Chapter 2
Grace Jones slowly opened her eyes to the luxury of a hotel room, her heart pounding with the realization that this was not her bedroom but an unfamiliar environment.
A glimpse at the handsome, slumbering face beside the bed sparked her curiosity and confusion.
Sitting up suddenly, her mind raced with unanswerable questions. How did I end up here? Who is this man? What was last night that led us to share a bed? Could it be that...Oh my god, that is not true, have I slept with him? Her cheeks flushed with the chaos in her thoughts.
As Grace Jones prepared to escape the awkward situation, she perceived details that implied the man's wealth: an expensive suit, luxurious shoes, and a fancy tie clip. All indicators of his wealthy position. A desperate but bold idea took shape in her mind.
Grabbing out a cheque from her bag, then wrote down a sum that made her heart weep, telling herself it was the price for her mistake.
She then laid it quietly on his bedside table, taking one final admiring glimpse at his fancy and handsome outlook before leaving the room with a combination of remorse and faint hope.
Hours later, Daniel Evans awoke to a vacant bed, devoid of any lingering heat, feeling a sense of loss. As he puzzled over the situation, a cheque grabbed his eye, 50, 000 pounds!
Rage filled him. He could not imagine he had been played by a naive girl.
The gentleman in him had only brought her to the hotel to rest, without taking advantage of her unconscious condition. As an influential business tycoon, he had never been so humiliated. The cheque was a slap on his face.
"Don't mess up with me if you can't endure the consequences!" Daniel Evans seethed, resolving to act in his anger.
He promptly called his assistant to retrieve the hotel's surveillance footage. He was determined to strip away her facade, uncover her identity, and teach her a lesson for her insolent behavior.
Back in his office, Daniel Evans scowled at the scant information his assistant provided. Grace Jones, a 23-year-old graduate student at University College London, with no more background clues to dig deeper.
"Is this all? You cannot even find out which major she attends?" Daniel Evans questioned angrily, his subordinate nodding timidly. How could such a mighty entrepreneur stand satisfied with such rudimentary intelligence?
"Sorry, Mr. Evans, the time was too brief, and UCL doesn't disclose much about their students. We could not find her address either." his assistant explained cautiously, fearing his volatile boss's temper.
"Is this the best thing you can do so far? Get out!" He barked, unable to calm down his agitation. He gazed at the thin file, believing that finding her in UCL would not be too challenging.
Meanwhile, Grace Jones staggered home, her mind echoing with the absurdity of the previous night. "How could I have been so reckless as to give away my first time to a stranger! And to top it off, I had to give him 50, 000 pounds. How am I supposed to live now? Oh, what a fool I am!" She berated herself, shaking her head in dismay.
During her unrest, Eva Hudson, her best friend from school, peeked out from the bathroom with a puzzled look: "What happened to you? Your face turned blushing. Where were you last night? I was such anxious, I called you countless times."
"Eva? You are not supposed to be in my apartment. I just had some things to take care of last night." She stammered, but before she could finish, Eva Hudson burst into giggle, sensing she could not disguise anything.
"Hey, I believe I told you that I'd be staying at your place for a few days since my apartment is under repair. Oh, don't tell me something that happened to you last night!"
Eva instantly scrutinized Grace, who blushed even more and quickly changed the subject: "Are you hungry? Get dressed and let's go for breakfast."
Watching Grace flustered actions, Eva grinned slightly. She seemed to have grabbed a glimpse of a startling secret from her best friend who was determined to conceal up the haze of it all with action.