Chapter 2

Rachel's POV

I walked out of the hotel and got into my car, my body still shaking.

I gripped the steering wheel, taking a long moment to steady myself before starting the engine.

With the wind blowing in, my mind cleared up a bit.

I was the eldest daughter of the former chairman of the Vance Group, groomed as the successor since childhood. Before I turned eighteen, I was already attending top business schools and family board meetings.

The year I graduated from college, everyone assumed I would return to the Vance family to take over the business.

But I didn't.

I changed my name and entered Tristan's company, starting from the lowest administrative clerk position. It took me two years to work my way up to his executive assistant, all just to see him every day.

Four years ago, disaster struck the Vance family.

My father passed away, and my stepmother, Fiona Vance, kicked my younger sister, Nina Vance, and me out.

Overnight, I went from a pampered heiress to a homeless orphan.

When the news reached Tristan's ears, he finally realized that the little assistant who had worked for him for two years was actually the eldest daughter of the Vance family.

The way he looked at me changed on the spot, as if he were looking at a calculating fraud.

Everyone knew that Tristan only had eyes for Lily West; none of the high-society heiresses could ever catch his attention.

So, Tristan concluded that I was just like them.

He believed I must have figured out a direct approach would fail, so I had intentionally hidden my identity to take a different path to cling to him.

He called it "coming prepared."

And I had no way to defend myself.

To make matters worse, Nina's autoimmune encephalitis flared up acutely right around that time.

Meds from regular hospitals were completely useless. The only specialized medication that could control her condition was produced exclusively by a biopharmaceutical lab under the Sterling Group.

Meanwhile, Tristan's mother, Victoria Sterling, disapproved of Tristan and Lily West's relationship, using threats and promises to force Lily to leave her son.

Tristan approached me himself and proposed that I become his contract lover.

My job was to pretend to be his girlfriend, pacify his parents, and serve as a shield for Lily West.

In exchange, he would provide Nina's specialized medication.

I spent the entire night thinking it over, and agreed the next day.

But I requested that Tristan also pay me a separate monthly fee.

The reason I gave was that playing along with his act took up a lot of my personal time.

Tristan sneered when he heard this, looking like his suspicions had been confirmed.

He became even more convinced that I was a vain, money-grubbing, materialistic woman, no different from any other.

Naturally, he looked down on me even more.

In reality, while I agreed to become his contract lover because of my desperate circumstances and my need for Tristan's specialized medication...

...the far more important reason was that I had loved him for many years.

For four years, I lived in the villa he arranged for me, decorating every corner to his liking and preparing every meal according to his tastes.

When he came home, I would serve him corn chowder. When he didn't, I would dump it down the drain.

I had seen his profile soften when he received late-night calls from Lily West, and I had seen his eyes turn instantly cold the moment he hung up and looked at me.

It wasn't that I didn't feel hurt.

After all, he was the person I had loved for over a decade.

And I had long realized that Lily West didn't love him at all.

Lily West always kept Tristan at arm's length, blowing hot and cold.

Every time he threw his heart at her feet, Lily would accept it with lukewarm indifference, never giving him a definite answer, yet never rejecting him completely.

My heart ached for him.

I thought that one day, I would melt this block of ice.

But four years passed, and I got nothing in return.

He did treat me slightly more politely than in the beginning, and he was never late with the money or the medication.

At times, he would even help out with Nina's hospitalization.

Yet the disdain deeply rooted in Tristan's bones never truly faded.

A heart is made of flesh. Even the hottest water poured onto ice will eventually grow cold.

My heart grew colder day by day, year after year.

What finally made me make up my mind happened three months ago.

Over these past four years, I had never given up searching for an alternative drug.

Three months ago, I finally found an international pharmaceutical company with an alternative medication. They were willing to collaborate with me to set up a lab and import the drug.

Nina's life would no longer be held in Tristan's hands.

I could leave.

Last night, I had intended to celebrate one last birthday with Tristan.

Whether he showed up or not, I planned to leave when the contract agreement expired at the end of the month, ending things gracefully.

I never expected a heavy rain and a drunken night would turn everything upside down.

The look in his eyes just now had been brutal, and he hadn't held back his strength at all when grabbing my chin and shoving me against the headboard.

My back was still numb.

My body ached, but my heart ached even more.

Taking a deep breath, I drove into the hospital's underground parking lot.

Nina had suffered from rare autoimmune encephalitis since childhood, and had been in the intensive care ward of this hospital for four years.

For a young girl just over ten years old, school wasn't what she was most familiar with—it was the smell of disinfectant and the doctors and nurses in white coats.

I pushed open the glass door of the ward's floor. The nurse walking toward me glanced at my face before shifting her gaze to the men's shirt I was wearing.

"You're here early today, Ms. Vance."

I didn't think much of it, simply nodding and walking straight to the ward.

Pushing the door open, I found Nina with bloodshot eyes and tear stains on her cheeks.

My heart tightened. I rushed over and pulled her into my arms.

"Nina, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Did someone bully you?"

Nina looked up, wet tears still clinging to her eyelashes.

"They said you're a mistress... that you're someone's side-chick..."

The little girl's lips trembled, her voice trailing off at the end.

A pre-teen girl might not fully understand the meaning of those words, but she could read the contempt on other people's faces.

I froze.

The contract lover arrangement was a secret; the number of people who knew about it could be counted on one hand.

The public didn't know I had any connection to Tristan, and we never had any interaction in public.

What was going on?

A news notification popped up on my phone, with the headline screaming:

[Sterling Group CEO Suspected of Cheating, Secret Late-Night Hotel Rendezvous with Mysterious Woman]

I tapped on it immediately, and was instantly struck as if by lightning.

It showed a side profile of me rushing into the hotel room last night, followed by a clear, front-facing shot of me walking out of the hotel lobby this morning wearing Tristan's shirt.

The photos were incredibly clear.

Instinctively, I looked down. The shirt was still on me.

No wonder the nurse had been acting so snide.

This was a disaster.

Everyone knew that Tristan's girlfriend was Lily West.

Now, I had been caught spending the night with Tristan at a hotel.

My temples began to throb with pain.

Once the contract agreement expired, I could have just taken Nina and left.

But now, things had suddenly become incredibly complicated, and my relationship with Tristan would be hard to untangle.

I had no choice but to comfort Nina. "The media is just writing nonsense. It's not true. Ignore them, don't believe a word."

As I whispered this, my phone rang with a piercing trill.

Tristan's name flashed on the screen.

I picked it up, and his raging anger surged through the line.

"Rachel Vance! Is this what you meant by ending things? How dare you! To think you'd resort to such dirty, underhanded tactics!"