Rich Radiant and Over Him (Alicia and Vincent) novel Chapter 111

After a year of warmth and safety, Alicia had come to see her foster mother as her own—a lifeline, a source of comfort she clung to with all her heart.

No matter how cruelly her foster mother beat or mistreated her, Alicia stubbornly refused to leave. She endured it all, believing this was the only place she belonged.

Then, one day, everything shattered. When her foster mother learned that her husband's mistress was pregnant, she lost control and turned on the gas in the house.

The fire swept through the room, thick smoke searing Alicia's eyes. Curled up in the haze, she thought her brief and painful life was finally over.

But she didn't die.

A young man from the village saved her.

He brought her to his home, fed her, gave her water, and every day made sure she had a bowl of shaved ice to soothe her burns.

He contacted the local women's shelter and reached out to the orphanage.

Until the day Alicia left that little mountain village on the edge of Grandcrest City, she never once saw her rescuer's face. Her vision was ruined by the flames. Later, after her surgery and partial recovery, she tried to find him, but he was gone—like a shooting star that flashed through her life and vanished.

Eventually, the director of the orphanage brought her back, and the young man faded into memory, a brief miracle in a lifetime of hardship.

…

"You like shaved ice too?" Alicia's eyes sparkled, tears making them even more luminous and enchanting.

Tyrone, for his part, couldn't care less about dessert right now. "Yeah… I do," he muttered, his voice hoarse, a dangerous intensity flickering in his gaze.

He reached out and pressed Alicia's head down, no longer caring whether his roughness would make her cry. Twenty-nine years of self-restraint unraveled in an instant.

…

Once, Tyrone had scoffed at the power of seduction. He'd watched powerful men in his circle lose their heads over women and found it laughable—he couldn't understand it at all.

Now, he understood.