"You are truly shameless, Allysa. After dumping me, now you choose to drag along a lowly man like her just to find protection?"The baritone voice laden with mockery broke the night's calm on the sidewalk outside the coffee shop, right as Derek had just handed the sling bag to the middle-aged woman. Derek paused for a moment, while the woman he had just saved—who turned out to be named Allysa—froze in place. Allysa's face, which had been pale with fear, now turned ashen with deep anger and shame.A tall man in a designer suit that looked rumpled and with slicked-back hair walked closer from the end of the street. The man was Edmund, Allysa's ex-boyfriend who had long been known as selfish and frequently used women for his own social interests. Edmund's gaze looked down contemptuously at Derek from head to toe, evaluating the simple bomber jacket and casual shoes Derek wore without knowing that beneath that relaxed appearance lay absolute, untouchable power."Edmund! Watch your mouth!"

"This is your car?” Allysa stared at the astonishingly expensive type of car in front of her.Derek, who had been walking ahead of her and opened the car door, now stopped at the threshold and turned to look at her. “If this belongs to another person, there is no way I can open the door for you.” He frowned.Whatever Allysa was thinking about him, he felt that women jumped to conclusions too quickly when facing a situation.As if knowing what Derek was thinking, she shook her head. “No it just, I think you.” She stopped, feeling that continuing her words would only make her sound foolish. “Never mind.” She stepped forward and got into Derek’s car without hesitation.Derek frowned, and as he got into the car, he said, “Shouldn’t you be more cautious?” His hand picked up the reservation ticket again to read the location where Le Ciel was situated.“Cautious about what?” the woman asked while fastening her seatbelt and sitting down calmly.Derek glanced at her flatly. “About your safety,

"Fae, what are you looking at?” A man sitting across from Fae turned back, trying to see the object the woman had been observing for a moment.Hearing that question, Fae snapped out of her reverie. She then looked back at the man. “Nothing, I thought I saw someone I knew. But I guess not.” She flashed a smile on her face and then went back to enjoying her dinner. “I like the champagne they provided.”The woman's hand swirled the glass in her hand and took a sip, smoothly moving past what the man had asked previously. “What do you think?” Her gaze was fixed on him with attention.The oriental-faced man in front of her smiled proudly. “I purposely chose for champagne to be served at this table, do you know the reason why?”Fae was not particularly curious about that, if anything made her curious, it was the woman over there having dinner together with Derek at a single table. But out of respect for her current dinner companion, she showed interest on her face as a form of good manners.

“Did you just meet Brian?” Jacob’s heavy voice immediately greeted their return the moment the main door of the residence opened.The middle-aged man sat casually in the living room with a thick book in his hands.Like any ordinary day, he had no sensational or overly exhausting activities, he no longer handled work, spending most of his time gathering with friends and playing golf, while the rest he used to monitor his children and other matters. Today, he had received a report about Fae’s meeting with Brian.Fae paused for a moment, taking a short breath before answering honestly, “Yes, I happened to run into him earlier.”She was forced to lie; her dinner with Brian was an appointment they had indeed made intentionally. Over the past few days, Brian had helped her a lot, and Fae never had a specific reason to avoid the man.Jacob looked dissatisfied, yet he still appeared calm. “You don't need to meet him often if you don't plan to have a special relationship with that man.”“I kno

Fae smiled weakly toward him, inwardly harboring a sense of envy at how Derek wisely positioned himself. “Good for you. Still I don’t know what happend with me. Its hard for me to accept who I really was.”That face grew darker than before with her gaze lowered deep. “I don't know whether to feel happy or burdened by all of this,” Fae's voice trembled softly, her pupils staring blankly at the cold bedroom floor.“People out there, even our own relatives, never truly see me as a part of this family.” The expression on her face revealed hurt.Every time they met, every time there was an opportunity, they would turn toward her with sharp glances and begin to judge. They started saying whatever they thought was right, regardless of the reality that it hurt her.She had endured their ways for so very long—ways that sounded like praise yet dripped with sarcasm and put her down. Strangely, she had never been able to fully deny and fight against it.“They still consider me an orphanage kid wh