Chapter 1
Sofia was my college girlfriend–or rather, the girl I paid to date me. Though I never treated her as a plaything, that’s how others saw us. No one
believed a rich kid would truly love someone from her world.
Then I dumped her without explanation.
Years later, we met again–I was a masseur at a luxury spa, and she, now a millionaire, booked me for a private session.
After graduation, my family went bankrupt. My father fled with his mistress. That same year, I killed a two years in prison.
man
in
“excessive self–defense” and served
Inside, an old inmate taught me therapeutic massage.
Now, at the spa, former socialites who once chased me book sessions just to humiliate me. I endure it–I need the money.
Today, as I was about to leave, the manager called: “Jason, VIP Suite 888. A major client requested you. Nail this, and you might not need to work all year.”
“On my way.”
grabbed the kit I’d just packed up, a knot of apprehension tightening in my gut. The wealthier the client, the higher the chance they were a creep. Just this morning, I’d had a session with a woman who had to be over four hundred pounds. She’d periodically slap me across the face as I worked on her. A thousand dollars a slap. So, I endured it.
knocked on the door to 888.
“Come in.”
The voice was cool and young. I opened the door and saw a woman sitting on the living room sofa, dressed in a sleek black power suit. Her long hair cascaded loosely over her shoulders, a touch of languor that created a striking contrast with the sharp, professional lines of her attire.
Her face was breathtaking. More beautiful than I remembered from college. possessed the captivating allure of a woman in full bloom.
‘d been gorgeous then, but with a lingering innocence. Now,
she
her. Sofia. The girl I had “kept” in college.
Back then, her world had fallen apart. Her father, a construction worker, had been seriously injured on a job site, but the contractor skipped town without paying a cent. Faced with suffocating medical bills, she’d considered dropping out of school. Her mother, however, insisted she stay, sayi- ng it would be a waste for the family’s brightest to quit. So, her underachieving younger brother dropped out instead and got a job at a bar.
One night, some thug’s girlfriend looked at him a little too long, and the thug and his friends broke her brother’s legs. The shock sent her mother into a spiral, and she was hospitalized with a severe illness.
Suddenly, the weight of her entire family landed on Sofia’s shoulders.
It was a burden so heavy that a young college student saw only one way out: selling her body,
The campus rumor mill painted me as a playboy with deep pockets. I had, in fact, tried to flirt with her once, but she’d turned me down. I left her alone after that; I was more talk than action, a smart–ass who liked to flirt but never pushed it.
But then, she found me. In front of a crowd of people, she announced she would be my girlfriend, on one condition: I had to lend her five hundred thousand dollars.
I agreed to the loan but told her she didn’t have to be my girlfriend. I wasn’t the kind of guy who took advantage of someone’s desperation.
But the day I transferred the money, she showed up at my door. I was living in a sprawling penthouse I’d bought off–campus. It was raining, and the downpour had soaked her white blouse, making it cling to her. I wanted to look, but I didn’t have the nerve.
I let her in, found her some dry clothes, and we sat in silence.
