Fortunate to Have You This Lifetime

Nathaniel Summers said indifferently, “Ask more about the buyer’s situation.”

He then let Evelyn Willard leave.

Before leaving, Evelyn Willard’s glance swept over the cigarette box on the desk, noticing the few cigarettes remaining inside, feeling smug, and left the study with a smile.

Evelyn Willard and Jade Carlson went out shopping together, buying clothes and jewelry, and Jade Carlson took out a lot of cash from her credit card for Evelyn Willard to spend.

Perhaps because they had a common goal, the relationship between mother and daughter had eased a lot recently, and they were both in good spirits.

They bought many luxury items and dressed up like socialites and wealthy women, before heading to Clearwater City’s most upscale Western restaurant to dine.

After the meal, they went to the beauty salon for skin care treatments, indulging in enjoyment and entertaining themselves until evening.

Evelyn Willard asked the two beauticians to leave, locked the door, and in the exquisitely decorated room, only she and her daughter remained.

Evelyn Willard took out a small bottle of powdery substance and a set of syringe tools from her bag.

“Take them out,” she said.

Jade Carlson also rummaged through her own bag and took out a pack of cigarettes.

—These were the cigarettes Nathaniel Summers kept at home, the outer packaging already opened. Lined up neatly before them were 20 cigarettes from a box.

Evelyn Willard first injected a bit of water into the bottle, mixed it evenly, drew it into the syringe, and then injected it into each cigarette’s tobacco.

She injected a little into each one; the entire solution was just enough for the 20 cigarettes.

The cigarettes became a bit moist, but the beauty salon had a hairdryer, and a few minutes of hot air made them dry again.

Once dried, some parts of the cigarettes had tiny wrinkles, but unless scrutinized closely, they looked the same as before.

This was the method they had been using for some time now to tamper with Nathaniel Summers’s cigarettes.

Nathaniel Summers rarely smoked originally, but he had become more melancholic and reticent recently, and his addiction to cigarettes had grown, with a cigarette always at hand.

Evelyn Willard had experienced this substance, knew its allure, and also understood its cruelty—it had shattered countless families, while Evelyn Willard hoped it would make Nathaniel Summers completely obedient to her and her daughter.

She had never expected Nathaniel Summers would truly marry Jade Carlson.

All along, it was she who had been keeping Nathaniel Summers on the hook, just as he was stringing Jade Carlson along. Only occasionally did Jade Carlson naively believe that her own charm could truly captivate Nathaniel Summers.

What were men anyway? Was she not aware? Evelyn Willard had met too many men; she was thoroughly experienced with their kind.

“The purity is higher this time. If he feels unwell, coax him to drink a few glasses of alcohol,” Evelyn Willard instructed as she packed the cigarettes back one by one and resealed them.

After completing the task, she looked up to see Jade Carlson spacing out.

“Jade?” Evelyn Willard furrowed her brows.

“Huh?” Jade Carlson snapped back to reality, came to her senses, and lowered her head to put the pack of cigarettes back into her bag.

“You haven’t started smoking them too, have you?” Evelyn Willard’s gaze suddenly became sharp, “I’ve told you to stay away from this stuff.”

“…I know, I have it under control,” Jade Carlson replied noncommittally.

The plan of Jade Carlson and Evelyn Willard was progressing silently; perhaps because they did not provoke Purple Summers this time, everything went very smoothly.

Purple Summers also had her own plan in motion.

After school, she went to the home of the governor’s secretary to visit Mrs. Farrell.

Because they had arranged it over the phone earlier, Camilla Farrell had been waiting at home already, and she had also invited her good friend, the president of the Women’s Rights Protection Federation.

“The federation is willing to assist every woman in need; as long as the situation is true, we will intervene,” Camilla Farrell told Purple Summers. “Women’s rights are human rights; even if the other party is a Justice, they cannot deprive women of their basic rights in marriage.”