The next day, Ste opened her email and was surprised to find another message from ''L.''


    She assumed it was another painting he wanted to share, but when she opened it, she found only a single question.


    "Is being drawn to strength right or wrong?"


    Ste thought for a moment before typing her reply: "Between ugliness and beauty, human instinct chooses beauty. Between an exceptional partner and an ordinary one, most people will choose the former. At its core, being drawn to strength is just the pursuit of something better. There''s nothing inherently wrong with it."


    L must have been at hisputer, because a reply came back almost immediately.


    "What if the strong person you admire is no longer strong? Can you just abandon them without guilt and pursue someone else who is?"


    From the words on the screen, Ste sensed confusion and uncertainty. She guessed that L was facing a major life decision.


    She replied: "People who reach the summit will inevitably experience the fall. The admiration in ''admiring the strong'' implies affection. If you abandon someone simply because they''ve lost their power and immediately move on to the next powerful person, that''s not admiring strength. That''s just being opportunistic and fickle."


    This time, the reply took much longer.


    "Perhaps... what the person likes isn''t the individual, but just the concept of ''strength'' itself?"


    Ste wrote: "A person''s strength is


    a part of who they are. If you were attracted to anyone with power, would you admire a ruthless, depraved crime lord just because they''re influential? A cartel boss from the southern territories wields immense power, but would anyone truly admire them? There are many kinds of strength, and not all of them are admirable. If someone was drawn to you when you were strong, it means there was something about you, personally, that was worth


    admiring."


    Leonard stared at the text on the screen, lost in thought. Inexplicably, those few short paragraphs soothed his increasingly agitated heart. The things that had been bothering him suddenly seemed less important. Summer was amazing. In that moment, Leonard felt that Summer was the real powerhouse.


    ...


    When Jake received the notification from Harold, his face showed his surprise. "What? Mr. Gardner changed the n for dealing with Sellers at thest minute?"


    Harold was just as baffled. Joshua


    had already taken down Karl and


    Israel, and Leonard was


    lover


    half-crippled. Sellers was the logical next target. Everyone has a weakness, and Sellers was no exception. While Leonard''s was Aurora, Sellers''s was... the Burton family''s strict rules. Aurora was important to Sellers, but not. important enough to make him risk his position as head of the family. That''s why Joshua''s original n hadn''t involved her.


    But this new, revised n featured her prominently.


    As Harold exined the details, Jake grew more confused. "Wait a minute. Is this


    n to take down Sellers? It sounds more like it''s aimed at Leonard."


    Leonard may have been weakened,


    but he was still the head of a powerful family, with a mind and cunning that rivaled Joshua''s. Toppling someone like that wouldn''t be easy. It required a slow, patient approach, waiting for the perfect opportunity. Rushing it would be a fatal mistake, and Joshua wasn''t one to make such amateur errors. So why did this new n seem to be targeting Leonard again?