The night was a decadent blur of neon lights and lavish indulgence.
The soft scuff of leather shoes and high heels echoed down the dimly lit hallway.
A man and a woman stopped before a door.
"Go on in."
Joel Hale motioned with his chin toward the door he’d pushed ajar, his expression blank.
A suggestive pink light seeped from the room, casting Joanna Sherman’s face in a glow that made her skin look deathly pale. "You brought me to a place like this? Are you insane?"
Her voice was so distorted with fury it was almost a shriek. "Do you have any idea who I am?!"
Joel Hale impatiently shoved a hand in his pocket and shot Joanna Sherman a sidelong glance. "Who are you? A fallen heiress, a failed aerospace researcher... What? Is that status something to be proud of?"
Joanna Sherman was speechless.
"Go on." Joel Hale’s hand pressed down on her shoulder, his lips carelessly close to her ear. "You have to suffer the worst of hardships to rise above the rest. Go in and get a taste of what it’s like to grovel. I’ll make sure President Grant sees it."
Joanna Sherman’s expression was still grim, but at Joel Hale’s gesture, she gritted her teeth and walked in.
Under the suggestive pink light, two scantily clad women flanked a pot-bellied man, one feeding him wine, the other fruit. The scene was utterly repulsive to Joanna Sherman.
She took several deep breaths before managing to walk over, her tone stiff. "Hello, President Abbott. I’m Joanna Sherman, the head of Zenith."
"I heard you needed a shipment of..."
"No rush, no rush." President Abbott opened his murky eyes and looked Joanna Sherman up and down.
His gaze lingered on her chest for a moment too long.
Joanna Sherman felt as if a thousand disgusting insects were crawling on her skin. She almost raised her hand to slap him.
"Sit." President Abbott patted the spot beside him.
The woman on his left made room.
Joanna Sherman walked over and sat opposite him instead.
The man pursed his lips and held out a glass of wine. "This is my first time sharing a table with a beautiful scientist. Miss Sherman, come on, let’s have a drink."
The way the man looked at her was crude and direct, no different from how he looked at the other women.
Joanna Sherman took the glass and forced herself to down it in one gulp. "President Abbott, can we talk business now?"
"What’s the rush?" President Abbott poured another glass. "It’s not every day Miss Sherman comes to visit. Have a few more drinks. As for business... we can only talk about that when I’m in the mood."
President Abbott’s eyes crawled over her chest again, his murky, lecherous gaze making it perfectly clear what he meant by "in the mood."
’Just endure it,’ Joanna Sherman told herself again and again. ’Just endure it.’
’The more I suffer, the more his heart will ache for me when Vincent Grant sees!’
’She’d conquered a field as difficult as aerospace engineering; why should she care about this scumbag?!’
Under President Abbott’s increasingly frivolous gaze, she forced herself to down several more glasses.
President Abbott chuckled. "Miss Sherman can really hold her liquor. And what a figure... truly a rare beauty."
As he spoke, his chubby hand reached out, landing greasily on the back of her hand and sliding up and down suggestively. "You must look beautiful when you dance, too. Why don’t you dance for us, Miss Sherman?"
Joanna Sherman was frozen in disgust.
Gritting her teeth so hard they might crack, she pulled her hand away. "I don’t know how to dance."
"Even if you can’t dance, you can at least shake it for me!" President Abbott said, displeased. "Do you want this contract or not?!"
"President Abbott!" She wanted to tell him that the last person who dared to threaten her like this had been left crippled.
’But I can’t!’
Joanna Sherman struggled to her feet.
She swayed her body awkwardly a few times.
"Why are you so terrible to look at!" President Abbott was utterly disgusted. He patted the waist of the woman beside him. "Not even as good as our Gigi here."
"How can you compare?" The woman, Gigi, covered her mouth as she giggled. "She’s a great intellectual, you know. Returned from her studies abroad. All her thoughts are spent on her ’big research.’"
"Gigi’s right." President Abbott’s hand slid shamelessly down to the curve of the woman’s lower back.
Joanna Sherman closed her eyes, shutting out the nauseating scene. "President Abbott, can we sign the contract now?"
"What are you shouting about!" President Abbott snapped. "If you’re asking for a favor, you’d better act like it! The order I’m placing is huge. If not you, I can find someone else!"
Joanna Sherman fell silent.
"I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you."
"Finish all the wine!"
Suppressing the hatred in her heart, Joanna Sherman looked at the several bottles lined up neatly on the table, her pupils dilating slightly.
Still, she gritted her teeth. "Fine."
She grabbed a bottle and began to drink straight from it.
The cold liquor trickled from the corner of her lips and down into her collar. She could see the man’s greedy, slimy gaze follow the trail of liquid down into her clothes. The humiliation was like being dragged through the mud.
After finishing the bottle, she propped herself up weakly with her hands on the table, her vision blurring with tears.
"President Abbott."
Just then, a clear voice rang out.
When President Abbott looked up and saw who had just walked in, he practically snapped to attention, scrambling to his feet.
His tone was full of reverence. "Miss Shaw!"
President Abbott hurried away from his seat toward Sophia Shaw, gesturing to his companions as he went. "Change the lights, quickly! You two, get out, get out!"
In an instant, the suggestive pink glow in the room was replaced by normal white fluorescent light.
The two scantily clad women also left.
"Miss Shaw, what brings you here?" President Abbott asked softly, almost instinctively half-bowing.
Joanna Sherman stared at President Abbott in shock.
The frivolous expression he’d worn when facing her was gone, as if he had become a completely different person!
President Abbott’s blatant double standard took Joanna Sherman’s pride and smashed it on the floor, shattering it to pieces.
Sophia Shaw also seemed surprised to see Joanna Sherman there, freezing for a second.
But her attention quickly returned to President Abbott. "I apologize for the intrusion, but I heard you have a piece of top-grade cloud silk. Would you consider selling it to me?"
"Miss Shaw, you want the cloud silk?"
Sophia Shaw nodded. "To be honest, an elder in my family is celebrating a milestone birthday, and I want to give them a special gift to make them happy."
President Abbott focused solely on speaking with Sophia Shaw, treating Joanna Sherman as if she were part of the scenery.
Joanna Sherman was mortified to her core, but she couldn’t help but sneer inwardly.
’Everyone knew that cloud silk was President Abbott’s prized possession. He was once kidnapped, and when his family was told to exchange the cloud silk for his life, he flatly refused.’
’And she was asking him for *that*?’
’She really thinks she’s someone special!’
"Done!"
But President Abbott gave an answer that Joanna Sherman never expected.
"Miss Shaw is one of the people I, Abbott, admire most in this life! Forget the cloud silk—even if you asked for my life, I’d give it to you!"
Joanna Sherman was dumbfounded.
"I’ll call someone right now to have the cloud silk sent over!" President Abbott raised his phone and hurried off to make the call.
Joanna Sherman’s nails dug into her palm so hard they broke.
Sophia Shaw’s gaze fell casually on the table. Seeing the messy glasses, the scattered bottles, and the empty one in front of Joanna Sherman, she understood everything.
She was also a little surprised.
’Had Joanna Sherman really fallen this far?’
"Sophia Shaw, you did this on purpose, didn’t you!" Joanna Sherman’s shrill voice cut through the air.
The jarring contrast grated on her nerves, and she clenched her jaw again. "You knew I was here, so you came over specifically to flaunt your superiority, didn’t you!"
Joanna Sherman was trembling with rage, her wide eyes practically murderous.
Every bit of humiliation she had just suffered at President Abbott’s hands was magnified infinitely the moment she saw Sophia Shaw.
"No, you must have conspired with President Abbott and Joel Hale all along, teaming up to humiliate me!"