Chapter 1069

After Cassius left Ivy's room, her body continued to tremble uncontrollably. She bit her lip hard, struggling to suppress the sobs threatening to escape. She wasn’t a biological daughter of the Xu family, she hadn’t even grown up there. Her father was a gambler, and her mother, unable to bear the crushing weight of his massive debts, had abandoned them in secret. At just sixteen, she had been forced to work in a bar, selling alcohol to survive. It was there, during a night when drunken customers had forced her to drink and nearly assaulted her, that Cassius had appeared. He taught those men a brutal lesson and then took her home. She had been prepared to give herself to him—willing, even. Being at the mercy of one man was still better than being defiled by many. But to her surprise, Cassius never laid a finger on her. Instead, he treated her with unexpected kindness. Later, he even convinced Madam Xu to adopt her as a goddaughter. She became his little sister, a young lady of the Xu ho