The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 1444 Her Illusion

To her surprise, Lily wasn't allowed to get near Nick again. She approached him and before she could even touch his body, she was already being pushed away. In fact, she was pushed away so hard that she almost fell. She stared back at him in disbelief.

"Get out!" were the words that she heard next. Nick covered his head with his hands as if he was through something miserable.

Lily was taken aback, but she would never leave like that. This was her job and she couldn't afford to lose it.

"Oh, please sir! You'll enjoy my companion. How about I help you with your bath?"

Lily whispered in a seductive tone.

She was confident with her skills. She'd worked in this industry for years so she knew what her clients couldn't resist. She put on her best smile and leaned against him.

But not this time-it didn't work at all. Nick didn't even look at her. He got up from the bathtub and walked out of the bathroom, not caring that he was butt naked. Lily was flushing.

This sudden movement splashed water all over her face. She wiped it off, stood up, and followed him out of the bathroom.

"You'd better leave my house right now. Or I'll call the police," Nick said coldly as he took a bathrobe and put it on, still averting his eyes from her.

"You want me to leave?"

Lily asked, eyes widened. This was the first ever that a man had asked her to leave.

She had arrived here by herself and here he was, asking her to leave already. This had never happened before.

There must be something wrong. Was the man in front of her not interested in women? Only then would she understand.

Lily redirected her frustration towards the man who had paid her to come here in the first place. If she was right, Nick wouldn't even look at her even if she stripped naked in front of him. All he would feel was disgust.

Nick didn't even give her time to hesitate. He walked to the door and pulled it open, instructing her to leave.

"Get out!" he said impatiently.

Lily looked at the open door and then icily fixed her eyes on Nick. Suddenly, she squatted down, covered her face with her hands, and cried.

"No, I won't leave! Please let me stay here. I have nowhere to go!"

she sobbed.

Nick was dumbstruck. He didn't know how to deal with this woman who had shown up in his house unexpectedly.

At the same time, inside the presidential suite of a hotel, Leila was sitting alone on the bed.

The bodyguards took her there, and said that their boss would be here in a minute.

Leila was still in a state of shock.

She sat there unmoving, staring blankly at the faint light that was cast by the bed lamp. She heaved a heavy sigh as she thought about what could happen.

She hated being treated like this-like she was just an object. She hated that she couldn't save herself from what was about to happen. She tightened her grip on the bed sheet to stop herself from crying. But soon, she heard the door opening and the door clicking to signify it being locked. After a while, a tall figure appeared, approaching her.

He knitted his eyebrows together when he saw Leila. He cursed to himself.

As he closed in the distance between them, he finally saw how beautiful Leila was. Under the dim light, a single tear rested on the corner of Leila's eye.

He raised his hands and touched her face. Leila averted her gaze but she could feel his face getting nearer and nearer that she could feel his hot breath.

She tried to push him away but he was strong for her. She held her breath and closed her eyes hoping that this would all be over.

In order to get through the night, she tried to distract her mind with other things. She heard some noise from the window. She focused her energy on that as he kissed her all over. Leila moved her head away from him and opened her eyes.

Suddenly, a man in black broke into the room through the window and headed towards the bed. That was when he noticed it but a tad bit too late, the man in black hit him on the neck which consequently, knocked him out.

It all happened too fast that Leila barely saw anything. She covered her mouth with her hands so she wouldn't scream. The man in black actually saved her but she didn't know him-if he was even a friend or an enemy. When she concluded that the man in black didn't plan on hurting her, she pushed the man off her and ran to the door. She panicked when she saw the bodyguards lying motionless on the floor.

It seemed as if this was a well thought-out plan. Leila didn't want to stay a minute longer so she ran as fast as she could. She took the elevator going down, hailed a taxi, and went to her apartment right away. She was finally able to breathe properly the minute she got to her apartment.

Leila focused on her plan. She didn't have the courage to look back to see if the man had followed her. She was finally able to relax when she got to her room and found that no one had followed her.

Leila didn't believe in coincidence or luck even if that man in black seemed to come out of nowhere.

Everything had to have a price and she still didn't know it yet. But she was surely going to pay for that.

Leila lay in her bed, twisting and turning. It was impossible for her to fall asleep after such a night. She couldn't remove the face of that disgusting man off her mind. She also couldn't stop thinking about the man in black.

She racked her brain trying to figure out who that man in black could be. He was wearing a mask and she was too scared to look at him in the face. She didn't even see him clearly because the light was dim and he moved swiftly and quietly. All he was to her was a blurred black figure.

She turned off all the lights and pulled the curtain close so that her room was pitch black. She stared into the darkness and she felt like was floating on a river aimlessly. Sadness overcame her and soon, she was sobbing.

All the pain and suffering had suddenly crept up to her and she felt like she was drowning.

She blamed God for not treating her fairly. How come other people get to live a happy life and spend it with their loved ones while she had to go through all of these alone?

Every time she thought things were looking up for her, things would turn sour. It just kept happening over and over again. She felt helpless and she thought there was no way out of her.

She had spent years in prison and her life there made her want to die. When she was finally able to move back into the Lu family's house, she thought she could stay there and live a fairly decent life. She thought her life was finally turning around.

But it didn't turn out that way. It was all an illusion. Here she was all alone.

She was nowhere near living the life she had so desperately wanted. The man she had loved was the one who threw her out in the first place. Just remembering his face pricked her cold and fragile heart. No one was to blame here but that stupid bitch, Sheryl Xia. If it hadn't been for her, she'd have been living a decent life in the Lu family's house.

The more Leila dwelled on it, the more frustrated she felt. Her resentment for Sheryl just grew and grew like a flame being fanned. If she was going down, she sure as well was taking Sheryl down with her. Leila gritted her teeth bitterly. She was never going to let Sheryl live a happy life.