As they were leaving, lody Sumrs quietly pulled Lucy White aside and told her what had just happened upstairs.
"A mont ago, Bernard Simmons was... caught red-handed in his room by Mrs. Walsh and Zane Simmons. Soone sent Zane the surveillance footage of Joanne White leading soone there. He’s investigating it now, so you need to be prepared."
Perhaps because the suspense was finally over, Lucy White’s reaction wasn’t the panic and confusion lody Sumrs had anticipated.
The color drained slightly from her face, and she gave a small nod, her voice trembling as she replied, "I understand..."
Lucy White couldn’t quite describe how she felt. She had been drowning in despair ever since Joanne White took that call. Now that the scandal had finally broken, she felt a strange sense of relief.
lody Sumrs gently patted Lucy White’s shoulder. "Don’t worry," she said comfortingly. "I asked Zane Simmons. He told he wouldn’t take it out on you."
Lucy White froze for a mont at her words, then gave a small nod and a soft "Mm," though her expression showed little joy.
’Now that this is out in the open,’ Lucy White thought, ’the Simmonss will definitely throw and Joanne out.’
Lucy White was an orphan, currently living with her paternal uncle’s family—Joanne White’s parents. With Joanne in trouble, her parents certainly wouldn’t let Lucy off the hook.
When Lucy had accompanied Joanne to The Nimbus Hotel, Mrs. White had sternly and repeatedly warned her that she absolutely had to take good care of Joanne.
Mrs. White had said that if anything happened to Joanne or the baby in her womb, Lucy would pay for it with her life.
’Now that this has happened,’ Lucy thought, ’what kind of life will be waiting for when I get back to the White Family?’
At this thought, Lucy White sighed in despair.
lody Sumrs saw Lucy’s worry and said, "Rember what I told you. If you run into any trouble at all, call anyti."
’I did just buy a few extra apartnts,’ lody thought. ’If Lucy has nowhere to go, I can arrange a new place for her.’
Lucy White looked at lody Sumrs, her eyes shining with gratitude. She gave a slight nod and answered, "Okay..."
******
When he received Ronan Rhodes’s ssage, Roman Rhodes was handling a tricky case.
By the ti he finished up and rushed to The Nimbus Hotel, the banquet was winding down, and lody and Winnie Sumrs had already left.
So Roman Rhodes charged straight to Mr. Rhodes’s suite. The mont he walked in, he demanded anxiously, "Dad, what on earth are you trying to do?"
Seeing his son’s attitude, Mr. Rhodes was so angry he slamd down the small curio he was holding.
His eyes went wide as he yelled at Roman, "What did I do?! You barge in here glaring at ! Do you think I’ve lived too long? Are you trying to give a heart attack?"
Roman rubbed the bridge of his nose, exasperated. It was no wonder he was anxious. He’d been trying everything to court Winnie Sumrs, carving out ti every day to talk with her and get closer.
Thanks to his relentless efforts, Winnie was finally starting to see him as a friend. He was terrified that his father would do sothing to ss it all up.
Roman sighed in resignation. "Dad, I’m begging you, please. I have my own plan. Just focus on your health and stay out of my business!"
This only made Mr. Rhodes angrier.
He grabbed his cane from beside him, rapped it sharply on the floor, and retorted, "How have I ddled? I t her once and we chatted for a few minutes! I didn’t say a single word more than that!"
He’d t her once, exchanged a few words, and had even given away the jade pendant his late wife had left him.
The more Mr. Rhodes thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. He glared at Roman and said, "And you have the nerve to bla ? You tell nothing, you hide everything from , so I’m not even allowed to find a way to take a look for myself? Roman, am I still your father? Or did you just spring out of a rock sowhere?!"
"Alright, alright, you’re right. It was my fault, I was wrong," Roman said, defeated. "But you’ve t her now, so can you please stay out of it from now on?"
Mr. Rhodes snorted. "You wouldn’t let find soone for you, insisted on doing it yourself, and this is the woman you co up with?" he said with a frown. "...Look at yourself, and then look at her. Do you really think you two are a suitable match?"
Roman replied, "You know, now that you ntion it, I do agree we’re not a suitable match..."
A glint appeared in Mr. Rhodes’s eyes. Just as he was about to speak, Roman continued—
"I’ve been alive for over forty years. I’ve seen plenty of n more exceptional than , but I’ve honestly never t a single woman more exceptional than her. When I think about it that way, I’m not good enough for her. I’m the one who’s reaching."
Over the course of their ti together, Roman had slowly co to learn Winnie Sumrs’s life story.
Winnie was born in a small mountain village to farr parents. Her father died young, and her mother raised her and her four siblings all on her own.
Through her own hard work, Winnie educated herself and started a business. After getting married, she supported her family single-handedly. And despite an unhappy marriage, she had the resolve to take her daughter and escape that quagmire.
She had no one to give her a leg up. All on her own, she started from scratch and built a million-dollar fortune, bought her daughter a ho in a good city school district, and even leased a mountain forest to start fisheries and farming operations.
Society doesn’t offer won many opportunities to begin with. The fact that Winnie had gotten this far on her own efforts left Roman in genuine awe of her.
She was gentle on the outside but had a will of steel. Despite having no formal training, she was a better shot than many professionals. She was capable of killing her ex-husband with a Crossbow, landing a single arrow right through the heart and lungs. She also remained calm in the face of danger, saving him from Kenneth Adler. It was a testant to her incredible natural talent and ntal fortitude.
Mr. Rhodes frowned at his son’s words. "What nonsense is this! She’s in her forties, and she’s divorced! And you want to be with soone like that?"
Roman looked genuinely confused. "What’s that supposed to an? What’s wrong with a second marriage? Eva Lowell, Zenobia—they were both on their second marriages. Did that stop them from leaving their mark on history? Even people in ancient tis didn’t care about this. Emperors married divorcees! You’re being too old-fashioned, Dad. You should try learning from the ’progressive’ ideas of feudal society!"
"Besides, I’m in my forties too, aren’t I? If you ask , she’s actually too young. It would be better if she were a few years older. n have an average life expectancy that’s five years shorter than won’s. If she were five years older than , it’d be perfect. That way, we could leave this world around the sa ti, and neither of us would have to leave the other behind."
Mr. Rhodes slamd his hand on the table. "What bullshit are you spouting now! She’s already considered a high-risk pregnancy at forty! If she were any older, wouldn’t she be risking her life just to have a child?"
Roman quickly waved his hands in dismissal. "Oh, give a break, Dad. I have no desire to raise another child. Raising Ronan was exhausting enough... In my opinion, it’s best if we don’t have any kids. I can just go get a vasectomy."
At this, Mr. Rhodes’s hands began to shake with rage. He pointed a trembling finger at Roman. "You... You... Are you trying to be the death of ? If you don’t have another child, what about your future?"
Roman sighed at the sight. He tried to calm his father down while saying, "That’s enough, Dad. Let’s not talk about this anymore... It’s her body, her uterus. Two n like us have no right to stand here and discuss whether or not she should have a child. If she wants to, she will. If she doesn’t, she won’t. The choice is hers and hers alone!"
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