Chapter 5: Shattered Alliances

“Lillian, go check him out for me. See what kind of person he is.”

So Lillian went, and met Carter.

“Quinn, do you wonder why I fell in love with Carter?”

“The first time I met him was actually when I was sixteen. After you disappeared, I was tortured for a while before being sent home. I was timid and weak, bullied, and could only endure, calling your name in my heart every day, comforting myself that if I endured, it would pass.”

Until she was locked in a dark storage closet.

Because of her childhood kidnapping, she was terrified of the dark.

She cried. Screamed for help. Pounded on the door until her hands were swollen. No one heard. No one came.

Even I was gone.

Until Carter followed the sound and smashed open the door.

He came in against the light, like a savior. In the darkness, he smiled at her and said, “Crying won’t solve the problem.”

This memory was one of her rare moments of warmth. A faint, dreamy smile appeared on her lips as she told me:

“Quinn, do you know? That cramped trunk has always been the abyss in my nightmares.”

“But when Carter opened the door and reached out to me, telling me not to be afraid, it felt like he crossed eight years of time and rescued the eight-year-old me from that trunk.”

After that, she searched for him, but by the time she learned his name, he had already gone abroad.

Until years later, at the board meeting.

She stood outside, staring in a daze at the tall man by the window. When he turned around, his familiar features overlapped with her memories. He smiled and reached out, “You must be Lillian Avery. I’m Carter Ellison. Welcome.”

He didn’t remember her. Didn’t remember that day, or the rescue, or anything.

Outside, new high-rises reflected dazzling sunlight. Lillian stared at him, then smiled, gentle and reminiscent, “Hello, Carter. I’m Lillian.”

“I’ve been looking for you, waiting for you, all this time.”

She never told him. Carter would never know.

I asked, “But your relationship doesn’t seem very harmonious.”

Lillian sighed, “I used the wrong method, Quinn. My childhood taught me to hate, but no one taught me how to love—except you. No one has ever loved me, so I don’t understand.”

So, right from the start, she did what she did best—made a deal.

That board meeting showed her—Carter was surrounded. Self-serving execs, board members eyeing the company, relatives sniffing around for a piece.

But Carter kept his cool. During the heated board meeting, he stayed silent. When the directors started quarreling over profits, he ‘accidentally’ knocked his glass to the floor.

The glass hit the floor with a sharp crack. Carter looked up, deadpan: “Why’d you all stop fighting?”

He raised his head, smiled faintly, and swept his gaze over everyone. The noisy room went pin-drop silent.

Only Lillian sat opposite, smiling at him when their eyes met.

Even then, he had it. Calm, sharp, unflappable. Give him a few years, and he’d own the place.

Afterward, in the empty meeting room, Lillian stayed behind.

She poured a new glass of water, set it beside him, and when he looked up in surprise, she smiled and proposed, “Carter, let’s talk business, shall we?”

A business marriage.

Lillian said, “Let’s get married. If you can’t hold onto the Ellison family, I’ll help you.”

The offer was tempting, but Carter shook his head.

“Miss Avery, I don’t intend to use marriage as a bargaining chip. If I marry, I want it to be for love, not for business.”

His refusal didn’t make Lillian angry. If anything, she liked him more for it.

After that, she appeared by Carter’s side several times, always when he was at his lowest. Each time, he politely and distantly rejected her.

Until one day, when the banks were breathing down his neck and he couldn’t scrape together enough cash.

It was pouring rain. After dinner with a bank president, he had no umbrella.

In the rain, Lillian showed up, holding an umbrella over his head, sighing: “My proposal still stands, Carter. If you can’t hold your position, I’ll help you.”

Carter didn’t say a word. Just stared at her from under the umbrella.

Lillian added, “If you refuse me today, tomorrow my father will launch an acquisition of Ellison Group.”

“Why?” Carter looked at her, puzzled. “Why me?”

She looked away and said, “Because you need me, need the Avery family. And you know my situation—a young stepmother after my inheritance, a stepbrother sent away, a father who can still have children. The Ellison family is in turmoil. If we marry, you don’t have to worry about me betraying you. We’re a perfect match, aren’t we?”

Carter believed it, and they got engaged.

If she had confessed her love, he would never have agreed.