Chapter 2

I did not want Anna to recognize me, but I still watched her as she left. I kept watching until she disappeared into the crowd.

I suddenly remembered the first time I saw her. She had been wearing a cheap work uniform with her face covered in sweat. She had been holding a stack of documents and several cups of coffee at the same time, stumbling into the company.

My eyes went straight to her as she attracted my full attention.

After that, I brought my secretary with me and spent weeks sitting in the staff lounge, watching Anna work quickly and efficiently.

From nine in the morning until ten at night, her coworkers ordered her around nonstop. Sometimes she was so busy she did not even have time to eat. She could only force down a few bites of bread to fill her stomach.

From her file, I learned she was a new intern at the branch office. She had a mother with a serious illness at home and a father addicted to gambling. She had learned to save money for her family since she was little.

In school, her classmates excluded her. After she started working, her coworkers excluded her too. But she always kept a smile on her face, and when she smiled, dimples appeared on her cheeks.

Little by little, I started caring about her.

I deliberately hid my identity and appeared in front of her as a client's representative. I watched her stay up late preparing materials for me. I watched her earnestly explain the products, all to win me over as a client. I also had my secretary stop the coworkers from bothering her.

Anna smiled and said, "Mr. Jackson, I'm so lucky I met you. Everything has gone much more smoothly ever since then."

Looking at the bright smile on her face, I smiled too.

My heart had gone cold from all the scheming and deception in the Jackson family, but her innocent smile had made it start beating again.

I did not tell her I was the CEO of Jackson Group, however. I was afraid she would become just like everyone else, placing me high on a pedestal and giving me the same fawning smile as everyone around me.

As the days passed, I cared more and more about her.

Then one day, I realized I smiled every time I got a message from her. That was when I knew I had fallen for her.

So on a sunny weekend, I asked her out and planned to confess my feelings.

But when I arrived at her apartment, I saw her hugging a man in an ordinary T-shirt. They were sharing an ice cream, and the smile on her face was happy and content.

By then, I had already investigated everything about her. That man was Marvin, her first love and the love of her life. She worked so hard not only to pay off her family's gambling debts and her mother's medical bills, but also to help Marvin through his post-graduate studies.

I gave a bitter smile and left quietly, enduring the pain as I let Anna go.

Until one night, when I passed an alley and heard Anna crying desperately for help.