Adrian's eyes opened to dawn light filtering through skeletal tree branches.
Cold.
Wet.
Pain radiating through every muscle in his body like he'd been beaten with iron rods.
He tried to move and immediately regretted it... his cultivation base screamed in protest, still raw from whatever force had crushed him into submission last night.
Last night.
The memories crashed over him with devastating clarity.
Catherine. On her knees. That man's...
Adrian's hands clenched in the mud beneath him, fingers digging into cold earth as rage flooded his system so completely that his vision blurred at the edges.
He forced himself upright, body protesting every movement, and finally registered his surroundings.
The main gates of Thornhaven Manor.
Closed. Locked. Utterly indifferent to his presence.
He was lying in the mud just outside the property line, his expensive suit ruined, his pride shattered, his entire existence reduced to trash thrown out with the morning garbage.
