Chapter 5 Life Changing.

“You don’t have to overthink it.” He followed.

I scoffed before I could stop myself, and when I realized what I had done, I pressed my lips together.

Not overthink it? As if that was possible. After saying that, there was no way I could not overthink it, and I was sure he knew that, too.

“I’m not going to request anything hard.” He added, slowly taking his smile away.

I grabbed a paper and pen from the center table, and sat down on the carpet to jot something down. I saw him lean in and read the words I had written.

“Agreement? Do you really not trust me?” His voice carried a hint of amusement.

“I’d love to take your word for it. But I was taught that putting things in writing makes sleeping easier.” I said, slamming the pen’s tip as I finished writing the contract.

I scanned it, and butterflies flew in my stomach.

“Read it and sign,” I ordered, pushing the handwritten contract towards him.

He chuckled lightly, grabbed a pen for himself, and signed it with his signature with a few swift strokes.

“Are you not gonna read it?”

“I did.”

I scrunched my forehead. That was the first written contract I made. Well, it might not be perfect. And it did not even hold that much authority, but still. It was my first written contract.

He pushed it towards me, nodding at the spot where my signature was needed.

“What if I wrote something that would harm you in there?” I asked, wanting to prove a point and to scare him a little… if I could.

“Then you wrote something.” He answered fast and relaxed, crossing his legs and leaning back on the couch.

“Am I the only one who’s treating this deal as something important?” I said, my voice turned up a little as it carried sharpness around it.

I thought I had seen his stoic face, but when his expression shifted into something harder and colder, it felt like I was frozen in place. Like a mere leaf dipped in nitrogen, ready to shatter with one small move from him.

“I have never treated any deal as a joke, Miss Russo. If you need some sort of confirmation, then I suggest you wait until Monday next week.” He said and stood up, heading to the second floor. “Sleep here tonight. It’s still pouring outside. You can have the room at the end of the hallway to the right.”

That was all he said before he disappeared from my sight, leaving nothing but the sound of a door closing softly.

I was sure I was in the right.

So why couldn’t I bring myself to argue back?

His words shouldn’t have affected me. And yet my chest tightened, my fingers curling against my palms as I watched him disappear upstairs.

It really was raining so hard outside. What a shame no sound of it came in, even if just as a muffle. It could have helped in unwinding myself from the thoughts bugging my mind with each passing second.

Morning came, and my body couldn’t be any heavier. My eyes felt dry, and just as I had thought, they were bloodshot after seeing myself in the mirror.

Jamiel, that fucking bastard, deserved to have his dick cut off and fed to the pigs.

I washed my face with cold water. It was too early for such negativity.

My clothes were prepared. Hopefully by the mysterious housekeeper Calix Vaughn had mentioned last night, because they were washed and ironed… and smelled of flowers.

I’d admit it was strange. Flowers in this dark and dreary place? Ironic.

I left the room and headed downstairs. There were no signs of Calix, only an old lady preparing the dishes on the dining table.

“Good morning, miss.” She greeted me with a smile.

“Good morning. Is Mr. Vaughn still here?”

She led me to the seat where she had laid out the food before answering, “Calix left at dawn and told me to help you prepare. Also,” she grabbed something from the cabinet and placed it in front of me beside the food. “He told me to give this to you.”

The items were a pen and a note. What was I supposed to do with those?

“Thank you,” I uttered and smiled at her. She left me alone, probably going to clean somewhere else.

I grabbed the note first.

“Play this over the academy broadcast by Monday, 10:00 AM.” I read under my breath.

I frowned and grabbed the pen. “Play what exactly—”

I pushed the button to show the tip, but instead the sound of a woman’s moans came out. I scrambled fast to stop it, but it wouldn’t stop. The only thing I could do was grip it tight between my palms to make the sounds muffle.

“Shit, shit!”I cursed while glancing at the door where the housekeeper had left.

So fucking embarrassing! What if she heard it and misunderstood?!

The moans finally stopped, and I was left baffled by the tape. I threw it across the table and immediately rushed to the kitchen sink to wash my hands. But my movements stilled when I realized whose moans those were.

The same girl Jamiel was banging last night.

The pieces clicked in my head. Finally, I could see the start of my revenge. But I never thought it would be this much… this filthy.

I finished my food. I could barely swallow both the anticipation and anxiousness welling inside me.

I should have been scared. I was a model student after all, but my heart raced at the thought of doing something new. Something bad that could probably ruin my image as a nerd.

I washed the dishes and said goodbye to the housekeeper. She scolded me, saying I should have left them there, but couldn’t do anything in the end. I rode the elevator down to the ground floor. But when the doors finally opened, a man in his mid-fifties blocked my way.

“Miss Russo.” He said, bending his upper body to greet me.

“Do I know you?”

“Mr. Calix tasked me to bring you home.”

My eyebrows twitched. I have never had anyone serve me breakfast other than my mom before. And I never had someone take me home just because I or someone else said so.

The realization was slowly creeping up on me. And I could feel it slowly slipping into the cracks the moment I met him.

Calix Vaughn hadn’t just given me a way to get revenge. He was already changing my life without giving me enough time to learn what he’d done.