Chapter 3

I went to the cemetery and placed a bouquet of pale pink and white roses before her grave.

As I looked at the memorial photo on the tombstone, at the gray-haired woman smiling so gently, my eyes stung uncontrollably.

It felt as if countless knives were carving through my heart, leaving me unable to breathe.

I forced out a smile. My little old lady had always loved seeing me smile.

"I told you it wasn't safe at night. I told you to close up early. You just wouldn't listen. Your son is already a well-known attorney at a top firm. Was I going to let you starve?

"Now look what you've done. You left your precious son alone in this world. What am I supposed to do now?"

My mother and I came from a poor rural town.

My father died in an accident when I was five. My mother was still young then, and plenty of people tried to arrange marriages for her.

But she said she was afraid I'd be mistreated by someone else's family, so she refused to remarry and raised me alone.

The drunk widower who lived down the road once climbed up to our window to peep while she washed.

Someone came to our door with two thousand dollars and demanded my mother become his wife.

Someone else came with a basket of eggs and wanted to buy me as a son.

People stole our land. People stole our chickens.

The hardship and humiliation couldn't be explained in a few words.

In the end, it all became the image of my mother crying quietly by the window under moonlight, so small, yet so strong.

As a child, I couldn't help her with much. I could only think:

Julian Mercer.

Grow up. Grow up faster.

Become a man who can stand tall, and never let Mom suffer again.

And I did it.

From childhood on, I was always the top student. I won admission to one of the country's most prestigious universities, went straight into graduate study, and had more job offers than I could count after graduation.

In the end, I chose Sterling & Howe, the best litigation firm in the country.

I interned for only half a month before they made an exception and hired me full-time.

In less than six months, I was handling complex legal matters independently and giving effective opinions. Later, after passing the bar, I became a senior trial attorney.

The speed of my rise made people afraid.

Now, in the legal world, everyone knew Attorney Mercer.

And my drive had always been simple.

I wanted to hold up the sky for the woman who cried under the moonlight.

But now, I was the only one left.

All that pride had turned hollow.