When Madeline woke up, every part of her body ached as if it had been pieced together wrong.

The sound of running water came from the bathroom, and fragments of the previous night rushed back all at once. She forced herself to take slow, steady breaths until her racing heart finally settled.

She must have lost her mind.

At her own engagement party, she had crossed the line with her fiancé's cousin.

The water shut off soon after.

Nathan stepped out of the bathroom in a robe, his damp hair slightly tousled. He walked over to the sofa, sat down, lit a cigarette, and turned his gaze toward her.

His expression remained composed, his tone unreadable. "You're awake?"

Madeline pushed herself upright, but her throat felt parched, and no words came out.

Nathan took his time, drawing on his cigarette. Smoke drifted around him, softening his outline and making him seem even more distant.

Once he finished, he stood and spoke again. "You've got nerve."

He moved closer to the bed, his eyes fixed on her.

"Bringing your fiancé's cousin back to your room during your own engagement party. Tell me, Madeline—were you actually drunk, were you that desperate, or was there something else behind it?"

Nathan's gaze was too sharp, making Madeline instinctively retreat.

After a pause, she answered, "I really was drunk. Don't overthink it, Dr. Spencer. As for last night, we can act like it never happened."

Nathan let out a brief, cold laugh.

In the next moment, his expression returned to its usual cold detachment.

"Fine."

Surprise flickered across Madeline's face. By then, he had already put on his shirt and was fastening the buttons one by one.

Noticing her staring, he spoke evenly. "No one else will find out. I have surgery scheduled, so I'm leaving."

He reached the door, then paused without turning back.

"There are pills in the nightstand."

His voice stayed calm, but there was no room for refusal. "Take them."

The door shut quietly behind him.

Silence swallowed the entire room.

Madeline leaned back against the headboard, taking a long time before she could steady herself.

Her gaze eventually drifted to the drawer of the nightstand, where the emergency pills lay, and a complicated feeling stirred within her.

Of course. He was a doctor. Careful until the very end.

He had been thinking ahead, making sure she wouldn't end up pregnant.

...

Nathan arrived at the hospital right on time—ten-thirty, exactly half an hour before his scheduled surgery.

Daniel Palmer, his assistant, was already in the locker room. The moment Nathan stepped inside, Daniel approached with a teasing smile.

"Well, well, Dr. Spencer. You look surprisingly refreshed today. Something good happen?"

Then he caught a faint scent and paused.

"Hold on... is that alcohol? And... perfume?"

Having spent years around women, Daniel recognized the fragrance instantly. As a doctor, his sense of smell was sharp enough to pick up even the faintest trace.

"Come on, don't tell me you've got a girlfriend now?"

Daniel's curiosity flared at once.

Nathan paid him no mind and opened his locker, reaching for his white coat.

With calm, deliberate movements, he fastened his cuffs, his tone flat and indifferent. "Someone insisted I drink a few glasses at the Clarke family's engagement party last night."

"The Clarke family's engagement party?"

Daniel paused, then recalled that the event had been for Nathan's insufferable cousin. Earlier that morning, rumors had already spread that the engagement had fallen apart, but before he could dig into it, Nathan had arrived.

Interest lit up his eyes.

"Wait a second. There are still people in the Clarke family who don't know who you are? Someone actually made you drink? Who was bold enough to do that?"

"Madeline."

Nathan's voice stayed even, without the slightest ripple.

"Madeline... you mean Madeline Reed?" Daniel's eyes widened in shock. "The heiress of the bankrupt family? Julian's fiancée? The one at the center of last night's chaos?"

Daniel stared at Nathan, clearly stunned.

Nathan met his gaze briefly, his expression cool and unreadable. "Yes."

That detached look made Daniel uneasy, but his curiosity won out.

"Then why would she make you drink?"

Nathan's lips pressed together for a moment. "Julian cheated on her in front of everyone at their own engagement party. She lost control and drank too much. Given the situation, it wasn't surprising."

There was no chance he would let anyone know what had actually happened between them.

"She lost control and drank too much, but why do you smell like perfume? Is it hers?"

"It is. I took her back to her room."

Nathan picked up his ID badge and clipped it onto his coat, his voice steady and distant. "She couldn't even walk properly, so I helped her upstairs."

Daniel inhaled sharply. "You helped her upstairs? Since when do you care about that kind of thing?"

Seabrook General Hospital belonged to the Spencer family, and Nathan was one of the top orthopedic specialists in the country. Women—both inside and outside the hospital—had tried countless ways to get close to him, but none had ever succeeded.

So what made Madeline different?

Daniel studied him carefully, but Nathan only raised a brow. "The Clarke family had already embarrassed themselves enough. There was no need to let outsiders see more. It was convenient, so I handled it."

Just like that, he reduced everything to a simple matter of damage control—calm, controlled, and leaving no room for doubt.

Daniel nodded slowly. "That makes sense. I knew you wouldn't get involved with anyone anyway. After all, Claire came back from Phimvine just for you—"

"She's Professor Dawson's daughter." Nathan cut him off, his tone completely flat. "Returning here was part of Professor Dawson's plan for her. It has nothing to do with me."

Daniel fell silent. Before he could press further, Nathan had already changed into his surgical attire and walked straight into the operating room.

By the time Madeline walked out of the hotel, her legs still felt unsteady. Nathan hadn't shown her any mercy the night before, and she had barely gotten any rest.

After taking a cab back to her rented apartment, she found her best friend, Vivian White, already waiting outside.

The second Vivian spotted her, she hurried over.

"Madeline! Where were you? I spent the whole night trying to find you. And Julian, that bastard... he had to be behind this. He wanted everyone at the engagement party to laugh at you. Who else would've had the nerve to put that video on the screen? If he didn't want to marry you, he could've said it directly. It's not like you're begging to marry into the Clarke family. What was the point of all that?"

For a long while, Vivian continued cursing Julian. Throughout it all, Madeline remained silent. Eventually, Vivian stopped talking. Concern appeared on her face as she looked at her friend.

"Madeline, are you okay?"

Exhaustion covered every part of Madeline's face as she leaned back against the sofa. After hearing Vivian's question, she slowly raised her eyes.

"I'm okay. Julian never wanted to marry a woman whose family had already fallen apart. Everything about him changed after my family went bankrupt. What I didn't expect was for him to use something so shameless just to make me end the engagement myself."

"So what do we do now? Are we really going to let him walk away from this?" Vivian asked angrily.

"Of course not." Madeline lifted her gaze. "The engagement is over, but everything he owes me and everything he owes my family will be returned."

Taking a seat beside her, Vivian stared at the ceiling. "And how exactly are you planning to do that? What do we even have left that can help us stand against Julian?"

Once the Reed family lost everything, nearly everyone around Madeline disappeared. Vivian was the only close friend who never left her side. Under those circumstances, what could Madeline possibly use to challenge Julian directly?

While Vivian continued worrying about it, Madeline finally spoke. "I'm going to use Nathan Spencer."

Vivian's eyes widened immediately.

A moment later, Madeline added, "I spent the night with him."

Vivian could only stare at her in shock.

"You did what? Nathan... Nathan Spencer?" she asked, stumbling over the name. "The Spencer family's only heir?"

"Yes."

"Have you lost your mind?" Vivian snapped.

"No." Madeline rested against the sofa, and her eyes turned cold. "Julian values his name and position more than anything else. Nathan is the only man he doesn't have the nerve to offend. If I stay with Nathan, Julian will lose the very thing he tried so hard to keep, which is his pride. Anyone else might bring trouble later, but Nathan is not the same. More than that, he can help me with much more than getting revenge."

Madeline was not taking a risk. She was choosing the only way out after every other road had been blocked.

She had thought about going to Nathan before, but the right chance had never come. Last night's engagement party finally gave her that chance.

Vivian was speechless after hearing all of it. A long moment passed before she found her voice again. "Don't act on impulse. Nathan isn't the kind of man you can handle. He isn't like Julian..."

Nathan was the only heir of the Spencer family, and a huge family fortune would one day belong to him. Even though he had worked in medicine for the past few years, everyone understood that the Spencer family's business would eventually fall into his hands. He was completely different from someone spoiled like Julian.

Vivian only feared that Madeline was stepping into a situation she would not be able to escape.

Still, Madeline did not waver. Her tone became even colder.

"I don't need to handle Nathan. We are only using each other."

Madeline understood her own situation better than anyone. Right now, she had nothing left. She had no family standing, no protection, and no one she could depend on. If she failed to gain Nathan's protection, Julian would only trample over her even harder.

Concern still filled Vivian's face. "Are you really going to gamble with yourself like this?"

"This isn't a gamble," Madeline replied in a steady voice. "This is how I survive."

She needed to find a way to remain at Nathan's side, and she needed him to fall for her. Only then could she uncover the truth about how the Reed family had been ruined.