Chapter 2 She Is Desperate

Sherri's eyes were filled with despair. In a flurry, she lashed out her fingernails and left bloody red marks on the man's neck. Her eyes were full of resentment. She wasn't going down without a fight, so she opened her mouth and bit his shoulder hard.

"Ah! How dare you bite me?!" Jackson slapped her in retaliation.

The sting made her head spin and she eventually fainted. The early summer wind kept pounding the windows beside them. For the whole night, Sherri only felt pain. Her fingers had become pale and weak from clinging to the white sheet all night. She refused to let go of them.

The next morning, warm sunlight enveloped the two people under the fluffy quilt. Sherri's shoulders were half exposed and the tears on her face had already dried up. The man sleeping beside her was restless. He turned over and frowned when he noticed something was wrong. Suddenly, he opened his eyes, wide and clear.

He remembered what happened last night. Sherri looked very calm at a glance, but a closer look revealed her stiff shoulders indicating her inner defiance. Jackson squinted his eyes with an unspoken melancholy in his heart. Indeed, he had lost control last night. Hearing Sherri shout Allen's name while struggling to reject Jackson made his heart go numb and cold.

He tortured her. He wanted her to beg for mercy. However, she was Sherri. She wasn't like anyone else. She was strong-willed in everything, even if she was just a maid. Her self-esteem was so high that she would rather be hurt than give in to him. Compromise was not something that she was inclined to do.

After the recollection, he reached out to touch her face. As soon as his skin made contact with hers, though, he withdrew his hand and changed it into a fist. He then pushed her hard. "Sherri, get up!"

The woman jolted and opened her eyes in a daze. Their closeness somewhat enlarged his face and she looked at him in confusion. His cold and almost ruthless eyes sent shivers down her spine.

Seeing her confused eyes, Jackson impatiently pushed her out of the bed and said, "I'm not Allen. Sherri, look carefully. I'm Jackson. You can't escape me."

Sherri fell on the hard floor. The sudden pain brought her back to her senses in an instant. She held the quilt tightly. She was stunned by how the quilt intimately hugged her body and realized that what happened wasn't some bad dream. It was real. She then felt something wrong, her body ached.

A pale red stain on the bed sheet attracted Jackson's attention. His anger was lessened by this. He didn't expect that Sherri and Allen hadn't made love yet. However, this revelation wasn't enough to completely calm him down. Remembering his sister, who was seriously injured and was lying unconscious in the hospital bed, he was fuming again.

"Sherri, you're as dirty as the bed sheet. You make me sick. Wash it clean!" His cold demeanor was back. He put on his shirt and ignored the startled eyes that bore on his back. He kept on putting his clothes with his back turned to her.

Looking at the dirty and messy bed sheet, Sherri felt ashamed. A night of betraying her pride had turned her life completely upside down. She couldn't tell what she felt. Was it all for Allen's sake? Or did she betray herself so that Jackson wouldn't hurt the people around her? She kept getting flashbacks of last night's events. Her earlier pain was now accompanied by nausea, but she forced herself to endure it.

She told herself that she wouldn't cry in front of Jackson. If she cried in front of him, it would prove that she was too fragile. She couldn't let him win.

Sherri didn't move behind him at all. Feeling strange, Jackson turned around. He happened to meet her gaze. Her eyes that twinkled like crystals with unshed tears instantly caught his eyes.

"Do you really think you have a position in the Murong family? You're just a plaything for me and my sister. A plaything that we use whenever we want. Something that we can throw away if we want to. Sherri, you're just a living puppet. Don't think that your position will change after what happened last night. Let me tell you, you're just a servant in my eyes. Sometimes, you're even lower than that."

Jackson's words hit her hard. She covered herself with the quilt, turned her back on him and took a deep breath. Her heart couldn't help but break at his words. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. In a low voice, she said, "You go out first."

"Humph! Do you think I want to see your ugly face? I'd feel sick if I take even just one more look at you." Jackson glanced at her and left with indignation.

As the bedroom door closed, Sherri dropped her last defense and left herself exposed. She glanced at the scattered clothes in despair. When she closed her eyes, she recalled what had happened last night. No matter how hard she had begged for mercy, Jackson didn't let go of her. He harshly trampled on her last shred of self-esteem and dignity.

"Allen... how can I face you after this?"

She put on her clothes mechanically. She felt like a living dead, just going through the tasks she needed to do. She walked into the bathroom, her weak body holding the bed sheet. Even though it has dried up already, seeing the obtrusive red stain made her want to wash it off quickly. She wanted to erase that reminder as soon as possible. She kept rubbing and rubbing until her own hands turned red. Peeking at the sun outside the window, she felt like she was in a trance. Jackson was right. She really had no position in the Murong family.

Jackson was in a bad mood. He turned the TV on and switched the channel to the news station even though he didn't really want to watch it. Lee, the butler, came after a while and politely put a cup of coffee on the tea table. "Sir, here's your coffee."

"What are they doing?" Jackson took a sip of his coffee. His expression still conveying annoyance.

Lee had worked for the Murong family for nearly twenty years, so he knew Jackson well. He slowly explained, "Tina has prepared the breakfast, and the others are ready to clean every corner of the villa. What else can I do for you, sir?"

"Cleaning? Find something for Sherri to do. I don't like people who do not contribute anything while living in the Murong family," Jackson said indifferently. A hint of coldness clouding his eyes.

Lee understood what he meant. He nodded and said, "I understand what you mean. Please rest assured that I will find a task for her."

"It's good that you understand. I want to have breakfast now." Jackson stood up.

"I'll ask Tina to bring it right away." Lee left.

Jackson looked up at the closed door of the room on the second floor. He realized that she was still washing the sheet. He sneered wickedly. Even if he took away her virginity, her reluctance in the act made him uncomfortable. In any case, the trust between her and Allen was broken. At least he was able to teach her a lesson.

After minutes of intense rubbing, Sherri finally removed the trace of blood in the sheet. She looked at her red and raw hands. Her heart was beating so fast and it seemed like she didn't have any reason to calm down at this moment. As much as she was sad to be humiliated by Jackson, she didn't have plans on yielding to him. She would never back down to him. Everything that was happening to her wasn't a big deal. She would get through this.

She walked out of Jackson's bedroom. She took a deep breath before squeezing out a smile on her lips and clenching her fist. She muttered to herself, "Sherri, you can do it. It's okay. You have to hold on."

She saw Lee coming over just as she descended downstairs.

"Sherri, we are having a house cleaning today. We are short of people, so you should go and help them," Lee said. His eyes were full of contempt for the woman.

"Oh, shall I go now?" Sherri touched her stomach. She hadn't eaten anything since last night and she was feeling the effect now.

Lee nodded, his hands behind his back. "Go now, everyone is busy cleaning. You're free, right?"

She had no choice but to follow the orders with her head down. She went to the storage room where all cleaning tools were located. Just as she was about to enter, she heard voices talking inside.

"I heard that Mr. Murong came back furious yesterday. Did Sherri offend him again?"

"Who else could it be except for her? She really thinks of herself as a lady of the family. Shame on her!"

"That's right. Miss Murong is the true lady. Sherri's just adopted by the Murong family, but she really thinks of herself highly."

"She has a seductive face. That's her leverage."

Sherri, who was standing by the door, heard everything clearly. She knew the people who were talking inside. She decided to knock on the door to let her presence be known. "Lee asked me to clean the villa with you."

The two panicked at the fact that they had been heard. Sherri stared at them from head to toe. The woman in the blue coat, with a mole at the corner of her mouth, was about 30 years old. Her name was Julie. The younger one was called Carol. The two of them had been working in the Murong family for about four or five years, and they were quite efficient in their tasks.

The both looked at each other before Carol decided to break the silence. "Sherri, don't make Mr. Murong angry again. Whenever he gets angry, he puts our life in misery."

"Don't think that you can seduce him just because you're pretty. As a woman, we should behave ourselves," Julie reprimanded her with a duster cloth in her hand.

Sherri felt suffocated. She didn't want to argue with them, so she went in the storage room to get the basin and the broom, bearing her hunger.

Julie and Carol looked at each other and smiled conspiratorially.

Sherri opted to stay quiet. She just silently followed them to clean the attic. None of them spoke for the duration of the walk.

"Ouch, my leg is cramping!" Carol suddenly shouted.

"What's wrong, Carol?" Julie exclaimed.

Sherri had no idea what the commotion was about. She stopped working and curiously stared at Carol's cramped leg. She asked with concern, "Do you want to take a rest?"

Carol glimpsed at Julie and they nodded. "Yes, I do. Please clean the attic by yourself then. Julie, help me go down. My leg is numb."

"Okay, take care."

Looking at the large attic and the thick dust covering every inch of it, Sherri heavily sighed. It was really stressful to clean alone. She had to continuously wring out the rag and wipe the attic silently.