?<strong>Chapter 424:</strong>


    The man’s eyes shamelessly trailed over her body, lingering on her cleavage. He smirked, his expression turning predatory.


    “A hundred thousand,” he said with a chuckle, his voice thick with suggestion. “And spend the night with me.”


    The man’s already narrow eyespressed into razor-thin slits as heughed—a sound so repulsive it triggered an instinctive wave of revulsion. Even if Yara had fallen to desperate measures, she would never lower herself to associate with someone so grotesque.


    “What gives you the right to even suggest it to me?” Yara spat venomously.


    Earlier that day, she had tracked Kristopher and Carrie to thepany, her curiosity burning with a desire to understand their movements. Instead of encountering her intended targets, she found herself face-to-face with this repugnant stranger in the underground parking garage.


    Her stomach churned with the memory of Nate’s ckmail. He had dangled a video of her darkest moment—her assault—over her head, forcing her to team up against Carrie. She loathed Nate with every fiber of her being, but her hatred for Carrie burned hotter.


    Carrie, who should have been drowning in disgrace, cast out by the Norris family and scorned by society, was instead thriving.


    Yara’s n had been simple: use Nate to destroy Carrie and then serve Nate up to the authorities on a silver tter. But ns often go awry, and before she could even meet with Nate, the news reached her—he had already been arrested.


    The man before her sneered, his words dripping with mockery. “You still think you’re some big-shot heiress, don’t you? At its best, the Campbell family was nothing more than a sh in the pan. Nouveau riche, theughingstock of Orkset. Now that your parents have sold thepany for peanuts, you’ll be lucky if you can scrape together a middle-ss life. Look at you—no charm, no purity. You wouldn’t even catch the eye of a blind man in a crowd.”


    “Laugh at a hundred thousand now, but mark my words, there’lle a day when two hundred bucks will seem like a windfall to you.”


    He paused to give her a slow, deliberate once-over, his expression curling with disdain. “And to think you share the same blood as Carrie. She’s a goddess walking among mortals, while you…”


    Yara’s ears shut out the rest. Her lips twisted into a venomous sneer as sheshed out, “Carrie? A goddess? Have you looked in the mirrortely? You’ve got a face only a mother could tolerate—and even she’d hesitate! You’re the spitting image of Voldemort. Even pigs wouldn’t give you a second nce.”


    The rage Yara had buried deep within her came roaring to the surface. Why was Carrie always the golden child? Why did even this hideous excuse for a man dare look down on her?


    Seething, she grabbed her handbag and swung it with all her might, the corner of it shing across the man’s face. A thin line of blood appeared, snaking down his cheek.


    For a moment, he froze, almost in disbelief. Then, with a twisted grin, he touched the blood, examined it, and licked it off his fingers as if savoring the moment. The sudden shift in his demeanor was chilling.


    In a sh, he lunged out of the car window, grabbing Yara by her hair. A scream tore from her lips as a sharp pain shot through her scalp, but she dared not struggle too much. The man’s movements were quick and deliberate. With one hand tangled in her hair, he opened the car door, pulled out a rope, and bound her hands behind her back in a few swift motions.


    Fear wed at her chest, but she forced herself to spit out words through the rising panic. “This is kidnapping! My parents know I’m here. If I don’te home tonight, they’ll call the police!”


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