“Yes,” Luther said quietly. “As I said a few times, Mason was someone I admired. I felt he could dominate the business world if he tried hard enough, once time passed. Of course, the hotel was Mason’s idea, but I was involved in the process as well. Mason wanted me to be his business partner. The two of us worked together and made numerous efforts to make our ambition happen. And yet…”He sighed heavily.“It was all Mason, Mason, Mason. Mason was the spotlight, while I was only a background character. Even though I worked hard too, the people, even my own family, only admired Mason. It was… discomfiting, at the very least. I felt hurt and betrayed,” he said quietly. “It was wrong of me, but… I resented Mason a little back then. Even though I shouldn’t have felt that way, of course. I was young and immature.”“Did my father know?” Hailey asked gently. “That you felt that way?”Luther’s lips curved into a wry smile. “He probably did, but he never spoke about it or brought it up during t

“His… final words?” Hailey said slowly.Luther nodded. “I told him that I would do anything to make it up to him. I begged him for forgiveness and asked him not to die on me yet.“But I knew. We both knew. He was running out of time. He was already bleeding out, and the life was slowly fading from his eyes,” he whispered.Hailey felt a stray tear run down her cheek. “Oh… father…” she murmured.“I can still remember the sound of his strangled voice as he told me what he wanted from me,” Luther said quietly. “He asked me… to take care of his wife and his newborn daughter.”Hailey felt a lump rise in her throat. “He… did that?”“Yes. At that time, Nina… Mason’s wife, and your biological mother… She had already given birth to you and was unconscious at the hospital, resting,” Luther said. “And I… I never knew. It turned out that Mason, after recovering from his illness, accompanied his wife during the last days of her pregnancy before returning to the hotel and then finding out the truth.

Camille felt her blood run cold. Indeed, she shouldn’t have underestimated Christian’s multiple sources of information. He knew everything that went on. He was meticulous like that.She wouldn’t even be surprised if he had sent someone to track her every move. He had done it several times before. He probably even knew that she was aware of it, but kept doing it anyway because it was fun.‘Sadistic bastard.’If she could name one of the things that Christian Callahan loathed the most, it was a betrayal. He wanted everyone under him to follow his orders and not question them. If they opposed, their lives were doomed.So when it came to punishments, he had no qualms about giving them out.Just like his father.“I am right, aren’t I?” he said. “It was him that you met earlier, the ‘old friend’ that you mentioned.”She should’ve known.He had been behaving suspiciously, after all. She had suspected it the moment he made her take the afternoon off, saying that he had an important confidenti

Later that night, Camille received an unexpected text message from Michael.‘Hey Vanilla,’ the text simply read.She stared at the words on the screen, feeling a small piece of her heart break.She could still remember the words he told her just yesterday, about them remaining friends and secretly meeting, messaging, and calling each other. He had seemed really eager to connect with her after so long.She wasn’t dense. She knew that she had been Michael’s close and only friend back then, which was probably the reason why he grew attached to her.But she wasn’t foolish enough to assume that he’d been waiting for her for years now. Of course, they had been close, but not that close…Right?Camille sighed. There was no use overthinking things now. If she didn’t reply to him right now, she would never get the courage to do so.She had to at least give him some kind of warning. Or a sign.‘Hello,’ she texted back.And then the series of messages began, with them talking back and forth. It

The morning after, Camille woke up feeling like she just had a nightmare.‘If you could call Christian Callahan a living nightmare, that is,’ she thought venomously.‘That snake is planning something. I just know it!’The rest of the day went on as usual. She went to the company, did her secretarial work, ignored Christian’s unnecessarily flirtatious and obnoxious remarks, and left work in the late afternoon.‘Good thing that he has an important meeting later,’ Camille thought gleefully as she started packing her things. ‘I hope it finishes at midnight so that when he comes home, I’ll already be fast asleep.”The only reason they were able to live together all this time was because of their busy schedules. Sometimes Camille had to work overtime while Christian left early. Sometimes Christian had late-night meetings and extended business trips, leaving Camille alone in the apartment.It was the perfect arrangement for her because she could not bear to see Christian’s infuriating mug ev