Frightened by Maurice, Eliana waved her hands and kicked her feet, trying to free herself from his grip.

The last flicker of Maurice's patience died out. He took off his tie and restrained her wrists, effectively holding her back. Then, he looked at her with a cold expression.

Why is this happening to me??These were the only thoughts running through Eliana's mind.

"Maurice, you are a beast!" she cursed while continuing to struggle, regardless of how futile her efforts were.

"Really? Well, I better live up to your description of me." Maurice sneered and grabbed her shirt.

The feeling of humiliation almost drowned Eliana, and her eyes turned red with grievance.

"At least make it clear how much I owe you!" Eliana asked shakily, her eyes closed. She had finally stopped struggling, and her shoulders were slumped in dejection.

Watching her lie there obediently, Maurice's anger only grew.

"You want to settle this in one go? Fine." Maurice pulled off her tattered shirt completely. The sudden movement made Eliana tremble all over. She knew that she could not escape today.

At this moment, her heart seemed to be ripped from her chest. She found that she could hardly breathe. This was worse than the time when Erica had tricked her. Tears streamed down Eliana's cheeks as she struggled to resign herself to her bleak fate.

While holding her down, Maurice suddenly noticed something. With a pause, he realized that the woman lying under him was crying.

The moment he saw the tears rolling down her face, his fury faded away like the tide, leaving only a complicated feeling in his heart. Maurice immediately stopped what he was doing.

Or to be more precise, he could no longer continue even if he wanted to.

Frowning, Maurice stood up and threw his coat over Eliana's body, as if her crying had spoiled his mood. Then, he turned around and stormed out of the basement, locking the door behind him.

Once again, Eliana was left all alone in the spacious basement.

Even after Maurice left, she continued to lie on the bed for a long time, as if all her energy had been drained out of her. It was only when all the surging emotions in her heart died down that she slowly sat up.

Her body was still covered with Maurice's coat, and his lingering scent lingered in her nose, a stark reminder of the humiliation she had just experienced.

After changing her clothes, Eliana threw Maurice's coat to the floor to vent her anger. When she did, a phone dropped from the coat pocket.

It was her phone! Eliana quickly picked it up so that she could call for help, but she soon found that she couldn't get any signal here. Growling in frustration, she threw the phone onto the floor, lay back on the bed, and held herself tightly in despair.

No one would accompany her this time. She wouldn't be able to talk to anyone on the phone all night like before. She was really all alone now. The weight of that realization reduced Eliana to tears.

Loss overwhelmed her heart. The gentle, hateful, and pitiful Preston would never come back.

Eliana didn't know how long she cried, but sometime in the middle, she drifted off to sleep. She didn't wake up until a maid walked into the room with a tray of food.

"Miss Pierce, get up and eat something."

Lying on the bed in low spirits, Eliana just threw the quilt over her head and said sulkily, "I have no appetite."

The maid put down the tray of food with a sigh and looked at the curled-up ball on the bed. "Miss Pierce, please listen to Mr. Moran. I just heard that he asked Mr. Jenkins to pick up the children."

"Children?" Eliana shot up in an instant, and the quilt fell off her. "What is Maurice going to do to them?" she asked, staring at the maid sharply.

Realizing that she had said something she shouldn't have, the maid was startled and hastily tried to make up for it.

"I don't know the details, but Miss Pierce, I know that disobeying Mr. Moran can never end well," the maid murmured, looking at Eliana's pale face.

"Miss Pierce, the last time I saw you with Mr. Moran, the two of you seemed to be getting along well, so I thought he had changed…"

Eliana fell back on the bed in dejection and scoffed.?Change? How's that possible? Maurice would never change for anyone,?she thought.