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I Am Not Your Pawn Anymore

Author: Ting Er Xiao Ling

Chapter 1 No.1

Word Count: 986 | Released on: 30/01/2026

and. It was a Montblanc, heavy, black, and cold-just

a. We're runni

tte sharp against the gray, storm-battered skyline of Tribeca. The rain lashed

the mahogany desk. Admission of G

lie. Al

boardrooms. "With good behavior, you'll be out in eighteen months. The trust fund is

his words rose in her throat. She looked at his back. The

e whispered. Her voice

nced at her trembling hand, and she saw the flicker of annoyance in his eye

toward the desk. "And I am compensating you for your sacr

dele Townsend authorized the trades. Her signat

he desk, leaning in. He was using his height, his presence, to suffocate her. It was a tactic

. "This merger is bigger than you. It's bigger than us. If Adele is implica

go to

enty millio

ort, sharp sound, devoid of humor.

hud that vibrated up her thigh. "With what I know? With the secrets I hold for this family? I won't make it

is fingers were warm, but his touch sent a shiver of pure terr

, Anaya. Stop b

ch trig

ore her eyes. Gray walls. Metal bars. A shank made of

. Her breath hitched,

hed against cool metal. The silver letter opener. It was

," Barrett murmure

. She didn't plan.

ung he

perate, jagged motion. The silver blad

abric tearing was louder

wn at his arm. A line of crimson was blooming rapidly on the

nough to bleed but not life-threatening. But t

in her grip. Her chest heaved. She expected to feel

lt a terrifying, elect

n dark suits rushed in-Barrett's personal

ked. He held up h

He pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it aga

his voice eerily calm. "We can't have a

guard asked

eyes cold and dead. "Lock her in. She needs to... coo

It clattered onto the Persian rug

ard. Anaya didn't fight. She stared at Barrett, watching him wrap his bl

lammed shut. The heavy click of the deadbol

her knees to her chest. The room was luxurious, filled with t

chilling certainty, that she would never sign that paper. And she kne

Chapter End

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I Am Not Your Pawn Anymore

Ting Er Xiao Ling Modern

“Barrett handed me a Montblanc pen and a legal document, his voice as cold as the rain lashing against his Tribeca penthouse. He told me to sign an admission of guilt for an SEC violation I never committed. "Eighteen months in prison, Anaya," he said, adjusting his cufflinks without looking at me. "The trust fund is set up. You'll get twenty million dollars the moment you step out." I was being sold. The man I had loved for ten years, the man whose secrets I had kept, was trading my freedom to save his merger with Adele Townsend. He had scrubbed the digital logs of Adele's illegal trades and pinned everything on me. When I refused, he didn't see my heartbreak; he only saw a malfunction in a business transaction. "Do not speak her name," he hissed when I mentioned Adele's fraud. "This merger is bigger than you." He forced the pen into my hand, calling me dramatic while his security guards dragged me to a locked bedroom to "cool down." I spent three days parched and starving, listening to the muffled sound of champagne corks popping down the hall. They were celebrating my destruction. My heart finally gave out in that luxury cage, the darkness swallowing me as I realized I was nothing more than a disposable asset to him. I died in that room, alone and betrayed by the person I trusted most. How could he do this? How could a decade of loyalty be worth less than a stock price? Why did I let him treat me like a sacrificial lamb for so long? GASP. I shot up in bed, my lungs burning, but I wasn't in the penthouse. I was in my old, peeling Brooklyn apartment, and the date on my phone was May 12th-three years ago. My phone buzzed with a text from Barrett: "Where are you? Bring the Townsend files. Now." A cold, cruel smile touched my lips as I typed the reply that would start his nightmare. "I quit."”