"..." Ian Shaw’s words left Mika Summers stunned.

The expression on her face turned grim.

Seeing that Mika Summers was silent, Ian Shaw sneered. "Miss Summers, think carefully. See if you’ve forgotten anything. If you really can’t figure it out, I don’t mind telling you exactly what you’ve forgotten."

"Mr. Shaw, I don’t understand what you mean." ’What have I forgotten? Was it my hatred for Tristan Grayson back then? Or my love for him?’

"Miss Summers, you should know how to repay a debt of gratitude. Maybe Tristan was truly awful to you in the past, but he’s paid the price for it. You need to understand something: he’s the one who pulled you back from death’s door multiple times. He doesn’t owe you anything. There’s no need for him to keep atoning for the past." He’d lost the use of a hand, barely escaped death himself, and now he was about to lose LK Group.

’Isn’t that enough?’

"Mr. Shaw, this is between Tristan Grayson and me. It’s not something an outsider like you could understand."

Ian Shaw’s face darkened. Just as he was about to speak, the door to the lounge opened from the inside.

Tristan Grayson, looking displeased, glanced at Mika Summers, then at Ian Shaw. "Ian," he said in a low voice, "don’t you have anything better to do?"

Ian Shaw immediately reverted to his usual playful, devil-may-care demeanor. He gave a few deliberately awkward coughs and grinned. "Ahem, right, of course I do. Well, you two take your time. I’ll get out of your hair."

With that, Ian Shaw strode toward the door. As he passed Mika Summers, he slipped a business card into her hand.

Mika Summers was completely taken aback by Ian Shaw’s sudden change in attitude. When she felt the business card in her palm, a complicated look filled her eyes.

She couldn’t understand what Ian Shaw was trying to do...

Tristan Grayson set Kiki down, picked up his jacket from a chair, and looked at Mika Summers. "Let’s go," he said coldly.

"...?" ’Go?’

"Kiki wants us to go out as a family. You’re not going to refuse, are you?"

Hearing Tristan Grayson’s cold words, Mika Summers frowned, glanced at Kiki, and nodded.

’It’s only for one day, anyway,’ she thought. ’I should spend as much time with Kiki as I can. Once I go back to Austerra, who knows when I’ll return.’

「Vespera Bar」

Cassian Jennings held a glass, his gaze hazy as he watched the men and women dancing on the stage.

They were all good dancers, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

And no one could dance their way into his heart again.

Just then, a woman approached a waiter and leaned in to say a few words. The waiter then went to the bar, got a drink, and brought it over to her.

The woman took a light sip from her glass, then turned toward Cassian Jennings and raised it in a toast.

When Cassian Jennings saw the woman, he simply gave a mocking smile and raised his own glass in return.

The woman wore a bright red trench coat and had curly magenta hair and black-framed glasses. When she grinned, she revealed a set of braces, and the beautiful image was instantly shattered by the unappealing sight.

Cassian Jennings looked down with a cold laugh, lowered his hand, and went back to drinking by himself.

The woman paid his reaction no mind. She took off her coat, handed it to the waiter, revealing the professional outfit underneath: a white blouse paired with a short black skirt. In her ten-centimeter heels, she started walking toward the stage...

The moment she stepped onto the stage, the music abruptly switched to a pulse-pounding EDM track...