"Where is he?"

Alexander's assistant acted as though she hadn't said anything. "He made me swear not to tell you anything."

Another tear formed instantly, but she continued to stare intently at him. "Where's Alexander? Where did he go?"

His assistant continued to ignore her. "Honestly, I've been with Mr. Smith for so many years and I have never disobeyed him before. I obediently followed his every command, but this time, I can't take it any longer. Even if he is to blame me afterwards, I still want to tell you some things."

Isabelle suppressed her tears, shouting, "I'm asking you where is Alexander? Alexander! Where is he?"

Isabelle shouted out those three sentences before stopping. Due to her loud voice, she garnered the attention of the passers-by, but since they were seated quite far from the others, no one could hear what she had been saying.

"I don't know! I wanted to ask you where did he go!" the mild mannered assistant snarled, his eyes turning red. Grabbing onto the beer on the table, he chucked another large mouthful, stopping only when half the cup was gone. Slouching onto the chair, he shut his eyes for a while. When he reopened them, he was visibly calmer. He first apologized to Isabelle, then said standing up, "I'll bring you somewhere first."

Isabelle nodded. She stood up and followed behind him.

The assistant led her to the top floor of "Lily Pavillion", the room at the very end. He swiped the card to open the door before signaling for Isabelle to enter.

She walked in with Alexander's assistant trailing behind her. He pointed to the balcony, signaling for her to go over there.

It was currently night time, and since there weren't any lights switched on, the balcony was in pitch darkness. Isabelle scanned the surroundings, but all she could see was the stars and the lights from the forbidden palace.

After about five seconds, the balcony suddenly lit up - colorful neon lights flickered continuously from all directions. From them, she could vaguely see a European style dining table and walked over to it. There was a heart-shaped design made from candles on it, and the inside was filled with Bellflowers that had already withered.

The candles had been burnt and were left with only half the stick.

The poles around the balcony were decorated with beautiful flowers that had also withered.

Where was this?

Isabelle looked around curiously. Just when she was about to ask what this place was, she caught sight of the lights in front of her.

All of a sudden, all that was left from the ever-glowing multicolored lights were the warm yellows that read, "Izzy, can I chase you?"

Startled, Isabelle noticed the other flashing multicolored lights on the wall had also stopped. With one glance, she noticed that the pink lights read, "Izzy, I've loved you for thirteen years". The blue lights read, "Izzy, will you be my girlfriend?" , and the largest backdrop was covered in one really long line of white lights, "I am only happy when I'm with you. Izzy, will you accept my love? If you don't, I'll still love you."

For a long time, Isabelle's eyes darted back and forth between all four lines of lights. Much later she said, "This..."

"This is what Mr. Smith had especially prepared for you that night of Valentine's day." The assistant didn't wait for Isabelle to finish asking. He then paused for a bit and added, "He planned to confess to you that night, here."

Isabelle remembered how Alexander had reminded her for days that they had a dinner date together on Valentine's day. At the time, they weren't official, but they did things only people in a relationship would do. In her heart, she had been secretly upset about that. Who would have known, he'd actually prepared all this so long ago.

"He was preparing this for a very long time." The assistant lifted his head and observed the terrace. He then pointed at the withered flowers and said, "He even planned for someone to send you fresh flowers, especially the Bellflowers. He said they were your favorite., and so asked someone to prepare one of each color."

With those words, Isabelle remembered when Alexander had come home one night and pointed at a set for a confession scene for a new movie. At the time, he had carefully looked at each item and rashly asked her if she liked them. Sometimes she would nod, and other times, she'd shake her head. She told him that though she didn't like some things, if the movie was trying to be romantic, then they would be all right. It was that night that she had told him that she liked Bellflowers.

"That night of Valentine's day, he sent you many messages to apologize, and said that he'd wait for you right here. And he waited the whole night. When it reached three in the morning, it started to rain heavily, and I told him to get indoors. No matter what, he refused to go inside. He said he told you that he'd wait for you right there.

"You didn't come, so he didn't go back. He just sat on that chair, like a statue." The assistant lifted his hand and pointed at the chair on the right. "That night, he called you so many times and sent you so many messages. In all the years I've known Mr. Smith, I've never seen him beg anyone, besides you. Time and time again, you were his only exception.

"Sixteen hours. For someone so proud, to wait sixteen whole hours for you... In the end, you still didn't come." When the assistant said this, his tone clearly became accusatory. "To me, those sixteen hours were the most grueling. I don't know how Alexander could withstand them.

"As long as it was about you, then perhaps even if he had to endure heart-wrenching pain, he'd be more than willing to do so and even treasure the moment." The assistant let out a light sigh, and continued in a calm voice, "When he could no longer wait for you, he went to find you.

"He went to look for classmates you were close with, and told each and every one of them that they must contact him if they saw you."

"Perhaps, he really didn't want to lose you, so eventually, he went to find your sister, Miss Davis."

When Isabelle heard this, her mouth opened. Sophia knew that she was unconscious in the hospital at the time, so if Alexander went to look for her, then he should have known about that. Why would he be mad at her then?

Before suspicion nestled in Isabelle's mind, the assistant spoke up again. "Miss Davis didn't tell Mr. Smith anything, so he waited outside the Davis family doors for three days and nights."

Sophia didn't tell Alexander where she was. If she had, would she be able to find him now?

A trace of bewilderment crossed Isabelle's eyes, which later became disbelief. In the end, it turned to pain.

"Miss Davis, the moment you saw me, you asked where he was. Well, actually, I really don't know where he is. I've looked for the whole day." There was hint of disappointment and sadness in the assistant's voice. "I thought that he would be somewhere, waiting for you. From what I understand about Mr. Smith, he's loved you for so many years now, he'd never give up in the last minute... So right now, I've no clue why he would suddenly stop waiting...

"The other day, he called me in the morning to ask me to help him divert the negative news. At the time, he only thought about you... But then, this morning when I woke up, I received this email. I tried to call him but nobody picked up."

Isabelle furrowed her brows, catching the meaning behind the assistant's words. "He diverted the scandal?"

"Yeah..." The assistant sighed lightly again. "Did you really think that someone leaked the scandal about Mr. Smith being an illegitimate child? Mr. Smith has worked the entertainment industry for many years and no one ever dared to leak any gossip about him. So how would anyone come out and leak his background?"

After hearing this, it was like Isabelle had vaguely understood something, and her hand subconsciously gripped tightly onto her sleeve.

She didn't want to listen anymore, but the assistant spoke with a neutral tone, thrusting the blood-drenched truth in front of her. "It was Mr. Smith who personally leaked the information. In the entertainment industry, when bad news gets out, you either call public relations to handle it or cover it up with another person's scandal to divert the public's attention.

"At the time, the public was pointing their fingers at you and saying that you'd taken drugs. There were already quite a few people who started gossiping about you, and the situation was only going to get worse. Worse comes to worst, it would affect your personal life, while as to work in the entertainment industry, you have to have a mental endurance here.

"But Mr. Smith just didn't have the heart to let the power of the internet affect you this way. Nor did he want it to affect your career as an actress, and so he chose to divert the audience's attention on himself to lessen the damage on your reputation.

"In truth, Mr. Smith knew full well that if he gave the news outlet information about himself, then it'd be the same as showing other people his flaws and weaknesses. He knew that other negative news about him would leak out after, but he still did it to protect you. He used himself to redirected the internet's devastating power away from you." As the assistant said this, he smiled, and then asked in a particularly flat tone, "He's so stupid, isn't he?"

Isabelle's entire body trembled at the assistant's gentle question. She took two steps back and leaned back up against the marble table.

At that moment, she realized that there was only agony left in her heart.

It was a bone-piercing, heart-wrenching type of pain.

She never knew just how well that man treated her, yet this was not the first time she had felt this moved. This morning, when she broke the porcelain doll at her apartment to find the letter he wrote for her, she felt just as worked up.

She thought that he loved her, he really loved her...

But she only just realized... that she had understood only one thousandth fraction of the love he held for her.

The man she loved, had loved her so so very much...

Isabelle's tears fell uncontrollably.

The assistant paused for quite some time before he choosing to continue. "Yet, he's just that foolish... At the time, I clearly tried to persuade him to consider emergency public relation counter measures, but do you know what he said to me? He said he couldn't wait one second.

"Back then, he'd waited for you for so long, his voice was unusually exhausted, and he added that I shouldn't worry. In any case, he had been ignored and spurned ever since he was young. He was long used to it, but you weren't the same. You were the only beautiful thing in his life, and he couldn't allow for anyone to tarnish that."

Ultimately, Isabelle couldn't help but start to sob with laughter.

"He always used his own methods to protect you and never hesitated to hurt himself." The assistant felt a tinge of heat beneath his eyes, and quietly took a breath, then continued to say, "He's really foolish, right? But you have no idea, there were times where he was being even more foolish than this."

The assistant closed his eyes, and said flatly, "Did you really think that Mr. Smith bought Williams Enterprise to get revenge against the Williams family's injustices?"

The assistant stood in his spot for a long time without moving, before he finally blinked and opened his mouth to say, "The only reason why he did it was because of you."

Isabelle stopped crying for a moment and looked up in disbelief. With a face full of tears, she glanced at the assistant and asked, "Me?"

"Yes, that's right. Because of you." The assistant enunciated every word and spoke with conviction, as though he was conflicted about something deep down inside. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and put the truth out there. "Miss Davis, the recording pen is in Mr. Smith's possession, so I have no evidence. But it doesn't matter if you don't believe me, I still have to tell you, because I can't see Mr. Smith make himself suffer like that. You don't even know how much I regret listening to Mr. Smith, helping him keep his secret."

The assistant seemed to really be annoyed, judging from how he started to rattle on in a single breath. "Miss Davis, Mr. Smith told me that you know you had an abortion and that he personally signed for the operation, am I right?"

Isabelle gave a light nod.

"Miss Davis, did you know? Someone sabotaged your pregnancy and caused you to miscarry your child."

Isabelle's eyes suddenly shot wide open and her expression instantly changed. "Alexander told me that my baby was lost due to overworking myself during filming, so the baby died in my stomach..."

The assistant didn't wait for Isabelle to finish speaking. He opened his mouth to hit the nail on the head, asking her, "If he had told you that your child was killed by Mrs. Williams, would you have believed him?"

...your child was killed by Mrs. Williams, would you have believed him?

Isabelle was left dumbfounded by the information. She stared at the assistant with eyes full of shock and hysteria.

The assistant didn't say a word. In that instant, the terrace became very silent, the night breeze alone making a sound, brushing faintly by the two people.

After about three minutes went by, the assistant finally revealed the truth, explaining everything without any pauses in his speech. "That night, when Mr. Smith called me, you were unconscious and had lost quite a lot of blood. Eventually, the doctor confirmed that you suffered a miscarriage.

"The situation was urgent at the time, and they needed Mr. Smith's signature to proceed with the operation. After he signed, the doctor told Mr. Smith that the sleeping pills you had taken contained large amounts of sedatives, which caused the fetus to die.

"As for how did Mr. Smith connect the sleeping pills to the swallow's nest that Mrs. Williams gave you, I'm not so sure... but when you were discharged and resting at home, he called me to York Garden. There, he gave me a bottle of swallow's nest and told me to go get it tested. The tests came out positive for large amounts of sedatives."

With the assistant's words, Isabelle's mind instantly thought back to the day she had vomited like crazy on her visit in the Williams family estate. She even told Mrs. Williams that she must've caught a stomach bug. On her way back to the set, Mrs. Williams gave her two boxes of swallow's nest. Auntie was standing next to her at the time, and had added that her mother-in-law was really treating her well.

Sometimes, the person in the situation is blindsided. Mrs. Williams watched her grow up and had always taken good care of her, as though she were really her half daughter, which was why she completely trusted her. Even if the situation was a little fishy, she never overly suspect anything because she really trusted Mrs. Williams.

But now, she realized that the vomiting had stopped only after she ate the swallow's nest. Back then, she hadn't taken any medicine, and she thought that her body had recovered on it's own. At the time, she was especially tired, but not just her, Camila too! Camila was always a night owl, but during that time, she'd sleep particularly early. It was so bad that she even dozed during the day on set.

The more Isabelle thought about it, the faster her heart raced.

It was no wonder that she had used to rack her brain over how she had felt nothing while having an abortion. She even asked herself how on earth was Alexander able to have her undertake an operation without her waking up the whole time.

Now that she thought about it, if there were sleeping pills in the swallow's nest, then she'd fall into deep asleep right after taking them... If too much of them was consumed, then the person in deep sleep would fall into an unconscious state...

Isabelle's brows shifted, then she suddenly started muttering to herself. "That's right... right... then... everything would make sense... so that's what happened... that's it!"

So her baby didn't die from natural causes! Someone murdered her baby!

And that person was the woman who had always treated her like family... the woman who showed her love and care - Aunt Williams!

Isabelle suddenly pressed her hand against her chest. When she went to visit Mrs. Williams to ask why Alexander would ever acquire Williams Enterprise, she did consider that he might have had his own reasons. Yet she had never imagined that a tremendous secret about herself would be the reason behind it all!

So in truth, the only reason why Alexander took over the Williams Enterprise and sabotaged Mrs. Williams's several billion investment, was actually for her and their baby?

Yet the day when Isabelle had found out Alexander had acquired Williams Enterprise, she had even complained to him about it... It was no wonder he was so mad that day. At the time, she chased him for half a day hoping to explain herself, but he wouldn't listen.

She was so distressed, thinking that it was just a harmless thing to say, so why did he have to be so merciless. It was not until now that she finally understood how she actually had made him feel incredibly wronged... Having loved him for so many years, she had actually hit him the hardest!

Panic instantly flashed across Isabelle's eyes, and tears silently fell down her face once more. She asked in a mumble, "Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he tell me earlier?"

The final syllable of Isabelle's question dropped from between her teeth with a sobbing crack in her voice.

"At first, he didn't want you to feel the pain of losing a child, but who would of thought that the baby's killer not only didn't cover up the situation, she tried to save the Davis and Williams family ties after her son woke up by telling you an edited version."

Isabelle suddenly remembered that she had received an anonymous letter with Alexander's signature on the abortion papers on her birthday. It was the same day James woke up.

"Since he didn't think that you and him had a shot together, he chose to keep it a secret." In that instant, the assistant's voice became a little gentler. "What's more, even if he was targeting Mrs. Williams, he was going to use his own ways to treat James well. You don't even know... He never actually wanted to keep Williams Enterprise from the very start, he always planned to slowly transfer it to Mr. Williams... He just wanted Mrs. Williams to taste how it felt to be left with nothing..."

"Also, Miss Davis, did you know? He was about to tell you everything that night on Valentine's day. At the time, he even thought about how upset you'd be, so he considered ways to cheer you up..."

In the end, Isabelle couldn't take the assistant's words anymore and slowly slumped to the ground, sobbing out loud.

The assistant stopped talking. The night breeze swept the terrace, but all that could be heard were the never-ending echoes of Isabelle's cries. She sounded like she was in anguish.

In the midst of her cries, you could hear the repeated faint sound of words "Sorry... sorry...".