It was already deep into the night when Serena Atkins walked out of the police station.
Snow was falling outside.
People on the street kept sneaking looks at her—at the faint bruises on her face, her messy hair, the way she limped with every step.
Serena acted like she saw none of it.
Dragging her heavy body forward, she lowered her head and stared blankly at her broken phone, the screen shattered like a spiderweb.
Her fingers, streaked with dried blood, trembled as they pressed the call button and entered eleven numbers.
“Beep...”
“Beep...”
Just like the emergency call she’d made in sheer panic while being beaten, no one answered.
A snowflake landed on her lashes. She blinked once, and the icy melt slid straight into her eyes.
“Heh.” Serena curled her lips in a quiet, bitter laugh.
What a joke. She really looked pathetic.
And just as her hand dropped weakly to her side—
at the very last second, the call connected.
“What is it?”
The man’s low voice came through the phone, cool and indifferent.
Serena’s grip on the phone stiffened. A flash of surprise crossed her battered face. “Eth—”
“Mr. Mercer, Miss Holt is looking for you.”
Before she could finish, his assistant’s voice came from the other end. Then the man said flatly, “I’m hanging up.”
The words she hadn’t managed to say were cut off completely by the dead, mechanical tone from the phone.
At an empty street corner, under a towering streetlamp, snow kept drifting down in soft flurries, dusting Serena Atkins’s hair. Her slim body trembled a little in the cold.
Then, out of nowhere, a coat still carrying someone’s warmth settled over her shoulders.
Serena froze for a second. She looked up and saw it was Felix Barrow.
His gaze was heavy as he looked her over from head to toe. His face darkened. "Who the hell did this to you?"
A puff of white mist left Serena’s lips. She shook her head.
"When they were hitting me, I tore out some of their hair. There’s skin under my nails too. Once the police get the DNA, they should be able to catch them pretty fast."
Felix paused, clearly stunned.
She had been beaten into this state, and she still managed to stay calm enough to think that far ahead?
Yeah. This was Serena.
No wonder she was the person he admired most.
"We’re not letting this slide. We’ll dig all the way to the bottom of it," he said in a low voice. "It’s late. I’ll take you home first."
Serena tugged at the corner of her mouth, forcing something like a smile, then got into his car. "Chief Editor Felix, sorry to trouble you."
"Trouble?" Felix started the car and turned the wheel. "You work under me. You got attacked, and I’m supposed to just pretend I didn’t see it? No shot. Besides, everyone else was out chasing stories tonight. I was the only one left in the office."
As the car drove forward, he kept talking. "Ethan Mercer’s ex is back in the country. I heard Ethan personally went to pick Vivian Holt up at the airport. The whole newsroom’s going crazy trying to grab the first scoop."
The bloodshot look in Serena’s eyes stiffened all at once.
Her mind buzzed.
So while she was being dragged into an alley, kicked and punched, calling Ethan for help with shaking hands...
he was with another woman.
Felix clearly didn’t notice how pale and ugly her expression had become. He just kept talking to himself.
Serena lowered her head. Her blood-stained fingers dug hard into the torn flesh on the back of her hand.
No one knew.
She was Ethan Mercer’s wife.
...
She didn’t let Felix drive her all the way to her door. Instead, Serena got out near a residential complex, then hailed a cab back to Moyuan.
By the time Serena Atkins got home, she was changing shoes in the entryway when the housekeeper heard the noise and came out. The second she saw her, she froze, then rushed over in a panic.
"Ma'am, what happened to you? How did you end up like this?"
The housekeeper reached out to support her, but accidentally brushed the wound on her arm. Serena didn’t even flinch. She looked numb, like all feeling had been drained out of her, her eyes dull and empty.
"I got jumped during an undercover interview."