They Called Me the Villain Who Deserved to Be Gutted for the Heroine Chapter 1

I was Asher Blackwood’s canary, kept in a gilded cage.

My performance in bed was, to put it mildly, uninspired. A few minutes in, and I’d start complaining, my voice a delicate whine about aches and pains.

But when it came to shopping? I was an Olympic sprinter, my mission to bleed his bank accounts dry.

It was a good gig, until the day the text appeared. Not on my phone, but in my vision, a string of text hanging in the air like a glitchy subtitle in my own life:

【THE TOXIC SIDE PIECE’S REIGN IS ALMOST OVER. THE BELOVED HEROINE IS ABOUT TO MEET THE MALE LEAD.】

【SHE WILL TRY TO SABOTAGE THE HEROINE AT EVERY TURN, EARNING HIS DISGUST.】

【BEFORE HE CAN EVEN DUMP HER, SHE’LL DRAIN HIS ACCOUNTS AND RUN OFF WITH A FAKE HEIR. HE’LL TAKE EVERYTHING, HAVE HER GUTTED FOR HER ORGANS, AND LEAVE HER TO DIE IN A ROACH-INFESTED APARTMENT.】

【SHE DESERVES IT! ONLY A KIND, PURE-HEARTED WOMAN LIKE THE HEROINE DESERVES THE BILLIONAIRE’S LOVE!】

I had no intention of losing my fifty-thousand-dollar-a-month job.

So I stopped coasting. I became a dynamo in bed, a woman possessed, leaving absolutely no room—not a single opening—for some other woman to slip in.

Asher watched me with a smirk playing on his lips. “Are you trying to kill me in bed so you can inherit everything?”

* * *

Asher had a thing for bunny costumes. He wanted me in one, in the middle of the afternoon, sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of his penthouse.

He wanted me to do this, and then he wanted me to do that.

A job is a job, even the good ones have their tedious moments.

I draped myself over his chest, my breath a practiced whimper. “My back hurts, Asher. I’m so tired I can’t even lift a finger.”

His hand clamped down on the small of my back, his thumb pressing hard into the dimple there. He loved leaving his marks on me—fingerprints, bruises from his lips, the faint imprint of his teeth.

“You seem to manage just fine when you’re sprinting through Bergdorf’s,” he murmured, his voice a low rumble. “No complaints then.”

He gave up on waiting for me to take the lead.

In one fluid motion, he flipped me onto my back, reversing our positions.

The rhythm became harder, faster, more demanding.

Later, sated and slick with sweat, Asher rose and began to dress. I saw my chance. His mood was always pliable after sex. I crawled across the silk sheets and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, pressing my cheek against the warm skin of his back. “Asher,” I cooed, “I saw this bag online… you’ll get it for me, won’t you?”

I slyly held up my phone.

Without even looking, Asher cleared my entire online shopping cart.

I stared at the twenty-six “order confirmed” notifications, a giddy thrill shooting through me. I leaned up and planted a kiss on his cheek. “You’re the best boss in the world. Thank you!”

I don’t know what I said wrong.

The faint smile on his lips vanished, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. I watched him, my own smile freezing on my face.

“You’re coming with me to the gala tonight,” he said, his voice clipped.

“Oh. Okay.”

The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. That was my cue to push my luck. I pressed closer, pulling him into a deep, lingering kiss that left us both breathless.

And that’s when it happened again. The text, shimmering in the air right in front of me:

【THE TOXIC SIDE PIECE’S REIGN IS ALMOST OVER. THE BELOVED HEROINE IS ABOUT TO MEET THE MALE LEAD.】

【SHE WILL TRY TO SABOTAGE THE HEROINE AT EVERY TURN, EARNING HIS DISGUST.】

【BEFORE HE CAN EVEN DUMP HER, SHE’LL DRAIN HIS ACCOUNTS AND RUN OFF WITH A FAKE HEIR. HE’LL TAKE EVERYTHING, HAVE HER GUTTED FOR HER ORGANS, AND LEAVE HER TO DIE IN A ROACH-INFESTED APARTMENT.】

【SHE DESERVES IT! ONLY A KIND, PURE-HEARTED WOMAN LIKE THE HEROINE DESERVES THE BILLIONAIRE’S LOVE!】

A violent shiver racked my body. “Cold?” Asher asked.

I clung to him, burying my face in his chest. “Yeah. Just… hold me.”

He did. But as his arms wrapped around me, all I could see were those terrifying words, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.