“I’m fine,” Camille said. “Don’t worry about me. Just… keep it with you for a while, okay?”‘Please don’t ask anything more,’ she begged.“All right, then. If you say so.” Michael said. Thank god. “Anyway, I’m sure you must be wondering how much I know about you, especially how I managed to get your private number.”Camille nodded, the knots in her stomach becoming tighter and tighter.He couldn’t possibly know anything. She had to reassure herself of that.Christian had firmly kept their relationship under wraps for now here at Penburg. He probably had something up his sleeve, just like he always did.“I had my assistant check on your whereabouts,” Michael admitted. “Sorry about that, by the way. You must’ve wanted to lie low… but I just needed to know that you’re alive and well.”Camille shook her head. “It’s okay. You have your reasons.”“But don’t worry. I didn’t make a thorough investigation on you or anything like that,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to know your number and wh
When Camille arrived home after meeting with Michael, she was filled with an inner glow that she had never felt before. It was as if she’d been given hope in life again. It sounded exaggerated, but Michael was truly the breath of fresh air that she had needed for a long time now.She went straight towards the guest room and stopped before the mirror, staring at her reflection.At that moment, Michael’s words came back to her.‘You’re still so beautiful,’ he had told her in German.Who knew that an unexpected shared language between them would cause a fluttering in her stomach?‘To think that he complimented me even when I look like this…’ Camille thought to herself wryly as she approached the mirror. ‘Even I can’t recognize myself from my high school appearance anymore.’It had been fourteen years since she left this city. Fourteen years since she behaved as the good eldest daughter of the van Gowen family and prepared to inherit the family business along with her two brothers.‘I wou
Paul immediately got up from his chair and walked over to Hailey, hastily wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace.“Sis…” he said quietly. “I’m going to be honest with you. I knew about this two years ago when Ben and I opened Dad’s private study for a prank. We… The two of us were snooping around. You know us.”He pulled away to look Hailey in the eyes, as though trying to convey his sincerity.“We found… adoption papers along with your records. There were so many, we couldn’t read them all. Dad was about to return home. That’s when we realized that… you’re not related to us by blood.”Paul swallowed.“Ben and I… we wanted to ask Mom and Dad about it, but we didn’t have the courage. We even thought at one point that we might have imagined the whole thing. But we knew it was true. Still, it didn’t change anything. We still think of you as our older sister, even now. After all, even if we’re not related by blood, we’re still family, right?” he said softly.Hailey felt tears wel
When Hailey left Paul’s room, she didn’t know what else to do. She could only return to her room in a daze, her mind completely blank.It was as if everything she had believed her whole life was a lie.Not to be dramatic, but she had always thought that her family was… her real family. That they were all related by blood. That they had no secrets from each other.But it turned out that she was the only one kept in the dark.It felt strange, as if she was somehow ostracized. As if she was now cowering in her own little corner of isolation.When she passed her parents’ room, she stopped for a moment. She could no longer hear their arguments, as if a hushed silence had fallen over them. Maybe they had finally come to a compromise, or maybe they had reached an impasse.Not that Hailey could care about that right now. She was in no mood to confront anyone right now.A minute later she reached her room. When she closed the door behind her, it was as if everything had finally fallen apart. S
The atmosphere was positively stifling, in Hailey’s opinion.She had never felt this way before whenever she talked with her parents. Even when she got a failing grade one time, Luther and Emilia didn’t scold her that much. Not at all, in fact.Instead, Luther simply told her that she could do better next time, while Emilia suggested tutoring for that subject in case Hailey had a hard time understanding the lectures.Even when she accidentally broke an expensive antique in the house, when she fought with her brothers as a kid, when she argued with her parents as a young teenager going through puberty and menstrual cramps…They never hit her or reprimanded her so harshly. They were never cold to her and treated her just like how they treated her brothers. She loved them because they were fair and didn’t have any favorites among them.But now…It felt like she was conversing with a pair of strangers.No, that was wrong.Maybe she was the stranger all along.Maybe she had missed all the
“Yes,” Luther said quietly. “As I said a few times, Mason was someone I admired. I felt he could dominate the business world if he tried hard enough, once time passed. Of course, the hotel was Mason’s idea, but I was involved in the process as well. Mason wanted me to be his business partner. The two of us worked together and made numerous efforts to make our ambition happen. And yet…”He sighed heavily.“It was all Mason, Mason, Mason. Mason was the spotlight, while I was only a background character. Even though I worked hard too, the people, even my own family, only admired Mason. It was… discomfiting, at the very least. I felt hurt and betrayed,” he said quietly. “It was wrong of me, but… I resented Mason a little back then. Even though I shouldn’t have felt that way, of course. I was young and immature.”“Did my father know?” Hailey asked gently. “That you felt that way?”Luther’s lips curved into a wry smile. “He probably did, but he never spoke about it or brought it up during t
It was the start of the web of deceit. A mouth that spewed an irresistible suggestion and a promise of wealth and success.That was what this ‘Alexander Sterling’ offered Luther back then. He knew Luther’s weakness and how to persuade him to do something drastic.Such as betraying his good friend and taking sole ownership of the hotel.“He requested to see me when Mason was ill,” Luther began. “Back then, Emilia was pregnant, and our financial situation was very worrying. I had to think about our unborn child and our future. I needed the money.”He sighed, his voice turning pained.“Mr. Sterling told me that if I was only a partner, it wouldn’t benefit me at all,” he said quietly. “With our business just starting, there wasn’t a guarantee yet that it would succeed, especially not without his help. So he wanted me to take sole ownership and to prevent someone else from sharing the profits with me.”“He wanted you to… betray my father?” Hailey said as the realization dawned on her.No…
“His… final words?” Hailey said slowly.Luther nodded. “I told him that I would do anything to make it up to him. I begged him for forgiveness and asked him not to die on me yet.“But I knew. We both knew. He was running out of time. He was already bleeding out, and the life was slowly fading from his eyes,” he whispered.Hailey felt a stray tear run down her cheek. “Oh… father…” she murmured.“I can still remember the sound of his strangled voice as he told me what he wanted from me,” Luther said quietly. “He asked me… to take care of his wife and his newborn daughter.”Hailey felt a lump rise in her throat. “He… did that?”“Yes. At that time, Nina… Mason’s wife, and your biological mother… She had already given birth to you and was unconscious at the hospital, resting,” Luther said. “And I… I never knew. It turned out that Mason, after recovering from his illness, accompanied his wife during the last days of her pregnancy before returning to the hotel and then finding out the truth.