Chapter 5

Rose received a call from Anthony when she was in the shower.

Anthony's family was in the hardware supply business. Although he wasn't considered one of the wealthiest guys, he was at least good-looking and ambitious. Rose was quite fond of him and picked him to carry out her plan of taking over Hartford Group.

His call sent her into panic mode. She knew him too well. He'd definitely turn up his nose at her if he found out she had been gang-raped!

Rose decided to keep it a secret from Anthony. She quickly regained her composure and answered his call in a coquettish manner, "Anthony, have you found Summer?"

"She's back at the Hartford residence," he replied grimly. "I lost touch with that hooligan I hired."

Of course, he couldn't get in touch with that hooligan because that guy had snapped his SIM card in half in front of Summer.

"How did that happen?" Rose's eyes were filled with shock. She thought she had spiked Summer's drink with a strong dosage. Summer couldn't have possibly walked out of the bar herself, not to mention getting home!

"We hatched this plan for a while now, but it has failed." His tone was fraught with irritation. "I was right. It's not that easy to take power in Hartford Group."

"Our plan will not fail!" she snapped at him resentfully. "We failed to take her photos, but AI tech is pretty advanced nowadays. We can get some deepfake photos that look just as real!

"Whatever happens today doesn't matter. Everything will still go according to the plan tomorrow!"

After hanging up, she scrunched up her eyebrows in frustration. No matter how she looked at it, the incident that night was freakish.

Summer, whose drink had been spiked, managed to get home safely. At the same time, the hooligan they hired had lost touch with Anthony. On top of that, Rose herself had unluckily become a gang-rape victim.

Rose's heart sank. Could Summer have…

However, she quickly dropped the idea when she recalled how naively sweet Summer had been. She was a gullible girl who wouldn't even realize she was being taken advantage of.

That dumb girl couldn't have possibly come up with such an elaborate plan.

Anyway, she decided to put aside what had happened to her for later investigation. She vowed not to spare any one of the perpetrators.

Her more pressing goal was to get the deepfake photos ready before Summer's coming-of-age ceremony at her birthday party scheduled for tomorrow night.

Having come up with the plan for a long time, Rose did not want to miss out on that golden opportunity.

…

In the wee hours of the morning, Summer once again woke up in shock from a nightmare.

In her dreams, she was back at the mental institution, tied to an electric chair. An agonizing pain shook her body when the electricity passed through her body. Rose and Anthony watched and laughed at her.

Birds were chirping outside her window. The sunlight streamed into the room through the ceiling-to-floor windows. After taking a while to catch her breath, she reached out to hold the ray of sunlight.

The warmth of the sunlight touched her slender fingertips.

Back at the mental institution, she had dreamed of sunlight before, but they were cold to the touch in her dreams. That was how she realized she wasn't in a dream at all. She had traveled to the past.

"Wait a minute! It's already bright out there. Dad, Mom, and Grandpa should be home by now!" Summer flipped her blanket and hopped out of bed. She hurried out of her room and down the stairs without bothering to put on her slippers.

Luke Hartford was patiently peeling an egg for his wife, Kristen Woods, in the dining hall. Kristen had put on a face mask while reading a fashion magazine.

Henry had put on a pair of glasses and was reading the paper with a serious face.

"Look at this jerk Mason Hunt! He's forcefully acquired another legacy business!"

Luke scooped out the yolk and placed only the egg white on Kristen's plate. He commented, "Mason might look successful on the surface, but I heard from others that many of his family members wanted him dead. They resorted to all sorts of methods, from hiring hitmen to attempted poisonings."

"He deserves it!" Henry harrumphed, clearly still not over the attempted acquisition of Hartford Group.

Summer stood there, watching her family members chat. It felt like ages ago. Tears welled up in her eyes.

She thought to herself, "Thank God…"

"Summer, are you up?" Henry's expression relaxed. He gazed at Summer with a friendly and kind look. "Join us for breakfast! Phoebe made your favorite bread pudding!"

"Okay!" Summer gathered herself and joined them at the table.

"Darling, happy 18th birthday!" Smiling, Luke said to her, "The gifts from me and your mom are in your room. Have you unwrapped them? Do you like them?"

Summer stole a glance at Kristen, whose eyes were fixed on her magazine. Kristen acted as if she hadn't noticed Summer at all.

Henry was the nicest to Summer out of all her family members. Luke and Kristen rarely spent time with her because they worked abroad. Luke was good to her, but Kristen was… exceptionally distant.

In the past, Summer never really had a good relationship with Kristen. But it all changed after her scandal. Kristen started to defend her.

Before Summer could recover from the emotional scars, she lost both her parents in that car accident. Until her death, she did not have a chance to talk things out with Kristen.

"I haven't unwrapped the gifts yet. I came down right away because I missed you all so much in my dreams!" Tears shimmered in her eyes.

She missed her family like crazy. To her, the best birthday gift was to have them back by her side.

"Did you miss us?" Henry looked surprised. The smile on his face was replaced by a look of guilt. "We've been busy with work lately and couldn't spend much time with you. I'll make sure not to do that again."

"Summer is not a child anymore. She doesn't need adults around her all the time." Kristen finally set down her magazine, removed the mask off her face, and handed the used mask to the maid.