Back at thepany, Ste took out her phone and saw a message from L.


    "Summer, I remember you once said that you had also been through a low point in your life. Can I ask how you got through it?"


    Ste replied, "I was lucky. I met someone who pulled me out."


    A momentter, another message came from L.


    "Is that person very important to you?"


    Ste was a bit surprised by the message. L rarely asked such personal questions.


    But she didn''t mind. "Very," she typed back. "But not in that way."


    L pressed on, "If that person was a light in your darkness, how can you be so sure you don''t love him?"


    Ste replied, "There are many kinds of feelings. He helped me, and I''m very grateful to him. But I know that gratitude and salvation are not the same as love."


    Lasked, "So you''re saying salvation isn''t love?"


    Ste wrote back, "Feelings are a personal thing. For me, gratitude and salvation aren''t love."


    L asked, "What do you think of people who do mistake gratitude and salvation for love?"


    Ste didn''t have much dating experience herself. She thought for a long time before replying to L''s message.


    "L, have you found someone you like?"


    On the other end of the line, Leonard froze.


    A momentter, another message popped up on his phone.


    "The birth of feelings can be very simple, and also veryplex. It can be as simple as falling in love at first sight. Or it can beplex, requiring a long time of getting to know


    of time to


    someone and the passage o gradually develop feelings. As f?r what you said about gratitude and salvation... If I had very few emotional connections-no family, no friends, no experience with love-I might cling to that salvation. Because that would be the only kindness the world had ever shown


    me. Of course, this is just my


    personal opinion. I don''t know if it


    helps you."


    Apart from her unlucky love life, Ste had many emotional


    connections. Although shecked a father''s love, she didn''tck family She was also good at making friends, with Abby and Antoney Watson, two people who would never abandon her, no matter what.


    That was the reason her heart was so full, and why she had given Haynes and Keen


    so much of what she once thought was love.


    Leonard stared nkly at the screen. He suddenly wondered, was this how she usuallyforted Joshua? Was this why Joshua was willing to stay by her side as a mere bodyguard?


    He thought about how Ste not only cooked for Joshua, celebrated his birthday; and gave him birthday gifts, but also protected him with all her might when he was at his weakest and most vulnerable She had even chosen to believe in him without hesitation when everyone else doubted him.


    He and Joshua were both ruthless people who would do anything to achieve their goals. So why did he end up with nothing, while Joshua got to have so much?


    It was unfair. It was so incredibly unfair.


    Leonard''s fingers, clutching the phone, tightened bit by bit. Under the immense pressure, the phone began to crack and splinter.


    Ste, who had been waiting for L''s reply, was about to put her phone down when another message popped up.


    "Are you this good to everyone?"


    Ste replied, "Of course not. Only to people I think are worth it."