Summer's chest tightened. The rage and pain in Henry's eyes reminded her of the time he protested against her decision to marry Anthony. She seemed to have traveled back to that moment in her past life."I'm sorry." She nearly suffered a breakdown. Clasping Henry's hand tightly, she promised, "I will not do that again. I was wrong. Grandpa, I'm sorry."Henry teared up as well. He was a strict father to Luke. Having never raised a daughter, he was a little flustered when he welcomed the birth of Summer. Staring at the wrinkly baby, he wondered how to raise her right.Later, he learned that a girl should be raised in the best environment so that she wouldn't easily fall for those who promised her good things. Keeping that in mind, he offered Summer the best of everything.Hence, he was devastated to learn from Ivan that Summer was bullied in school. He realized he had failed to protect the poor girl."You're the heiress of Hartford Group. How could a girl with that background get bu
Luke said sternly to Rose, "Talk normally. Get up."Henry still looked upset, but he didn't say anything harsh. He commanded Rose in a heavy tone, "Write down the names of Summer's bullies that you know of!"Rose agreed immediately, "I'll do that right now!"Kristen interjected, "I'll go with you."Seeing Rose sniffling, Kristen comforted her, "Stop crying."Rose sobbed and nodded before leaving the living room with Kristen.Meanwhile, Summer whispered to Henry, "Grandpa, don't be mad. I promise I won't do that anymore. No one has been bullying me at school these days.""That's because Robin has been dropping you off and picking you up every day!" Luke reminded her gruffly.Henry seemed heartbroken. "I should have made Robin do that from the start!""Mr. Cohen is capable of more, so he shouldn't be driving me around." Amused, Summer reassured Henry, "Trust me, Grandpa. I'm really good at handling the bullies now."In Henry's eyes, Summer was a fragile girl who had to be prote
"Dad, Mason Hunt is a busy man. He has no time to pull that off," Luke dismissed Henry's wild guess in exasperation."Let's make a bet. I bet Mr. Sutton will disappear before he even arrives at the police station!" Henry put on a serious face. "If that's the case, we can confirm that Mason was behind this, and I won't go easy on him!"Summer sighed softly at Henry's hostility toward Mason. Still, Mason wouldn't have volunteered to send Ivan to the police without a good reason. She suspected that Ivan might not survive to see another day.…Late at night, Mason emerged from an alley while wiping his hands with a flat expression.Kyle was waiting for him by the car. When he showed up, Kyle opened the car door for him.Mason stepped into the car and ordered, "Find every single one of the people in this recording."Head lowered, he sent an audio recording to Kyle. Kyle grunted. "Sure!""Get someone to send that thing in the alley to the police." A cold glint appeared across Mason
It took Rose a while to wrap her head around the situation. Staring at Kristen in disbelief, she whimpered, "Aunt Kristen, why… Why did you slap me?""You know very well why I slapped you," barked Kristen."Is it because I have my suspicions about Summer?" Sobbing, Rose questioned, "Can't I even suspect her? I didn't even tell a soul about it except you. How is that wrong? Do you expect me to bring it to my grave?""Enough!" Kristen would not have it anymore. "Rose, do you take us for fools?"Rose cried and cried. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"Kristen took a deep breath to calm herself. "Remember that time a classmate called you to tell you that it was Summer who hired the men to assault you? Write down his name and his contact number."Taken aback, Rose swiftly shook her head. "But he truly cares about me! I will never tell on him!""Is that the truth, or is it because that alleged classmate did not exist in the first place?" Kristen coldly pressed on. "I've looke
"You should stop Summer if you knew she'd hurt me!" Rose panicked. The last thing she wanted was to be "exiled" to a foreign country. Who knew what drastic change would happen to Summer when she was not around?"Rose Sanderson, you're the one who made a mistake here. If Summer wants to hurt you because of it, you only have two options—run away or bear with it." Kristen was unusually stern. "It's my job as Summer's mom to protect her. Not only did I not take it out on you, but I even offered you the chance to study abroad for your mother's sake. Do not test my limits!"Her last remark drove a knife into Rose's chest. "It's my job as Summer's mom to protect her"—these impactful words repeatedly played in Rose's mind. For the longest time, Kristen was nice to Rose and cold to Summer to the point where Rose nearly forgot that Kristen was first and foremost Summer's mother."Got it." A long silence later, Rose stopped crying. She wiped away her tears and stood up."Please hand the l
"Are we… even that close?" Puzzled, Summer questioned Anthony, putting him on the spot.The smile froze on his face.Arms crossed, she took a step back. "Anthony, do you have a crush on me or what?" Scanning him from head to toe, she sneered. "If that's true, you should target someone else. You're nowhere close to my ideal type. I'm not into gentlemen, but Rose is." Anthony's expression stiffened. "Summer, there's a misunderstanding here. I'm just amazed at your intelligence and your academic performance, and I would like to befriend you.""I will never be friends with Rose's boyfriends." She shrugged, sending a wave of panic through Anthony.He tried to explain himself, but Phoebe, rushing down the stairs, interrupted them by exclaiming, "Ms. Hartford, you're up!"Anthony clenched his jaw and held his tongue. Ignoring him, Summer approached Phoebe with a smile. "What's for breakfast?""All your favorite dishes!" Phoebe gave Anthony a side-eye. "Mr. Lawson, why are you here?
It was probably because of the bullying Summer had suffered in school before.She wasn't worried about Henry doing anything extreme, so she didn't bother to stop him. She would consider it a lesson for those school bullies.Kristen and Luke had left a bit earlier.After Henry left, Summer was left alone in the living room to eat breakfast. It didn't take long for the class chat group to start buzzing."I heard that Mr. Sutton got arrested.""Apparently, he was riding as part of a motorcycle gang at night and injured someone really important!""I heard it was because he embezzled a lot of money.""No matter what, it's good to see that scum got caught. My parents had to give him so many bribes every year.""My uncle's friend works at the police station. He said that Mr. Sutton was brought into the station in a completely bloody mess. It was a miracle he was even alive."Summer sipped on her milk as she scrolled through the messages leisurely. She still remembered how Ivan looked
Summer had an indifferent look on her face.Rose got up to leave, but she stopped after taking a couple of steps. She said in a low voice, "If Mason said something to you, then I'll say it again. No matter what, you have to believe me. "Mason is the kind of person that was just born a crook, so don't expect him to have genuine feelings for you. In the end, everything he does is just for Hartford Group."With that, she walked away.Summer's fingers brushed the edge of her glass of milk. She wondered if Mason's ears were ringing from being talked about so much in the morning.Rose stormed out of the door in a huff.Anthony's expression seemed to be very unpleasant as well. The two of them seemed to know not to speak to one another.As Rose headed toward the garage, her gaze landed on Luke's car that was parked inside.It might be because of her anger. It might also be because she thought that things would be much easier for her if Summer lost those two helpers. Or it might even
Janice glared at Anthony. "Drop the act. Who used you? Weren't you trying to climb your way into a rich family?"Anthony said slowly, "I love Summer, and the one I want is her, too! She gave me so many hints before, and she was the one who invited me into her tent that night. Otherwise, why would I have gone in? I had no idea the person inside wasn't her!"Janice frowned.Thinking it over, that did make some sense. Why did Anthony need to do that to her in Summer's tent? And there were a lot of rumors surrounding Anthony and Summer in school as well.Anthony grabbed Janice's shoulder. "You can die right now if you want to, but those who harmed us won't feel guilty about it at all. Instead, they'll be pleased that their wicked plans worked. But we can't let that happen, okay? The more we're hurting, the more we need to get revenge on them!"Janice looked a bit surprised. "Revenge? On Summer?""Yes!" Anthony said firmly."How would we get that?" Janice asked.She was definitely u
Janice had once been an outstanding student who excelled in every manner. Compared to Janice, Nora's own child fell far behind.On top of that, Brad had retired a few years ago, and the position of CEO for Power Construction had been given to Patrick, which made Nora incredibly unhappy.With Janice getting caught up in one scandal after another, Nora took full advantage of it. She moved back right away and spent her days whispering into Brad's ears.She embellished all the rumors from the outside and fed them to Brad. Otherwise, there was no way Brad would be so furious."Shut up!" Janice was already sick of Nora's mockery."Oh, my! Dad, just look at her talking to her elders like that. She's completely lost her manners," Nora feigned fear.Janice felt her whole body trembling.What Summer said earlier constantly echoed in her head.She had spent all this time looking for Rose, but she never expected Anthony to barge into her own home. She really didn't know what Anthony said t
Mason let out a long sigh. "Oh, no… What am I supposed to do if you're going out tomorrow?"Summer was bewildered. Mason was supposed to be some notorious monster of a CEO, so why was he acting so weak and pitiful?"Mason, do you really think I'm your personal maid?" she asked.Mason frowned. "Of course not.""You'd better not!" Summer warned.Mason still kept up with the pitiful look, and Summer couldn't bear to say anything else about it.But he was just putting on an act. He didn't actually stop Summer from going out.After that, Summer went and busied herself.Mason sat on the couch. After feeling bored for a while, he eventually started dealing with his own affairs.At dusk, something dawned on him. Tomorrow would be Saul's birthday. Things had been such a mess lately, and Kyle didn't remind him, so he had forgotten all about it.Mason probably wouldn't have time to get a gift anymore. He'd make up for it later.…At around the same time, Janice had hurried home. The m
The call ended there.Saul glanced at the never-ending stream of traffic before he raised a hand and hailed a taxi.On the way, he felt a little unsettled. After some thought, he decided to call Summer.At that moment, Summer was scolding Mason for eating something he shouldn't. "I told you you can't eat these things! What kind of tyrant CEO has a mouth as greedy as yours?"Mason merely sat there obediently and let her lecture him. In truth, he wasn't actually craving those snacks. But Summer wasn't paying him any attention, so…When Summer saw Saul's call, she grabbed all the snacks from the small table and locked them up in her room before she answered it."What is it?" she asked.Saul felt a little comforted when he heard Summer's voice. "It's about your team. You're very capable, and you plan on expanding the company. The team I put together for you isn't bad, but they might not be enough in the long run."Summer nodded. "I've thought about that as well, but I don't have an
To Terrence, Saul was like a thick iron wall that would never let anyone enter. He had a face that was the envy of all and was surrounded by women since he was young. Yet, he hadn't even dated anyone even in his 20s.For a long time, Terrence had even suspected that Saul liked men.Saul looked at Terrence. "That's right. I want to spend my life with her. Terrence, the girl I like is absolutely one of a kind in this world."Terrence shrugged and said nothing.Saul left shortly after that.Terrence stretched and thought to himself that genes weren't always reliable.For instance, Saul's father was a complete playboy who made headlines every other day for his affairs back then. The man even seduced his own sister-in-law and his sister-in-law's younger sister.Yet, when it came to Saul, he was a hopeless romantic.As Terrence thought about it, his phone rang. It was the person he asked to help him look for Summer.Terrence answered and said, "If there's still no news, then there's
Who wouldn't want to ruffle that fluffy hair?"What are you looking at? You're allowed to mess up my hair, but I'm not?" Summer playfully raised a fist at him before getting up and mumbling as she headed next door.Mason sat at the dining table, gently touching the spot where Summer had just patted him. He couldn't hide the smile on his lips.There was no way he wouldn't allow it. In fact, he wanted nothing more than for her to do it more."Wait for me!" Mason quickly got up. He grabbed the milk that Summer hadn't finished and hurried after her.When Summer opened her computer, Saul was already waiting for her online."The internal test results are all within our estimations. The response to the promotional campaign has been great as well. I think that the final results will exceed your expectations," Saul said.Summer looked at the data that Sault sent over and was a bit surprised. She definitely didn't expect such a good response. "Saul, you definitely live up to your reputa
After a moment of hesitation, Summer decided to call Kristen.Kristen hadn't slept well the whole night. When she saw Summer's call, she hesitated for a moment before she picked up."Mom," Summer greeted.Kristen sighed. "Are you calling to ask about Rose?"Summer felt a bit helpless. "So, she really did go to you. I knew no one else would help her.""Summer, I know how much she's hurt you. I guarantee that this is the last time," Kristen said.Summer replied, "I understand. You shouldn't think too much about it. Her mother helped you a lot in the past. I understand it.""I already sent her away. She just boarded the plane. She said she won't be coming back," Kristen said."Let's hope so." Summer didn't really trust Rose's words.If only Rose was willing to live peacefully and stay with Anthony without causing trouble. Then, she could have lived a comfortable life thanks to the Hartford family."Summer…" Kristen seemed to have something she wanted to ask, but she stopped."W
"Janice, I've never been on the same side as Rose. She was kicked out of the Hartford family a long time ago, and I'm not some saint who would help someone trying to harm me. You're barking up the wrong tree," Summer replied coldly.Janice was clenching her teeth. "Summer! Don't be too pleased with yourself. I know you had a hand in this, too. I won't let Rose off, and I definitely won't let you off, either."Summer lowered her gaze and chuckled.Janice got even angrier when she heard that. "What are you laughing at?""Janice, you like Chandler, right?" Summer asked.Jancie did not respond."With things as they are, how do you still not realize what's important? If you don't shift your focus back to your family, your parents will probably have your marriage with Anthony finalized in the next few days," Summer said slowly.Janice froze in place.She had been fully focused on Rose the last few days. With her mind fully occupied by revenge, she didn't have the time to think about
Kristen looked at Rose coldly. "For two days, Janice used all of Power Construction's resources and still couldn't find you. Summer is not that capable.""Summer isn't that capable? Do you know who hacked into her birthday party and swapped my video on the screen? It was Summer! She's a very good hacker!" Rose said through gritted teeth."That's enough! I have no time for your nonsense. So what if my daughter is a hacker? If you just called me over for this, then speak no more. Even if Summer is a monster, she's still my daughter. She's my precious girl!" Kristen said impatiently.Rose had always thought that Kristen didn't like Summer. Even now, she was still trying to drive a wedge between the two of them.The moment Kristen said that Summer was her precious girl, Rose felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head.She lowered her gaze and let out a bitter laugh. "Aunt Kristen, I always thought that I was your precious girl.""Weren't you? Didn't I treat you we