Angela wasn’t someone who smoked before.

She’d always been bright, beautiful, and effortlessly outstanding—the kind of girl who naturally drew all the light in the room.

It was her parents’ deaths that shattered her so deeply she couldn’t climb out of the darkness, and smoking became the only thing that eased the pressure.

Donald didn’t fail to understand that, but he couldn’t accept how cutting she had become.

Nina was his only sister, and she had just returned to the country two months ago.

However, Angela couldn’t tolerate her.

What kind of woman had no compassion and no space in her heart for others? How could someone like that still deserve his concern?

Donald turned away coldly and went back to the bedroom.

Angela caught that frosty expression and let out a bitter, self-mocking smile.

Everyone claimed Donald was the perfect husband.

Only she knew he had a temper.

When he was angry, he shut down completely.

And even when he bothered to speak to her, it was only because of that ridiculous vow he once made about her always being right, something he obeyed out of habit rather than sincerity.

That night.

Donald had planned to ignore her, but he remembered their daughter’s request and said in a stiff tone,

“A birthday marks the day you came into the world. It only matters when it’s celebrated on the actual day. She said she doesn’t want to celebrate early this year.”

Angela paused.

Dolly’s birthday had always been special. Every year, Angela celebrated three days in advance, tailoring everything to her preferences and granting as many wishes as she could.

Dolly would always hug her, rare and precious, saying, “Mommy, you’re the best. Thank you, Mommy.”

But not this year?

Angela said firmly, “Nina taught her that.”

“Why do you blame Nina for everything?” Donald snapped instantly.

“Unbelievable. Your parents have been gone for five years. How long are you planning to keep living in that dead end?”

Angela clenched her hand hard, feeling a crushing weight on her chest…

That night, she fell asleep and had a dream.

Angela dreamed of the earthquake in Morrow City five years ago—the moment her mother shielded her heavily pregnant body and was crushed to death by falling debris.

She woke up in tears.

The space beside her was empty.

Donald stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, answering a call.

“What’s wrong, Nina? Don’t cry. Are you in danger? Say something, tell me where you are.”

His face was full of panic.

He didn’t even bother changing his clothes and rushed out in his loungewear.

“But Donald… didn’t you see that I was crying too?”

Angela’s heart finally went cold.

She removed her wedding ring and dropped it into the trash.

…

At dawn, Angela headed downstairs.

Nina, who had clearly been waiting, walked toward her with an ornate covered dish in her hands.

“I’m sorry, Angela. I know I shouldn’t have come back, but I really couldn’t stop worrying about Donald and Dolly.”

Angela gave her a sidelong glance. “And what if you can’t stop worrying? Planning to take my place and live here with him?”

Seeing no one else around, Nina dropped the act altogether.

“So you noticed. Will you let me have him?”

Angela’s delicate features iced over.

“Don’t be angry. I’m joking… It was my fault for calling him away last night, so I made a dessert to apologize.”

Angela had no patience for Nina’s fake sweetness. She was about to walk past when Nina spoke softly behind her:

“Apple rose tart.”

Angela froze.

All the blood in Angela’s body seemed to stop.

Before the earthquake, her mother had clung to her playfully, begging her to make apple rose tarts.

Angela kept refusing, unwilling to cook.

Her father, doting as always, went out to buy some instead.

No one expected the earthquake to hit.

Her mother threw herself over Angela, shielding both her and the unborn child under the collapsing debris.

Angela watched her mother’s body twist unnaturally under the weight, yet she still forced a smile.

She was still trying, desperately, to comfort her daughter.

“Good thing my girl didn’t make me those apple rose tarts… at least I’ll leave this world with one last longing…”

Tears shimmered in Angela’s eyes.

From that day on, she never touched apple rose tarts again.

And the roses in the estate never bloomed afterward either…

“Try one, Angela. Tell me how my apple rose tarts taste.”

Nina smiled so sweetly.

Angela knew that she was doing this on purpose.

Donald must have told Nina where it hurt most.

Angela forced out a single word between her teeth.

“Leave.”

Nina pretended not to hear her.

“From what I know, your parents’ memorial day is coming up,” Nina said lightly.

“As your sister-in-law, I wanted to show my respect. I thought I’d bring these apple rose tarts to your mother.

“Maybe she’ll rest easy after tasting them… maybe she’ll even get a good reincarnation.”

Angela’s fury exploded.

She spun around and slapped Nina hard across the face.

“Ah!”

Nina went down with the dish, crashing onto the floor. Her left cheek began to swell instantly.

Yet she covered her face and laughed—calm and triumphant, like a hunter who’d just snared her prey.

Angela glanced at the scattered pastries on the ground.

They weren’t apple rose tarts at all.

They were strawberry tarts.

Nina had lied about the flavor just to provoke her.

Angela quickly steadied her breath. “Trying to set me up? Then you’ll pay for it.”

Before Nina could understand what she meant, another sharp crack filled the air.

Her other cheek took a full, stinging slap, burning like fire.

Angela picked up a piece of strawberry tarts, grabbed Nina’s chin, and shoved it into her mouth.

“Did Donald never teach you to show respect for the dead? Keep mocking the deceased, and you’ll invite retribution…”

Hearing the commotion, Donald came rushing downstairs, dragging Dolly by the hand.

“Angela!”

His face was dark with fury as he yanked her back violently.

Angela wasn’t prepared for the force; her back slammed straight into the glass cabinet, sharp pain making her brow tighten.

“Donald…” Nina whimpered, eyes brimming with tears, big drops rolling down her cheeks as if she’d suffered the greatest injustice in the world.

Donald lifted his hand, wanting to touch her face but hesitated, afraid of hurting her.

His eyes then cut toward Angela, cold and vicious.

“Apologize.”

Angela held back the pain and met his glare with icy defiance.

This man wasn’t just blind—he was blind in every way that mattered.

He never paused to ask what happened or consider right from wrong; he simply rushed to shield his sweet-faced sister without the slightest hesitation.

She said, “You can both kneel and listen.”

Donald’s expression turned frigid.

“Angela, no matter how much I love you, I will never allow you to bully Nina like this.”

He grabbed Nina’s wrist with his left hand, lifted it, and swung it hard.

A sharp crack echoed through the room.

Five red fingerprints rose instantly on Angela’s right cheek.

Silence fell, heavy and absolute.

Angela could almost hear her heart shattering, piece by piece, beyond repair.

She let out two low laughs, her entire body wrapped in a dangerous, razor-edged coldness.

Then she grabbed Donald’s arm, stepped in, pivoted her weight, and flipped him clean over her shoulder.

He hit the floor with a heavy thud.

Dolly burst into terrified sobs.

“Bad mommy! You hit Aunt Nina and hurt Daddy! Get out! Get out of my house!”

A tidal wave surged violently through Angela’s chest.

Her eyes reddened as she looked down at the man on the floor.

“Donald Turner, we’re done.”

Angela asked Dolly, “Do you really have to celebrate your birthday on your grandparents’ memorial day?”

Dolly snapped back, “Yes! It’s your fault for giving birth to me on that day.”

“All right. Then I won’t be part of your birthday this year. I’m leaving for Morrow City, and when I’m back in a week, your father and I will divorce. You’d better think carefully about who you want to stay with.”

Dolly blurted out, “I’m staying with Daddy! I don’t want you. You’re a bad mom! I want Aunt Nina to be my mom!”

All the color drained from Angela’s face. It took her a long moment before she managed to say,

“Suit yourself.”

Up on the second floor, Nina’s lips curved slightly.

Those two slaps had been worth it.

Angela finally wanted a divorce.

She went to the bedroom to test Donald’s attitude. The moment she stepped inside, tears slipped down her swollen cheeks.

“Donald, Angela left for Morrow City.”

A radiating ache shot through Donald’s back, and he was still simmering with anger.

“Good. She’d better not come back.”

Nina felt a surge of secret delight.

Donald, the heir everyone admired, was proud to the bone.

Angela throwing him over her shoulder was no different from smashing his dignity on the floor.

“But Donald, I’m really scared she’ll act on impulse… and talk about separating from you…”

Donald lifted a brow, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before he said coldly, “Let her. If she wants a divorce, I won’t stop her.”

In this world, Angela had only two family members left—Donald and Dolly.

Whenever either of them fell sick, she always wished she could suffer in their place.

Divorce?

Angela would never have the heart to go through with it.

…

Angela had already arrived at the airport, but her emotions were still far from settled.

She wanted a cigarette, yet she couldn’t find a smoking area.

So, she held the unlit cigarette between her teeth and took a slow, steady breath.

During her six years of marriage to Donald, she had developed two generations of imaging chips for HeartLogic Technologies.

The X2+ model sent flagship phone sales soaring worldwide, turning the two of them into a shared financial powerhouse.

Divorcing Donald meant one thing—dividing the assets would be a nightmare.

After thinking it over for a long moment, she took out her phone and sent a message to her assistant:

“In one week, I want everything checked—Donald’s debts, assets, and all transfers between him and Nina Fox…”

“Ma’am, you can’t smoke here.”

Angela felt a small tug on the corner of her coat.

She looked down and saw a little girl in plain clothes gazing up at her.

Her double-lidded eyes weren’t large, but they were bright and strikingly clear.

Angela frowned and pulled the unlit cigarette from her mouth, holding it between two fingers.

“Little girl, sticking your nose into things can get you into trouble, you know that?”

“I know, but I’m not scared,” the girl said with a sunny smile.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of candy, holding it out to Angela.

“My dad only lets me have one piece a day. Today I want to give it to you. If you eat it, your face won’t hurt so much.”

Angela was startled for a moment, then took the candy from her small hand.

It was rare, almost unreal, to meet a little girl with that much kindness.

With just one piece of candy, she managed to bring a small, unexpected sweetness into Angela’s awful day.

Morrow City Cemetery.

Wearing a mask, Angela sat between her parents’ gravestones, as if sitting beside them again.

She had never found her father’s body.

When the earthquake hit, the ground split open without warning, swallowing countless lives.

Her father was among those swallowed by the earth.

Angela knelt and cleaned her parents’ gravestones.

A cemetery patrol guard walked over and asked, “Miss Bailey, did Mr. Turner not come with you this year?”

Angela replied, “He’s busy.”

He was busy comforting and pampering the “little sister” he raised like treasure.

A sister?

What nonsense.

She was nothing more than a lover-in-waiting.

He raised her himself and couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else getting close.

He wanted to claim her, yet still hadn’t crossed the last line of his own moral boundary…

The thought of the two of them made Angela fear they would taint the very path of her parents’ afterlife.

She said her farewells and walked with the patrol guard toward the exit.

Ahead lay an expanse of gravestones.

Angela looked toward them, her eyes dark.

“Sir, has Dr. Helen York’s family still not come?”

The guard shook his head. “No. I’ve had people watching for them.”

Angela nodded heavily.

When they pulled her from the rubble, she was already on the brink of death.

Helen was the one who performed the emergency C-section to save the baby and even gave Angela her own blood.

But that same day, while trying to save the newborn of a woman who had already passed, she died in the aftershock.

Angela had asked Donald to track down Helen’s family.

She wanted to help them however she could.

Donald used every connection he had, but all he uncovered was that Helen was originally from Northhaven, married, and that her husband was also a doctor…

Angela straightened her clothes and bowed solemnly before Helen’s grave.

When the Memorial Day finally came, she still hadn’t heard a word from Donald or Dolly.

Only Rachel Rowan, who was close to Angela, sent several messages to comfort her.

That evening, the city organized a candlelight vigil at the cemetery to honor the victims of the earthquake.

A wish for the strength to keep that inner light burning, and for everyone to one day find a little hope again.

Many families who missed their loved ones broke down in tears.

Angela’s eyes were red as she wished quietly, “Dad, Mom, I hope in your next life you’ll live long and healthy and still want me as your daughter.”

She placed her candle at the memorial and watched its small glow flicker into the night.

Just then, a video from Nina popped up.

The location was one of HeartLogic’s hotels.

Dolly stood in the middle of a crowd, shouting happily,

“Celebrating my birthday on the actual day is the best! I hope every year can be just like this, with Daddy and Aunt Nina.”

Donald and Nina were standing hand in hand, fingers interlocked, smiling at each other.

Under the shifting lights, the look they shared carried a heat and restraint that belonged to lovers in the middle of an affair.

Angela’s knuckles whitened around her phone from how tightly she held it.

She stepped farther away and pulled off her mask, breathing hard.

Suddenly she heard a child calling for help not far from where she stood.

Angela turned her head.

She saw a tall figure in white striding quickly away, carrying a little girl in one arm.

Because she couldn’t be sure whether the man was a trafficker, Angela didn’t strike immediately.

She only said, “Stop. Put the child down first.”

The little girl lifted her head at the sound, eyes lighting up. “Ma’am, it’s me! It’s me!”

Angela recognized her.

It was the girl who’d given her candy at the airport.

She didn’t hesitate anymore. She tightened her fist and aimed a punch at the back of the man’s neck.

He sensed the rush of air behind him and dodged swiftly, countering with a single sharp strike.

His movement was fast and precise—one hit would’ve left her with no chance to fight back.

Angela twisted out of the way just in time, and their eyes met.

The man was tall and lean, his expression calm.

Silver-rimmed glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, catching the streetlight with a cool glint that made him look even more commanding.

But that edge vanished the moment his gaze settled on her.

“It’s you?!”

Angela ignored the man’s inexplicable words.

Her eyes stayed fixed on him. “Put the child down first.”

He didn’t move.

Angela was trained in martial arts since childhood and had once taken down five karate champions in a row.

She wasn’t afraid at all. She swung again.

This time, the man moved with unexpected courtesy.

He blocked with one hand, only dodging and never striking back.

Angela spotted an opening and lifted her leg to kick.

The little girl cried out anxiously, “Ma’am, he’s my dad!”

Angela stopped mid-kick, stumbling a few steps before regaining her balance.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a pair of well-made casual sneakers step up to her.

The man’s voice was gentle and calm.

“Are you alright?”

Angela didn’t answer.

She looked down at the girl. “He’s really your father? Then why were you shouting for help?”

The little girl nodded, embarrassed.

“I wanted to light a candle, but Daddy wouldn’t let me.”

Angela glanced at the man.

He seemed to be around her age, but his aura was complicated.

He was ruthless and precise when he fought, yet now, with that faint smile, he looked calm and almost scholarly.

He adjusted his glasses in a polite, almost understated way as he explained, “There were too many people. I didn’t want her to get lost.”

“I wouldn’t get lost,” the girl muttered. “It’s Daddy who’s the real problem.”

She leaned toward Angela and whispered, “Ma’am, my dad looks really impressive, right? But he’s actually a super big direction dummy. He can’t even follow a GPS.”

Angela blinked in surprise.

So, that made him a super big dummy.

The man shot the girl a look, clearly not pleased with the description.

When Angela looked at him, he calmly accepted the label of having no sense of direction.

"Yes, I got lost. Could you help us find the way out of the cemetery?"

Angela didn’t respond.

The little girl hopped along in Angela’s shadow, happily introducing herself.

"Ma’am, my name is Sunny, like sunshine. My dad is called Leon Wright, like the word ‘lion’ in English."

She shouldn’t have been thinking about anything unrelated at a moment like this, yet one word popped into her mind:

Tranquil.

Angela turned her head and studied Leon beside her.

The crisp white shirt paired perfectly with the understated black trousers.

With his hands clasped behind his back and his gaze lowered, his calm expression carried an air of detached serenity.

But it was nothing more than an illusion.

If he were truly detached from everything, how did he end up with a daughter?!

Maybe she was staring too openly at him, because Leon looked her way.

His tone was as natural as if he were chatting with an old friend.

"You move well. Forgive me for asking, but how did your face get hurt?"

Angela answered plainly, "Isn’t it obvious? Someone hit me."

"Who did it?"

Angela shot Leon a look. "That’s a question you shouldn’t be asking.

"The exit is just ahead. Goodbye."

Angela walked into the darkness alone, never looking back.

She didn’t know the man behind her stood watching, the warmth behind his glasses steeped in something far darker beneath the surface.

Northhaven Airport

Angela had barely stepped off the plane when her assistant, Annie Hayes, called.

"Miss Bailey, I’ve sent the report on Donald’s assets and the transfer records between him and Nina over the past six years to your email."

"Got it. Don’t shortchange the private investigator."

After checking the files, Angela steadied herself and called Donald.

"Where are you?"

"At home. My parents just got back from Westin."

Donald ended the call with a blank expression, then looked up to see Nina cautiously pleading with Richard Turner at the head of the table.

"Mr. Turner, Angela didn’t mean to hurt me or Donald. She finally calmed down and came home. Please don’t scold her anymore, okay?"

Richard slammed his teacup onto the table.

"Unbelievable! First she hits her sister-in-law, then her husband. If this gets out, the Turner family will be humiliated."

He glared at Donald. "This is your doing. You spoiled her."

"It was clearly Angela’s fault. Why blame your son?"

Yuna Gray immediately shielded Donald, pushing all responsibility onto Angela.

"She’s been riding on our favor for too long. When she gets back, she needs to be taught a lesson."

Dolly listened to the adults, then walked up to Donald and asked, “Daddy, is Mom coming back?”

Donald ruffled Dolly’s hair and told the nanny to take her upstairs to play.

Dolly was completely annoyed. Why was Mom coming back? She only ever made everyone unhappy.

If she came back, she would start controlling everything again. Just the thought of it was exhausting.

Donald felt irritated too.

After their marriage, he kept his distance from other women and only cared about lonely little Nina. He didn’t understand why Angela was always jealous.

Hadn’t he given her enough security?

Among his friends, not one of them didn’t have a couple of women on the side. They all joked he was a strange one for keeping himself in check.

They even claimed that the more a man indulged a woman, the bolder she’d get until she ended up running right over him.

Thinking about it now, they weren’t entirely wrong.

–

Angela soon arrived at Rosewood Manor.

Looking at the exquisite mansion, she remembered how Donald proposed to her right here.

“The moment I saw you at that campus recruitment event, I told myself I had to marry you and that I’d love you for the rest of my life.”

It had only been six years.

But because Nina returned to the country, everything changed.

She couldn’t help wondering if Donald had loved Nina from the very beginning.

But Nina was only his sister in name.

When he wanted to get married, Nina wasn’t even an adult yet, so he pulled Angela in as a substitute.

Angela’s eyes turned ice-cold.

She left her suitcase at the door and stepped into the foyer when a teacup suddenly flew at her.

She turned her head and dodged.

The cup shattered across the floor, but the scalding tea splashed over her arm, and small blisters rose instantly.

Donald’s expression tightened; he almost stood, then thought of something and sat back down.

Sweat beaded on Angela’s forehead from the pain, her gaze cutting across each face like a blade.

Donald stayed unmoved.

Richard sipped his tea leisurely.

Nina looked pleased.

Yuna let out a cold laugh.

"Angela, this is your lesson. The Turner family won’t let you cause trouble. Get on your knees and apologize to Nina and Donald…"

Before Yuna could finish, Angela bent down, grabbed a shard of the broken cup, and hurled it at Donald’s head.

Donald never saw it coming; a shard cut his forehead and blood spilled immediately.

Angela looked at Yuna. "You dare hurt me? Then your son can pay twice over."

She wasn’t heartless; hurting her own husband still pained her.

But the truth was her husband and his family hurt her first. She wasn’t going to spare anyone who harmed her, not even the man she once loved.

"Enough!" Richard slammed the table and jumped to his feet, but before he could erupt, there was a heavy thud.

Yuna collapsed like a bird struck mid-air.

Chaos broke out instantly.

Donald lunged forward, grabbed Angela by the throat, and pinned her against the foyer wall, veins bulging along his arm.

"Angela, you really outdid yourself!"