Chapter 3

"I'm sorry," Serenity's face suddenly turned red. "I... I was just... If... If you've got nowhere to go, you can stay with me here."

She blurted those words out nervously at first, but now that she had gotten it off her chest, she was filled with a sense of relief.

The man's obsidian-like eyes were fixed on her flushed red face, and a look of surprise seemed to have flashed across his face.

"If you don't want to stay here," she said, biting her lips, "it's fine. Just pretend that I never said anything."

His thin lips finally parted as he asked, "Do you want me to stay here?"

His voice was as cold as a winter spring, and the silence of the room made it sound even more crystal clear.

Had those words come from another man's lips, it would have sounded like flirting. However, this man's voice made it sound as if it was a factual question that demanded a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. There was simply no room for ambiguity or mystery in his tone, even his eyes were perfectly calm.

Serenity pursed her lips and replied, "Yes, I'd like you to stay here."

And that was her honest answer.

He stared at her, and a faint smile slowly bloomed on his thin lips as he said, "Okay, then."

It was the first time she had ever seen him smile, and although it was such a faint and subdued smile, it was still so... incredibly beautiful.

***

Before Serenity went off to work, she gave Jackson 5 dollars so that he could get himself something to eat.

As soon as he exited the apartment building, there was already someone waiting for him.

"Mr. Valor," the man greeted when he saw Jackson.

"Let's go," Jackson casually replied.

He then got into a black Mercedes parked in front of him, looking at the five-dollar bill in his hand.

"Mr. Valor," Connor Gunn, Jackson Valor's longtime personal assistant, began reporting as soon as he got into the car, "The woman you were with last night is a contract worker at the Sanitation Office. She rented a room here a month ago and was released after serving her full sentence two months ago."

"Released after serving her full sentence?"

"Yes," Connor continued while carefully studying his boss's expressions. "Her name is Serenity Lewis. Three years ago, she was the one who killed Miss Mira Hall in a car crash. She was charged with drunk driving. She's also Zeke Shaw's ex-girlfriend. She was sentenced to three years in prison, and her lawyer's license was revoked."

"Serenity Lewis..." Jackson murmured the woman's name as a faint but playful smile cropped up on his lips. "Interesting."

Back then, Mira Hall had been very eager to marry him, so he had agreed, seeing that she was a pretty good candidate for a wife, and if he had to choose a woman to marry, Mira seemed not to be a bad choice at all. But then, she had unexpectedly died in a car crash before the wedding could happen.

If this woman, Serenity Lewis, found out about his connections to Mira Hall, Jackson wondered what kind of expressions he would see on her face.

In any case, after all these years, it was the first time a woman had ever taken his hand and boldly brought him back to her place before confessing to him in a gentle but firm voice that she liked him.

Out of the blue, Jackson asked, "Connor, what kind of woman do you think deserves someone like me?"

"Huh?" Connor responded in surprise, unsure of what to say. "I guess it depends on what kind of woman you like, Mr. Valor."

Jackson blushed slightly.

"Make sure I've got all of Serenity Lewis's information ready on my desk when I get back to the office," he ordered.

"Roger," Connor nodded with an affirmative, wondering if Mr. Valor had... taken a liking to Serenity Lewis?

***

When she got back from work, Serenity got a call from her father, asking her to go home and saying that since she was now released from prison, she should go home and pay respects to her mother's ashes.

This confused Serenity. Ever since she had been released, her family had always seemed too eager to cut all connections with her. In fact, over the last three years, none of them had ever visited her. It was as if she was dead to them from then on.

Her biological mother had passed away a long time ago, and she was only three years old then. Three months after that, her father remarried and had another daughter, whose name was Aria Lewis.

Ever since she was very young, Serenity always knew that Aria was her father and her stepmother's favorite child, and they would often neglect her. This drove her to work very hard so that she could get the best grades in her exam. Because of that, she had always excelled academically, and slowly, even her father had begun to be proud enough of her to show her off to his friends as a very smart girl.

Then, she had become Zeke Shaw's girlfriend, and that was the period when she felt most loved and cherished by her family. Her father now regarded her with pride and respect, her stepmother began to treat her more kindly, and even her half-sister Aria had started fawning over her.

She knew that it was all just because of her relationship with Zeke Shaw, the young heir to the wealthy Shaw family. Still, at the time, she had just wanted to feel at least a glimmer of what it felt like to be loved by her family.

However, that car crash proved that it was all just wishful thinking and that her family never truly cared for her at all.

Now, her stepmother, Catherine Fisher, explained to her that Aria had managed to get into the show business after working very hard, but in order to be cast in a better role, she had had to make lots of special arrangements.

Catherine then implored her, "You know we don't have much money, Serenity, but your sister needs some money right now, so... Why don't you lend us some money? Later, when your sister becomes a superstar, she'll definitely pay it all back to you."

"I don't have any money," Serenity replied briefly.

Catherine's expression froze. Then she smiled gently and continued, "Even if you don't, I'm sure Zeke Shaw must have some! You were his girlfriend back then, but he instantly broke up with you as soon as you got into trouble. Don't you think he should make some compensation to you?"

"But even you, Dad, and Aria all distanced yourselves from me back then too, didn't you?"

"Oh!" Grayson Lewis, Serenity's father, snapped angrily, "So, you're begrudging us for what we did in the past, huh? Well, if you hadn't killed someone, your sister would've been a superstar by now, considering she got a lead role a long time ago!"

Serenity sneered. Back then, Aria had gotten a lead role because the Shaw Group was a major investor in the TV series, and Zeke Shaw had even instructed them to cast Aria in the lead role himself. Then, after he had broken up with Serenity, Aria also naturally lost the lead role.

Aria then asked Serenity in a soft voice, "You're still angry with us because we didn't help you when you were in trouble, aren't you, Serenity?"

"But it was you who offended not just the Hall family but Jackson Valor himself! Even the Shaw family was so nervous about it that they forced Zeke to break up with you, so what did you expect us to do? If we had stayed by your side back then and helped you with the lawsuit, it would mean that our family would have offended Jackson Valor and the Hall family! We're just ordinary people, you know! There was no way that we could stand their wrath!"

"Everything you’ve said makes perfect sense," Serenity smiled suddenly, looking straight at Aria. "But since you wouldn't stand by me when I was at rock bottom, why should I do anything to help you climb your way up?"