Fortunate to Have You This Lifetime

Evelyn Willard, weakened by years of drug addiction, was always frail. She fell down the stairs, rolled twice, and finally came to a stop at the corner between two flights of stairs, motionless.

“…Evelyn Willard?” Jade Carlson’s voice trembled with fear as she softly called out her name.

There was no response.

In the dimly lit stairwell at night, only a faint light was on, casting a hazy glow around, giving rise to a sense of terror in the illusion.

Jade Carlson’s body shook, whether from the cold or from fear was unclear.

She wanted to go down and check on Evelyn Willard’s condition, but her legs were weak and lacked the strength to do so.

Just at this moment, from the other side of the stairwell, the sound of heavy footsteps reverberated…

Jade Carlson’s scalp tingled.

She turned her head to look and saw Nathaniel Summers slowly emerging from the shadows, his grim face wearing a mockery of a smile, but his eyes were not smiling at all.

“Nathaniel…” Jade Carlson’s lips quivered, “My…my mother has fallen.”

Nathaniel Summers didn’t speak, just smiled ambiguously and tilted his head up, gesturing for her to look above.

Jade Carlson stared blankly upwards.

The next instant, her face turned ashen!

How did she not know that a surveillance camera had been installed here?!

Jade Carlson’s legs gave out, and she stumbled back half a step before finally collapsing to the ground!

Her whole body was shaking violently.

How could this be?

Nathaniel Summers slowly took out his phone, acting as if he were agonizing over something, and said, “How should I explain this to the police? Should I say you were dealing and taking drugs, or that you murdered your own mother?”

“No!” Jade Carlson, as if awakened by Nathaniel’s words, suddenly burst into tears.

She scrambled and rolled over to him, hugging his legs and crying, “Nathaniel! I beg you, please don’t send me to prison! It wasn’t intentional! It was all Evelyn Willard’s idea! I was just too in love with you! To marry you, I was bewitched by her!”

Nathaniel Summers walked over to her slowly, crouched down, and examined Jade Carlson’s tear-stained face closely.

“Jade,” he said softly, “you’ve deceived me so many times, how could I not guard against you? Those cigarettes, I didn’t touch a single one, but you’ve smoked quite a few, haven’t you? How do they taste?”

Jade Carlson stared at him in shock, finding the man before her unrecognizably foreign. From his eyes, she could no longer see a trace of warmth, only a bone-chilling coldness and thick contempt.

Was this still the Nathaniel Summers she knew?

Large tears rolled down from Jade Carlson’s eyes, and at that moment, she finally felt regret.

Why had she listened to Evelyn Willard?

Why did she get involved with drugs?

…Perhaps, she was wrong from the very beginning. If she had been content with her duties in the Prosecutor’s Office, even if just as an assistant, she would still have the chance of promotion in the future, rather than being completely ruined as she was now.

Her life was over.

Jade Carlson was in utter despair, unable to even cry anymore.

Nathaniel Summers spoke to her in a low voice: “Tell me who bribed you, and I’ll let you go.”

His voice was low and seductive, “No one knows you pushed her, and I won’t hand over those drug-laced cigarettes to the police. What do you say, Jade? This is your last chance…”

Jade Carlson had no way out, and Nathaniel’s words were the only lifeline in sight.

Her mind was too exhausted to think, and her heart was a tangled mess.

“The Howard Family!” she closed her eyes, her voice was filled with despair and misery, “Before your marriage, people from the Howard Family threatened me, telling me to find a way to seduce you! To stop your wedding! But you only had eyes for Suzanne Saunders, no matter how I tried to get close, you were unmoved! Without further ado, they had someone hurt you, and when your consciousness was foggy, they hypnotized you… You know what happened after that.”