Until You

"No, don't..." The whimpering cries echoed from the bedroom. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she tried to escape from the man's grip, but she found herself overpowered by the weight of his body.

"Louisa! Louisa, wake up!" Susie Shu shook her roommate awake from her abysmal nightmare. As soon as she opened her eyes and saw Susie Shu, Louisa Xia threw herself into her arms and said, "Susie, I just had the worst nightmare!"

Ten months ago, in order to go abroad and take part in a show, Louisa Xia promised her younger sister to have a baby.

"Don't be afraid, Louisa. It's all going to be over soon. Look, the baby is coming. After you become a mother, all your attention will go towards the baby. You'll be too busy to worry about those nightmares again." Susie Shu lowered her head to look at Louisa's pregnant belly. She was nine months pregnant now and her due date was just few days later.

"Louisa, you need to take good care of yourself, especially now. You're going to experience prenatal depression and you don't want that to affect child birth. The doctors said that if pregnant women are not in good health before they give birth, they will face many difficulties during child birth. I'm sure you don't want to be in a lot of pain." Susie Shu clearly wanted to scare Louisa Xia.

"Susie, are you serious?" Sure enough, Louisa was convinced and her nervousness was evident from her facial expression.

The pain was what bothered her the most. What happened ten months ago had become a traumatic memory in her mind.

"Of course not, you little fool. My godson is very obedient, I can tell. He won't hurt you," said Susie.

With a sigh of relief, Louisa lay on the bed next to Susie. Although she felt a little relieved, a part of her still felt uneasy. Grabbing the sheet under her body, she prayed in her heart, 'Dear baby, you must be healthy and happy. I can't wait for you to come to this world. Mom loves you.'

Ten months ago, in Louisa's house.

"Mom, look! Why does that bitch get to have an invitation to the Hua Group's party, but I don't?" Justina Xia was clearly displeased with Louisa's invitation. Both she and Louisa were the heirs of the Xia family, but Louisa was better than her in every aspect. Louisa always got whatever she wanted before Justina did.

Meanwhile, slouched against the sofa, Nora Zhao had her own set of worries to deal with. With her beautifully painted eyebrows furrowed, she threw the newspaper onto the table angrily and said, "Are you still in the mood to care about Louisa? Why don't you take a look at your own problems first. Your fiance is becoming a massive headache for me."

Nora Zhao brought her palms to her temples and squeezed tight as if to show that she was in pain.

Annoyed by her mother's attitude, Justina Xia rolled her eyes and shook her head. She dismissed her mother with a perfunctory answer. "I'll deal with Brian later? Mom, right now I need your help. I don't want Louisa to go abroad. Why did she get an invitation from Hua Group first?"

Justina Xia sat beside her mother and shook her mother's arm.

Nora Zhao was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, as she was concerned about the estate of the Xia family and the future of Justina Xia. The elegance with which she usually carried herself was now gone. With great curiosity, she asked, "What is it that you want?"

"I need your help to delay Louisa's trip abroad. A person under the age of 18 can't go abroad without their parents' written consent. Dad is not here and you are her legal guardian. Just don't sign the agreement..."

"Mom, Justina, I'm back." Just before Justina Xia could finish her words, Louisa Xia came back from school.

The last class Louisa had was dancing and she rushed home without even changing her clothes at the thought of the Hua Group's invitation. Sweat trickled down from her forehead.

Since she was wearing a pair of dancing shoes, she walked silently on the marble floor. Meanwhile, Nora and Justina, who were both preoccupied with their own thoughts, were too busy to notice that Louisa had arrived home.

Both women felt as though Louisa had been eavesdropping on them. Neither of them hid their resentment towards Louisa's appearance, but Nora was the first to be unpleasant. "Why are you tip-toeing around in the house? Don't you know that it is impolite to do so."

"I'm sorry, mom. I won't do it again." After a moment's silence, Louisa asked, "Mom, did the invitation get sent to here?"

Earlier on, Louisa had a talk with her dance teacher, who explained to her that Hua Group was extremely famous in America. A dancer invited to take part in such an event, not only showed their own strength, but at the same time, was also valued by the rest of the world. Her dance teacher told Louisa that the invitation had been sent to her home and asked her to take advantage of this chance.

Nora took a look at the invitation card, which was crumpled by Justina, on the tea table. When she was about to open her mouth, Justina shook her hand and winked at her at the same time.

As her mother, Nora knew her daughter very well. Just with one glance at Justina, she was able to tell what her daughter was thinking about. "Invitation? Not yet. Go upstairs and change your clothes. You'll catch a cold."

Then, she placed a pillow on top of the tea table, pretending to be calm while covering Louisa's invitation.

Louisa, however, was surprised to see Nora's affectionate side. She didn't expect to see that Nora would care about her because Nora was Louisa's stepmother. After her mother passed away, her father married her stepmother. Louisa's stepmother was nice to her up until the day she had her own baby. After that she became cold and distant.

When Louisa heard her stepmother say something she hadn't heard for more than ten years, she felt moved by her words. She felt warm in her heart and said, "Thank you, mom. I will go upstairs and change my clothes now!"

As Louisa passed the tea table to run up the stairs, her eyes caught sight of the pillow on it. 'My stepmother's been acting strange today but I'm certain that her obsessive compulsive disorder wouldn't allow this pillow to be kept out of its place!'

When Justina and Nora noticed Louisa looking at the pillow on the tea table, Justina shouted in a hurry, "Hurry up? How long do you want us to wait for you? I've been home for almost half an hour. I'm literally starving to death!"

Louisa knew that Justina was a hot tempered girl, so she quickly answered, "I'm sorry. I'm going now. I'm sorry, sister."

Louisa ran upstairs before she finished her words. She had a smile on her face the whole time. Although her sister had just yelled at her, she was still happy. Her sister had never called her at the table for dinner in the past fifteen years. Even her stepmother seemed to care about her today.

So far the day had been great to her. Louisa had been longing to become a part of this family for a long time.

Watching her figure disappear at the stairs, Justina heaved a sigh of relief. "Mom, I have something to tell you. Let's talk in your room."

"Okay!" Nora stood up.

Justina took the invitation from underneath the pillow and followed Nora. She hated Louisa so much that she couldn't help crumpling the invitation in her hand.

As soon as they entered the room, Nora closed the door behind her and said, "Justina, are you going to talk with me about Brian?"

The mere mention of that man's name contorted Nora's face with disgust.

"Yes," Justina answered as she gave the invitation card to Nora and continued, "give Louisa that invitation card when she comes downstairs. But in return, tell her that she must agree to help you with something before you agree to sign your consent on the application form."

"How could that girl be of any use to me?" Nora couldn't understand what her daughter was thinking.

"As for my engagement with Brian, wasn't it written in the contract that unless one of us has done something to hurt the other, the engagement will not become void? Besides, there is no need to give back the deposit money to Brian's family."

When it came to the deposit money, Nora's heart sank. After all, it was a large sum of money. She was very happy when Justina got engaged to Brian. On one hand, his family had agreed to give Nora a large sum of money. On the other hand, Brian was a handsome and charming man. Unfortunately, she didn't expect him to be a playboy.

"Why would Brian's family give up the engagement willingly?" Nora said as she clasped her hands.

After Justina whispered a few words in her ear, Nora's worried frown transformed itself into a grin. She put her hands around Justina's forehead and kissed her. "My dear daughter, you're so clever."

Justina felt very proud to hear that, but she was even better at pleasing people with her words. She squinted her eyes and said, "My beautiful and smart mother gave birth to me. Otherwise, how would I be so smart? All the credit goes to you, mother."

Her words delighted Nora and she kissed Justina's cheeks.

After they both got excited, Justina said, "Let's go. I don't want to make my sister wait too long."

A cunning smile appeared on her face.

After Louisa took a shower and put on a comfortable dress, she went downstairs and saw Nora and Justina sitting on the sofa. Nora's knitted eyebrows seemed to warn Louisa about something bad that must have happened, while Justina looked enviously at something on the tea table.

With a closer look, it was her invitation letter, all crumpled up.

All of a sudden, Louisa got nervous.

"Louisa, darling, come here. This is the invitation letter from America. It's addressed to you." Nora called out to Louisa with a big smile on her face as she saw Louisa standing still at the staircase.

Louisa's eyes turned even brighter, as she trotted over to Nora and asked, "Really? Is it really my invitation letter?"

Louisa was utterly relieved to finally have her invitation letter in hand.

Having noticed Louisa's confusion, Nora pretended to be guilty and said, "It's all my fault. I forgot to tell the servant to check the mail before throwing them out. I didn't know it was sent to you. By the time I found it, the servant had already thrown it in the bin."

Without blinking her eyes, Nora passed all the blame towards the servant.

Louisa unfolded the invitation letter, but she didn't give it a second thought. She shook her head immediately and said, "It's okay. I've got it in my hands now, I'm still happy."

She raised the invitation letter above her head, as if she was cherishing a treasure.

Justina snorted enviously. Her eyes were full of contempt and hatred. But the next second, she smiled again and said, "Sister, I have some work to do at school. I have to go now. Why don't you and mother have lunch together?"

Louisa was stunned. It was the first time Justina had called her sister, let alone, out in the open.

"What is it? Don't you want me to call you sister?" Justina grinned.

"No, no, it's..." before Louisa finished her words, Justina cut her short. "Well, I'll go ahead. Call me if you have anything."

Then she walked out of the living room in a hurry, leaving no chance for Louisa to say anything else. In fact, it was because of her resentment towards Louisa that she didn't want to listen to her.

Even after Justina had left, Louisa was still immersed in her own happiness. She wondered if the sun had decided to rise from the west this morning as everything was going too smoothly in her life right now.

"Louisa, don't just stand there. Come here and have lunch." Nora smiled and called Louisa to the table.

Nora had prepared more dishes than she ever did on Louisa's birthdays which moved the girl even more and made her want to cry.

It was the first time in her eighteen years that she had felt a mother's love. Her mother had passed away right after she was born, and Nora was the only mother she had known.

Louisa remembered the times when Nora had been strict with her, but because her father had said that a loving mother would spoil a child, Louisa never hated Nora for it. She just hoped that Nora would take care of her from time to time.

All of a sudden, now happiness was everywhere in her life.

"Louisa, I need your help." Nora stopped eating and looked at Louisa expectantly.

"What is it?" Louisa asked in confusion.

Nora sighed, "Louisa, it has something to do with your sister's happiness."

Louisa became more confused. After thinking for a while, she asked, "What happened to Justina?"

Louisa wasn't close to her sister, but she always cared about her deep down. She just wanted to be loved by her sister.

Now that her mother came to her with something that concerned her sister, Louisa felt a sense of responsibility.

"Well," shaking her head with disappointment, Nora sighed, "Your sister's fiance, Brian is a disloyal man."

Distressed, she handed the newspaper to Louisa.

When Louisa glanced at the newspaper, she saw the article that the entertainment section had published about a rich man and a model having an affair. The reporters even took pictures of them kissing and hugging.

"Is this Mr. Brian Mu?" Louisa asked in surprise.

"Yes, it's all my fault. I was too blinded with happiness to have found such a man for your sister." Nora blamed herself.

Louisa felt heartbroken. She put down the newspaper and said, "Can't we break off the engagement with the Mu family?"

Louisa didn't think it was proper for Justina to get engaged to Brian, but she knew that she was not allowed to get involved in the family affairs.

"Unless we can show evidence of Brian's unscrupulous behavior, the Mu family won't call off the engagement."

"But even the newspapers are saying that Brian was seen sleeping with a model?" Louisa said angrily.

Nora clenched her fists and said with great hatred, "The Mu family won't admit it. They're saying that the reporters are making up groundless accusations to defame Brian!"

"That's outrageous. How can they do that to us? How can they get away with acting so shamelessly?" Louisa said angrily.

Suddenly, Nora took hold of Louisa's hand and said, "You are the only one who can help Justina in this matter. She is your sister! You can't watch her suffer misfortune like this!"

"Mom, what should I do?" Unfortunately, the innocent Louisa had fallen into the trap designed by Nora and Justina.

Nora was thrilled to hear that Louisa would be her savior. "I'll dress you up like a charming woman tonight so you can seduce Brian to sleep with you. Of course, you won't have to really sleep with him. The only thing you need to do is to take a picture of you and him together in bed. Then the Mu family won't be able to make any excuses!"

"Won't the Mu family suspect that we had set him up on purpose?" Since Louisa was the elder sister of Justina, everyone would be foolish not to think that Louisa had set Brian up just to get out of their legal obligations.

"Don't worry about that because when you go to the US, the Mu family won't be able to find you there. Besides, they have never met you before," said Nora. Louisa's silence gave Nora more confidence.

Louisa agreed without hesitation at the thought of helping her sister out of trouble. Although Louisa didn't take part in any parties, the dance teacher told her that she had to attend the parties in advance after the performance.

Nora spent only one afternoon to get Louisa all dolled up. Then she selected a long white fishtail dress which was very suitable for Louisa's body type.

After all, Louisa had a good figure and was 1.68 cm tall. It was hard to tell that she was still a senior high school student from her looks and makeup. Even Nora who stood beside Louisa began to admire her figure.

Louisa felt very nervous as she stood in front of the club. However, thinking that she was also responsible for her sister's happiness, gave her the strength to let go of her uneasiness and walk into the banquet hall.

There were a lot of people at the banquet. Men in suits, and women in gorgeous dresses conversed, while soft music played in the background. The waiters were dressed neatly in their uniforms as they slipped in and out of the crowd with a tray of wine glasses in one hand.

It was said that wine could cheer people up. Louisa couldn't help herself from gulping down a glass of wine before walking into the crowd to search for the person her mother had mentioned.

She had never met Brian Mu before in person and the newspapers had blurred out his face. However, her mother told her that he liked dressing in white clothes, so of course he would be drawn to her if Louisa was also dressed in white.

Time passed and no one came to look for her. Louisa became anxious and lost track of how many drinks she had had. When she felt a weakness in her knees, she vaguely saw a man in a navy blue Tuxedo walking towards her. She could not clearly see what he looked like, but she vaguely remembered him to have a tall posture and clear, black eyes.

"Br -" Louisa fell backwards before she could finish her words, and the man quickly reached out and caught her.

"Hey," said Bruce Mu as he caught Louisa in his arms. He thought that they may know each other.

If the woman hadn't called his name while she was falling down, he wouldn't help her.

But soon after he had saved that woman, something even worse happened. His heart melted as soon as he touched Louisa's soft waist.

"Mr. Bruce?" A well-dressed man in a tuxedo bowed and stood next to Bruce Mu.

"Get a room for me right now." Bruce Mu frowned. His handsome eyes displayed impatience.

It was the first time in more than twenty years that his body had felt this uncontrollable feeling.

The servant understood what had Bruce meant, so he immediately responded, "Yes, sir."

Bruce Mu bent down and held Louisa in his arms easily. The more body contact he made with Louisa, the faster the blood in his body flowed.

What he did, however, didn't arouse the other people's curiosity in the hall. The place was darkly lit anyway. In the hall, several people were hugging and kissing, and some of them even had another woman's legs wrapped on their waist.

"Damn it!" He expressed his dissatisfaction again.

"Mr. Bruce, this is your room card." A bluish plastic card was handed over to Bruce as soon as he walked out of the gate. Bruce took the room card with one hand.

The servant pressed the button of the elevator for him. After the elevator reached the first floor, Bruce strode into it.

As soon he came to the room he had reserved, he threw the woman in his arms on the bed, and rushed into the bathroom to take a shower.

"Uh!" Louisa let out a cry of pain.

Even the cold shower in the bathroom couldn't calm the man down as he slapped his own forehead, annoyed and frustrated.

The Mu family had a special heritage. No member of the Mu family would be easily attracted by a woman or have any special reaction towards her body. If ever, someone from Mu family were to have sexual desires for another person then, she or he would, without a doubt, be the right person for the other.

Due to the fact that such a person was extremely rare to come across, many of the men and women of Mu family were unmarried. An unmarried man, he would never know the taste of woman. This was the case with Bruce's uncle.

This strange heritage had caused some men of Mu family to become solely devoted to their partners. However, it also created narrow-minded men who fell on the wrong path, snatched other people's wives and seduced them with their bodies.

"Bruce, if you meet a woman who makes you heart or body hot, you must seize her..." he heard his mother's passionate words. After a few seconds of silence, he turned off the cold water in the bathroom and went to the bedroom.

When he walked into the bedroom Bruce saw the woman spread out in bed. Her soft skin was exposed at the edge of her skirt where the fishtail opened. Immediately, his heart started palpitating.

"After that incident, you must be responsible for her. She might be the only woman in the world who can satisfy you and make you happy." Recalling his mother's words again, Bruce frowned and strode to the woman in bed, who was in deep sleep.

When the sun came into the president's room through the small window, Louisa fluttered her eyes open and looked at the stranger lying next to her with a frightened expression on her face.

At first, she thought to herself, 'Could this be Brian Mu?'

And her second thought was, 'Why did we sleep together?'

When she came to her senses, Louisa almost cried out for help. She wanted to strangle herself for having sex with this man.

"Louisa, don't forget to take photos when you are having an intimate relationship with Brian, so the Mu family can't deny anything."

The thought of her stepmother's words, took Louisa out of her depressed mood. She took out her cell phone while the man beside her was still sleeping. She put her face on the man's lips, to make it look like he was kissing her.

Another click of the phone took a photo of the man lying half-naked. It was clear that they had been in bed together.

After taking some more shots, Louisa checked every photo on her phone and found that she had only taken a picture of his profile. When she finally looked at his handsome face carefully, she was filled with mixed feelings.

"Why do I have feelings for a man I do not know?" Louisa muttered under her breath after she realized that she was attracted by his appearance. Then she quietly lifted the quilt and got out of bed.

The clothes on the floor were all torn into pieces, which made Louisa frown. She found a wardrobe in front of her, so she opened the drawers and was surprised to see some clean white shirts and pairs of black suit pants inside. Soon after, her eyes fell on some men's underwear.

Louisa's face turned red.

Fortunately, there were some women's underwear in the closet as well.

Although it was not her size, she picked up one randomly.

However, there was no women's clothes inside the wardrobe, which put her in a predicament. She thought for a while and decided to put on the men's clothes.

After dressing herself up, Louisa let out a sigh of relief.

The man was still asleep when she got out of the bathroom. His eyes were a mesmerizing deep ocean blue and flecks of silvery light performed ballets throughout. His face was strong and defined, his features molded from granite. He had dark eyebrows, which sloped downwards in a serious expression.

Louisa grabbed her phone on the bedside table and left the room quietly as she winced in pain.

The hotel she was in was evidently very big as it took her a good few minutes to walk across the corridor and reach the elevator. Fortunately, no one looked at her suspiciously, which made her feel much more relaxed.

When Louisa left the hotel, she took a taxi to DX Garden.

That wasn't where her home was, but it was where she could get with the ten dollars in her pocket.

She hadn't brought money with her when she had left home. This ten dollars was taken from the cabinet of the hotel room.

There was a stack of 100-dollar bills and one 10-dollar bill in the cabinet. It was not appropriate to take other people's money without consent. Louisa hesitated for a long time and finally decided to take the 10-dollar one as a reward for her sleeping with that man for one night.

The first thing Bruce Mu did after he woke up was to look for the woman he had spent the night with. However, when he realized that he was the only one in bed, he immediately sat up and jumped out of bed to look for his cell phone from under the pile of clothes. He dialed a number and as soon as it was connected, he said, "Come to my room at once!" Bruce spoke so fast that it was obvious that he was very angry.

After hanging up the phone, Bruce Mu paced back and forth in the room with his hands on his waist, angrily wondering where the woman could have been.

After getting out of the car, Louisa walked along the street for nearly an hour before she arrived home. When she entered the house, she saw Nora and Justina sitting on the sofa, but they didn't look well.

"Mom?" said Louisa in a low voice. She could not help but feel nervous as the atmosphere at home seemed very tense.

"Don't call me mom!" Nora yelled at Louisa.

"Did I do something wrong?" asked Louisa.

"Did you do something wrong?" Nora got up and threw the newspaper at her. "Read it! I told you to seduce Brian. What did you do last night?"

With a rapidly palpitating heart and eyes wide open, Louisa was shocked to see the news about Brian Mu who had left halfway through the banquet and a new bright news was reported.

"I, I was with Mr. Brian Mu last night. This one..."

"Then show me the proof? Weren't you told to take photos with Brian in bed?" Justina sounded just as angry as her mother did.

'Yes, the photos!' Louisa's eyes lit up the moment she remembered about the photos. She quickly took out her mobile phone and handed it to Justina. "These are what I took this morning. I spent the whole night with him."

After a quick glance at Louisa's phone, Justina sneered, "That's not Brian, you idiot!"

Nora came over to have a look when she heard that. Before long, her eyebrows shot up in bewilderment, and there was a twist in her mouth that nearly resembled an astonished droop. However, the man's side profile was so attractive that she couldn't take her eyes off the phone screen.

Unfortunately, he was not the spendthrift son of the Mu family.

"Look carefully, this is Brian!" Justina took out Brian's photo from her phone and showed it to Louisa.

Louisa's eyes shot up with wide-eyed confusion. Justina was leaning up against Brian in the photo. Brian was a lean man with a grim and gentle outline. He was not as attractive as the man in her phone.

"Then who is the other man in my phone?" Louisa asked.

"Shame on you!" Justina looked at Louisa with disdain. After realizing that Louisa was wearing the man's clothes, Justina stepped back with disgust and said, "You're still wearing the clothes of a stranger. Do you even deserve to be a member of the Xia family?"

Clap!

"Get out of here!" Nora raised her voice and slapped Louisa. "I don't ever want to have a daughter like you. You make your sister look bad!"

Her face hurt so much, and her broken heart was more painful.