Chapter 1: Because She Is My Wife
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Smack!
A crisp slap in the face rose in the Royal Bar private room. A young man in a waiter’s costume staggered and almost hit his head on the door frame with five clear fingerprints forming on one side of his face.
“Are you stupid or something, Ryan? What necking between guests has to do with you? How dare you hit Mr. Ball with a wine bottle? Can you bear this responsibility?” The manager holding a walkie-talkie scolded Ryan Fletcher angrily.
After Ryan stood firm, he was still protecting the beauty in a short skirt behind him. She was wearing a white shirt, her skin snow-white, her long hair fluttering, and she was graceful. But her complicated expression seemed to say, ‘I can’t even.’
Ryan was a waiter in the Royal Bar, responsible for serving drinks, fruit plates, and the like to the guests in the Presidential Suite. Just a moment ago in the suite, he had seen a few fat men grabbing the girl. She was forced to the corner while holding a fruit knife in her hand, begging for mercy.
The group of men knocked the fruit knife off the girl’s hand. Ryan became furious upon seeing them about to grab her hands and force themselves on her. So he picked up a beer bottle and smashed it on the back of Lionel Ball’s hand.
The broken bottle had cut the back of Lionel’s hand, and blood was oozing out of the wound. Now a doctor was bandaging his hand.
“Don’t touch her!” Ryan ignored his supervisor as he glared at the group of men in the bar. “I will beat the hell out of whoever dares to touch her.”
The deep, penetrating eyes looked like that of a poisonous snake; it was unnerving.
Lionel got up from the sofa and waved his bandaged hand. Then, he took two steps forward and kicked Ryan in the abdomen. “D*mn you! Who do you think you are? Do I need your permission to drink with Miss Mears? Let me tell you, even if I hump her right now, she won’t dare to utter a word.”
“Calm down, Mr. Ball. Don’t worry. I promise you he will get what he deserves today.” Percy Santiago, the manager of the bar, said with a servile smile.
Lionel was a real estate developer with a dozen real estate projects in Saltband City. He was almost like a godfather with his close connections with both the authority and the underworld. Even the big cheeses who often appeared on TV had to talk to him with civility.
Failing to please such a godfather figure could mean trouble.
Ryan slumped to the floor while Lionel looked down at him with triumph and arrogance in his eyes, as if he were a lofty king looking down on his slave.
“I dare you!” Ryan got up from the floor and pulled the beauty close behind him. “Let’s go, Lumi. Follow me home.”
Lionel, the manager, and others could not help bursting into laughter at hearing what Ryan said.
“You are taking her with you? Okay, let’s see if Miss Mears dares to leave. It was she who invited us here today, not that we forced her to. Am I right?” Lionel exchanged a look with the other men with a smug look on his face, and they all nodded in agreement.
“Exactly. Her company needs thirty million dollars badly. Getting a thirty-million-dollar investment from us by drinking with us is a good deal. She has nothing to lose.”
Next to him, another bald man echoed. “Miss Mears is the number one beauty in Saltband City, kid. Who are you? What makes you think you can take her with you?”
Ryan stopped in his tracks and stared at the filthy men on the sofa. “You know why? She is my wife! Is this reason enough?”
Everyone in the room was taken aback, their eyes goggling at the beautiful woman named Lumi Mears behind Ryan.
Lumi seemed to be in a dilemma. But at last, she shook off Ryan’s hand. “Can’t you stop making trouble, can you?”
In that case, this Ryan was really the wimpy husband of the number one beauty in Saltband City.
“So this is your wimpy husband, eh, Miss Mears? Rumor has it that Mr. Mears Sr. picked him up from the garbage bin back then. The most beautiful woman in Saltband City is married to a beggar. Now I finally see him in person. Come, turn around, let us all take a good look.”
Lionel beckoned everyone as if he had discovered a new world. Someone nearby immediately turned the light up a bit, and the room suddenly became brightly lit.
“Come on, Mr. Ball. Ryan was not a beggar. He was just injured and fainted at the garbage dump.” Lumi curled her lips in a smirk.
Ryan glanced at Lumi and quietly sighed, wondering if she was defending him, or just saving her own face.
Anyway, life had been a little unfair to this woman over the years. Besides, with his identity as the son-in-law of the Mears family, Ryan had been living a rather comfortable life for several years.
Ten years ago, when Ryan was fifteen, his family issued a ban on him. When he left the family, a few of his cousins tried to kill him. He was seriously injured and fainted at a garbage dump in Saltband City. He survived. He was rescued by Mr. Mears Sr. and later married Lumi Mears.
After three years of marriage, the two were still a couple in name only as Lumi did not let Ryan touch her. Nevertheless, Ryan was still grateful to the Mears family.
He regarded Lumi as his wife, and would definitely not allow someone to bully his wife under his nose.
Lionel waved his hand and glanced at Ryan with a wicked look. “That’s not the point. The point is today’s drinking. Shall we continue to drink, Miss Mears?”
“Let’s continue drinking. Ryan, please leave us. I will just drink with Mr. Ball for a while. I know what I am doing.” Mears Corporation was experiencing financial difficulty recently, in need of thirty million dollars to keep the company afloat. Otherwise, it would go bankrupt in three days.
Mears Corporation was founded by her grandfather. Her grandfather handed over the company to her before his death. She did not want the company to fail in her hands, so she bit the bullet and came to drink with Lionel in the bar.
But Lumi did not expect to come to the bar where Ryan was working and him seeing Lionel trying to grope her.
Although she was married to Ryan because of her grandfather, she and Ryan were still legally husband and wife after all.
Looking at Lumi’s delicate shoulders and knowing the burden she has on her shoulders, Ryan could not help but take pity on her. “It is just thirty million dollars, I can help you, Lumi,” he said in a soft voice.
An anger rose within Lumi all of a sudden. “Help me? How can you help me? We are talking about thirty million here. Are you going to rob the bank? Get out, and that is the biggest favor for me. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything that would humiliate you.”
Just as Ryan wanted to explain, Lionel interrupted him. “Haven’t you heard that clearly, you fool? Your wife told you to get out!”
Ryan’s face flushed at seeing Lionel’s heinous face. He picked up a wine bottle from the table and was about to smash it down at Lionel again.
The manager was taken aback before quickly yelling at the security guards at the door. “Throw him out quickly!”
The security guards rushed in and apprehended Ryan. Lionel took this opportunity to give him a good beating. “How dare you hit me? I will make your wife go down to her knees to beg me today! What can you do? Just watch!”
After Ryan was removed from the room, the manager turned to Lionel with respect. “Mr. Ball, please continue to enjoy yourself, I promise no one will bother you again.”
…
The security guards let go of Ryan after taking him out of the room. After all, they knew each other, too.
As Ryan reached to rub the blood in the corner of his mouth, his cell sounded a message alert in his pocket. He took out the cell to read the text.
‘Congratulations, Ryan. The ten-year family ban has been lifted, and now you can use the family’s resources, including financial and armed support below Level-A.’
‘The family has lifted the ban?’
‘Heck!’
Ryan quickly dialed a number. “Mr. Morton, I need Level-D support. Send men to the Presidential Suite in the Royal Bar immediately. Someone is trying to grope my wife!”