"Why do I feel like I got played? Your anger seems to be getting worse and worse?"

Nicole’s eyes were very pure, bright and lively. Jose Floyd steadied his thoughts, stood up, and his tall, lean body leaned toward her.

"Even if I dressed wrong, you can’t just hit people!" Nicole watched him come closer and shrank back, panic and confusion written all over her face.

"Who hit you! I don’t hit women!"

Jose Floyd’s face darkened. He walked over, grabbed her wrist, and dragged her toward the bedroom.

"Jose, don’t be mad, okay? Look, once you get mad, the food doesn’t even taste good. I clearly could have eaten two bowls of rice today, but with that cold face of yours sitting there, I didn’t even dare have a second bowl." Nicole softly coaxed the man whose expression was black and gloomy.

"Go to sleep." Jose Floyd lifted the quilt, his face still cold. "I’ll count to three. One... two..."

Nicole kicked off her slippers and whooshed onto the bed, her movements quick.

Looking at her pure, spotless face, a dark heat rose in Jose Floyd’s body, surging from bottom to top, completely out of control.

He pressed his lips together, turned, and went into the bathroom, turning on the tap for a cold shower.

He had never had any thoughts about a woman, never felt the urge to touch anyone, yet he’d actually, with no warning, had dirty thoughts about Nicole, this girl he’d brought back from a bar.

Damn it!

Jose Floyd cursed himself in his heart, and the more he thought about it, the more he despised himself.

He’d paid money to buy her back; even if he really did something, it would be perfectly justified. She’d already signed the contract to sell herself—what was he worrying about?

Just now, it wasn’t that he hadn’t had the thought of touching her, but when he saw her clear, pure eyes and remembered she was only seventeen, he’d instead coldly ordered her to lie back under the covers, even pulled the quilt over her himself, then went to take a cold shower...

"Jose Floyd, are you an idiot?!" he spat at himself in contempt.

Looking at Nicole’s sleeping face, his eyes cooled again. "Eighteen is your final deadline."

He wasn’t a kind man, nor a merciful one. He’d bought five years of her life; there was no way he’d just leave her untouched.

What belonged to him, from the tips of her toes to every strand of hair, he would own it all! Even if she was just a pet, no one else better even think about her!

——

The first piece of news Nicole heard when she got to campus the next day was that Jaxon Sterling had transferred to another school.

The news was very sudden. He clearly hadn’t mentioned anything about transferring before, so how did he just change schools overnight?

There were all kinds of rumors about Jaxon Sterling’s transfer, but since they were only regular classmates, Nicole didn’t obsess over it like the others. Instead, she threw herself into her piano lessons.

If she wanted to get close to him, to be near him, she had to like what he liked. Since he’d told her to learn piano, it was probably because he liked it. So she had to work hard and learn it well.

After class, Nicole was picked up by the driver and taken home. Unlike usual this time, he wasn’t waiting in the living room to have dinner with her.

She asked Aunt Myres and found out he was injured, and that the private doctor was inside dressing his wound.

Nicole put down her single-strap bag and went upstairs, heading straight for his lounge.

"Jose." Nicole burst into the room, a trace of panic and nervousness on her face. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The private doctor was in the middle of bandaging his wound. Seeing her come in, Jose Floyd’s eyes sank. "What are you barging in here for?"

His voice was a little cold, but Nicole wasn’t afraid at all. She walked straight over, and when she saw the blood seeping through the bandage, her fingertips trembled slightly.

The private doctor finished bandaging and told Camden the things Jose Floyd needed to be careful about, but Nicole silently memorized every word.

After Camden went out to see the doctor off, Nicole squatted down beside Jose Floyd, pressed her lips together, and only after a long moment did she raise her head and say in a low, firm voice, "I want to study medicine."