Ste went to Skyler''s study.


    "How are your grandparents?" Skyler asked.


    "They''re still quite robust," Ste replied.


    "And you''ve met your uncles?"


    "I have."


    "I imagine you''ve seen the room where your mother used to live?" Skyler pressed.


    Ste nodded.


    "Star," Skyler began, "I don''t know if you noticed, but your mother''s vi is in the most remote part of the entire Cameron estate. They might have only had one daughter, but that family has always been a textbook case of patriarchal bias. Nora was brilliant from a young age, leagues ahead of her mediocre brothers. But no matter how exceptional she was, her parents turned a blind eye. They refused to invest in her, refused to give her any of the family''s resources or shares."


    A cynical smile touched Skyler''s lips. "And what was the result? Her three brothers werepletely ipetent. A few years after inheriting the business, they nearly ran the Cameron enterprise into the ground. And even then, her parents expected Nora to prop up her three useless brothers. They prized their sons above all else, yet in the end, they relied on a woman to carry three men.


    "During those years I was presumed lost at sea, Nora had a hard time raising the children alone. Not only did the Camerons refuse to help, but when they saw the Williams family struggling, they cut ties with herpletely. Later, when The Williams Group started to recover, they had the audacity toe back and demand shares."


    Skyler let out a cold snort. "Star, do you know why Nora and I got married in the first ce?"


    "Why?" Ste asked.


    "The Cameron''s just wanted to marry her off. Any rich heir would do-they didn''t care about his character. It è was all about the money. Some of them were old enough to be her father." He paused for a moment. "The truth is, at the time, I had a first love. But because her family background wasn''t good enough, your grandparents were against it. This wasn''t exactly a secret in our circles. One day, Nora came to me and proposed a marriage of convenience. She said, she wouldn''t interfere with my first love, that we would each get what we wanted from the arrangement. Her only conditions were that I have no illegitimate children and that the future heir had to be hers. I thought about it for a few days and agreed."


    Ste''s expression remained unchanged. It was a marriage alliance, a merger of interests, not a union of hearts.


    The world wasn''t ck and white. If


    vasn''t


    Nora wasn''t getting love from Skyler,


    she would demand power and


    status. She didn''t love him, but she


    wouldn''t tolerate anyone who threatened her position as Mrs. Williams or produced an illegitimate child to challenge her interests. You had to get something out of the deal-either the man or the money.


    Nora wanted the benefits and treated Skyler as a business partner, a means to produce an heir.


    As Skyler recounted his history with Nora, a nostalgic look crossed his face, his eyes a swirling mix ofplex emotions-admiration, affection, regret. "Your mother said she wouldn''t meddle with my first love, but she asked that I


    "asked that I not be too grant about it, as it would make her look bad publicly. What I didn''t expect was that my so-called first love would go behind my back to provoke Nora, twisting the truth to deceive me!"


    When he spoke of his first love now, there was no warmth left in his eyes, only icy disgust. "After she caused Nora to go into prematurebor, she showed no remorse. She even plotted to kill Jonathan to get her hands on the Williams family fortune. How could I let her continue?!"


    Over the years of conflict between the two women, Skyler had gradually seen his first love''s true, malicious nature and, at the same time, realized just how brilliant and dazzling Nora was. He starteding home more often, found himself uncontrobly drawn to her, and slowly, inevitably, fell in love.