a very high salary."
Just as Linnea thought. This person had no idea how to write the word gratitude.
This was also why she didn't consider revealing her identity to him. With just this, how would this ruthless business emperor divorce for her?
She had to use her charm to captivate him, make him truly fall in love with her, and willingly become the sharpest blade on her path of revenge.
But... could she really control this powerful man?
Her mind became confused.
But Caius reached over her to get a document from the nightstand on the other side.
"Take a look at this."
What was it?
A confidentiality agreement about his mania? Or payment for last night's sex?
Linnea took it and looked closely.
It was a termination letter.
At that moment, her eyes widened from being played, and she shouted at Caius, "You're firing me?!"