Alexander's assistant's phone had been out of battery the night before and once he reached the hotel, he fell into deep sleep. The next day, when he was awakened by the hotel staff, he started to wash up while switching on his phone. A few notifications came in, and he clicked onto the screen, seeing a call from Isabelle.

Hurriedly, he returned her call. After a few seconds, her familiar voice came through. "Hello?"

He spat the foam out before greeting her. "Miss Davis, give me a second."

He quickly rinsed his mouth and wiped his lips, then spoke politely as usual. "Miss Davis, you called yesterday night?"

"I called Alexander but he didn't answer his phone."

"He could have been on the plane when you called."

"Plane?" she asked.

"Yes, we flew over to Hong Kong last night for a business deal." The assistant paused before asking, "Miss Davis, you didn't know?"

"He didn't mention it."

When the assistant detected the disappointment in her voice, he hurriedly explained, "He might not have had the time to mention it since he ended very late last night and directly after work we headed straight for the airport. He was only able to rest at about 3 am, so he could have been too tired."

He paused for a while before asking, "Miss Davis, are you looking for Mr. Smith now? I can go to his room and get him, but I'm not sure if he's awake."

After Isabelle heard about the schedule of the previous night and that he had slept only at 3 am, her heart started to ache. Hurriedly, she said, "It's okay, let him rest."

"Okay." After the assistant replied, he added thoughtfully, "Miss Davis, when Mr. Smith wakes up, I'll get him to call you."

"Thank you."

After making himself presentable, the assistant headed to Alexander's room.

The night before, he had gotten a spare room key to Alexander's room. After knocking on the door, he waited for a while, and when he was sure that there wasn't any movements in the room, he swiped the card and entered.

The living room was empty. When he pushed open the bedroom door, the strong cigarette smell came flooding out, irritating his nose, causing him to sneeze twice.

The bed was a mess, but Alexander was no longer in it. The bathroom doors were shut and the sound of running water could be heard. The assistant pressed his nose while walking towards the coffee table, the entirety of which was filled with cigarette butts of every length. He opened all the windows to air the room before taking a deep breath. Just then, he heard the bathroom door open.

When the assistant first started working as Alexander's manager, he had nagged him about his eating choices and lifestyle, and even till today, the habit remained.

"Mr. Smith, why did you smoke so much yesterday? How many times have I told you that smoking is bad for health. Even if you can't quit, how could you have smoked so much?"

Alexander remained nonchalant towards his assistant's nagging. With his dripping wet hair, he picked his clothes up, draped them over himself, and started buttoning the buttons.

The assistant continued to nag, but just then, he remember the phone call with Isabelle, so he stopped nagging and said, "Mr. Smith, if you have time, you should give Miss Davis a call."

Alexander paused, not making a sound.

His assistant started explaining the details, "Miss Davis tried to contact you yesterday but since she couldn't reach you, she came to find me instead. I returned her call this morning when I saw her missed call."

Alexander acknowledged his words with a brief "yea" while putting on his suit jacket. Grabbing the documents at the side, he left the room.

His assistant followed after him in a hurry.

~*~

Isabelle waited until the show was over before getting out of bed. She washed her face and then called for takeout. She then went over to charge her phone that was almost out of battery.

The assistant had told her that Alexander would call her.

Isabelle waited during the day all the way until seven in the evening.

Waiting could really wear down a person's willpower. Isabelle was so afraid of going crazy from waiting that she started to tidy up the room.

She re-folded all her clothes, then washed some of those that she'd only worn once, and carried them to the balcony to dry one after another. When there were only two pieces left to dry, her phone finally rang.

Isabelle impatiently ran back into the bedroom. Because she was in such a hurry, she accidentally bumped her leg into the clothes drying rack. She bumped her knees on it so hard, tears came rushing out.

However, Isabelle was not in the mood to check her wound and directly ran over to the sofa. She grabbed her phone, but in the end, it turned out that the call came from Sophia, not Alexander.

Isabelle instantly felt glum. She answered the call, greeting "Sis." She then heard the ear-splitting sound of someone singing. She creased her brows and asked, "Sis, where are you?"

"Izzy? Come out and find me, hurry..." she said in a barely understandable language. She then screamed, straining her voice as she sang, "Do you even love me, do you love me..."

Isabelle held her phone a little further away from her ear, and screamed loudly back, "Who are you with? How much did you have to drink?"

"Just me. I'm with you, Izzy. That's not right, just me alone." Sophia was so drunk, her words weren't very clear. She even hiccuped when she finished speaking, then continued, "Just me, on my own, at the Royal Palace."

Then, without even hanging up, she continued to sing. This time, no matter how Isabelle tried to ask any questions, she didn't get a reply.

After Isabelle hung up the call, the image of Sophia singing alone in Royal Palace filled her mind. The more she thought, the more worried she got. After she changed, she took her bag and left.

When she reached the front desk of Royal Palace, she asked for Sophia and was escorted by a waiter to the room that she was in. The moment she reached the door of the room, she could hear Sophia's heartbroken voice piercing through the air.

She pushed the door open, and the sight of Sophia standing on the table with her head raised high, screaming into the microphone, came into sight. Her surroundings were filled empty beer bottles.

Isabelle closed the door before rushing to her sister. She lifted her hand to pull her down from the table. "Sophia, are you crazy?"

She glanced at Isabelle, continuing to sing. As she sang, tears streamed down her face. In the end, she knelt down with the microphone in her arms and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Sophia didn't shut her microphone, and her sobs echoed through the entire room.

This was probably the first time that Isabelle had seen Sophia cry so helplessly. Frantically, she walked towards the computer to switch off the microphone before pulling Sophia up to the sofa and ordering a cup of hot tea.

Isabelle held the hot cup of tea, feeding Sophia slowly. She reached out to arrange her messy hair while pulling out a tissue to wipe her tears dry.

Sophia had indeed drunk too much, but ever since she was young, she had been training her limits with James, garnering a high tolerance towards alcohol. With just a few sips of hot tea, her mind cleared and Isabelle's concerned face came into sight, the image stirring a fresh set of tears.

"Sis, what exactly happened to you?" Isabelle asked with concern.

Sophia's tears fell furiously and she shook her head. She reached out to engulf Isabelle in her arms, burying her head in her shoulder as she continued to sob quietly.

Isabelle returned the embrace silently, occasionally patting her back to reassure her.

After a long time, Sophia seemingly calmed down. She took a deep breath before calling out, "Izzy."

"Yea?"

When Sophia heard the tender and soothing reply, her words froze in her throat, unable to come out.

She had wanted to apologize but couldn't muster enough courage to do so.

This was about when she was still young and ignorant. At that time, a moment of folly had caused so many complications.

She was afraid that the moment she spoke, she would see hatred in Isabelle's eyes, and that she would no longer treat her as before.

She opened her mouth but did not dare to tell the truth even now. Silently, she continued to hug Isabelle tightly.

Right now, she was confused and upset.

She was afraid that Isabelle wouldn't forgive her and heartbroken by losing the only opportunity to get close to Alexander.

She knew that Alexander liked Isabelle and not her. After two failed confessions, she had coolly found herself another guy, but right now, when she found out that she had lost the opportunity to get close to him by herself, she couldn't help feeling a kind of heartache that she had never felt before.

With great difficulty, Alexander found a little spare time for himself from ten in the morning till five in the afternoon. He found a secluded place for some air and lit up a cigarette.

Halfway through his cigarette, he pulled out his phone and looked at it for a while. He clicked open Isabelle's WeChat, wanting to send a message...

But Sophia was right. The more frequently he and Isabelle got together, the more romantic they became, and the more Isabelle got hurt.

He was too selfish by wanting to get closer to her when it brought her so much trouble.

Last time, her child died in her womb, and this time, would her entire reputation be in ruins?

He couldn't hurt her time and time again in the name of love.

"Mrs. Williams, the vice president of Williams enterprises recently pooled several billions in funds. It seems to be an investment."

"That woman has always been full of courage. She stabilized a large majority of the Williams enterprise's finances."

"I've worked with her once or twice. She seems to be really knowledgeable and a visionary. She's brilliant."

On the topic of Mrs. Williams, some complimented her, whilst others slammed her. In the end, who knew who said it first, but another gossip came to the front.

"Ah right! As we're on the topic of Mrs. Williams, I just remembered an incident. Have you all heard? Recently, the young master Williams and the daughter of the Davis family are talking about divorce?"

Alexander, who originally seemed like he didn't care, suddenly was all ears when he heard those words.

His heart jumped for a moment. Could it be - was Isabelle and James going to get a divorce because of him?"

"Seriously? When was this?"

"I heard about this around a week ago."

A week ago... Back then, there hadn't been any photos taken secretly of him and Isabelle, so it had nothing to do with him?

Alexander's mood slightly relaxed.

"Why did they talk about divorce? The business relationship between Davis and Williams families has been extremely close..."

"It was because of a woman - the granddaughter of Mrs. Johnson. She's currently studying in university. I don't know how she and young master Williams got to know each other, but then the two of them kind of..." Mid-speech, that person shrugged his shoulders and hinted, "Well, you all know. Young master Williams must've fell for her and wants to marry her. Now they're thinking of how to get a divorce from the Davis family."

Alexander, who never spoke suddenly asked, "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. My sister is classmates with Mrs. Johnson's granddaughter. She saw young master Williams going to her school a few times, otherwise, how would I know about it."

"Mrs. Johnson's granddaughter... They're truly a family with three generations worth of government officials. Indeed, a better match than the Davis family. No wonder they're in talks of divorce."

Alexander sat in his seat, listening attentively to every word of the discussion. His expression seemed just as distant and cold as usual, but his heart was wreathing.

"That lady from the Davis family is ever so pitiful."

When Alexander heard this, a myriad of images crossed his mind.

The image of him listening to Isabelle and James's confession through Sophia's earphones... And Isabelle's happy and tearful face when James woke up... In the end, the image transformed into Isabelle's distraught, crying face.

Suddenly, it felt like someone had brutally punched his heart. In an instant, the chopsticks in his hand crashed onto the table, making a "Pa!" sound. All eyes at the table were suddenly on Alexander. Even people from the other tables nearby turned at the loud sound. Everyone looked over with confusion at Alexander, who had stood up.

Alexander said "Excuse me" with a somber expression, then picked up his jacket. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he kicked his chair behind him and strode out.

His assistant blanked out for a second, then got up. He smiled and apologized to everyone, hurriedly following Alexander out.

Alexander walked so quickly that his assistant had to practically jog to catch up with him.

In all the years, Alexander had heard it all at the dinner table; who had gone off the rails, who was financing a celebrity on the side, or who's wife killed themselves because they were abandoned. Whenever people started to talk about these topics, others would sigh along, but not him. He would remain calm and give them no reaction at all.

So much so that even he would start to think to himself, 'ah that's so normal. Don't all wealthy men like to play around like this? Or else, how would I exist in the first place?'

No matter what he thought to himself or how he didn't react in the past, he'd never suddenly erupt in anger when he heard James was messing around with another woman. But right now, he was so angry that he felt like he was Isabelle, the person abandoned.

Yet Isabelle had once told James something like "In my whole life, I will only love you.".

She grew up with James and now was his wife, but he actually wanted to marry another woman.

Alexander was never as cruel as to imagine a day when Isabelle and James would break up and he might have a chance with her. However, now that it came true, he was far from happy and excited, unlike what he imagined he would be; he felt an unspeakable pain in his heart.

"Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith!"

When Alexander heard the calls from behind, he stopped walking and turned his head to find his assistant panting. He said, "Book me a flight, I'm going back, NOW!"

The assistant dazed out for a moment, then said, "But Mr. Smith, you still have a meeting to attend tomorrow. You might have to sign a contract... You can't go back!"

"Either arrange for someone else to deal with these matters, or just cancel the signing all together!" Alexander didn't even think twice about it, and reiterated, "I'm going to back tonight!"

"Mr. Smith ..." His assistant still had more to say. He wanted to talk Alexander out of it, but in the end, the other had already grabbed for his phone and called to book tickets.

Alexander got off the phone and then ignored his assistant's cries of "Mr. Smith". He raised his hand to hail a taxi, got in, and left his assistant with the words, "Check out of the hotel and pack up everything in the room". Then he said to the taxi driver, "To the airport."

The assistant stood outside the car with an anxious expression. He called out "Mr. Sm...", but in the end, he hadn't finished speaking when the tail lights of the taxi flashed. The car started up and drove into the traffic.

The assistant stamped his feet and helplessly clutched his hair as he glanced back at the hotel behind him. Then, he pulled out his phone and called director Wang, who Alexander had originally come all the way to meet but randomly cancelled on.