Avalon visited me as I was leaving the hospital.
“Thank goodness you’re okay, Summer! Sorry, I should’ve been with you that night. I shouldn’t have let you leave alone. I only got to know that the female staff member was a human trafficker when I saw the news. I nearly got you killed. I’m so sorry!”
As Avalon apologized, tears welled up in his eyes.

“It’s okay. You didn’t expect it. But let’s not go to such a remote place for work again—”
Before I could finish speaking, Zachary dragged me away.
“You’re still talking about a next time?”
He scowled as he stuffed me into the car.
Avalon wanted to talk to me, but he shrank back at Zachary’s intense glare.
I could only send him a message to offer an explanation.

Zachary did not say a single word while he drove.
After he sent me back home, he took my phone away. “Take a shower.”
“Uncle, my phone…”
I could not tell what he was thinking.

I only knew that he was going to lecture me for a long time over this.
Whenever I made a mistake in the past, no matter how tiny it was, Zachary would go on and on about it.
Since I got into danger because of my job with Avalon, Zachary’s trust toward him plummeted.
Besides, he never liked Avalon to begin with.
As such, I was worried that Avalon’s studio was going to be affected.
Would Zachary cause him trouble?
When I exited the shower, I found my phone on the tea table.
Zachary had not done anything to my phone, so I sighed in relief.
However, Avalon had sent me a message. [I’m shutting down the studio. You don’t have to come anymore.]
I was puzzled. [Why?]
[For personal reasons. I don’t want to run the studio anymore. Rest well. I’ll visit you later.]
How could he just shut down his perfectly running studio just like that?
Avalon said that running a studio was his dream, and he said that he would never give up halfway through.
There was only one reason for him to suddenly shut his studio down.
I barged into Zachary’s room, and he was on the phone.
After he hung up, he looked at me. “What is it?”
“Did you force Avalon to shut his studio down?”
Zachary did not answer.
“Why did you do that?”
“If he doesn’t want to open a studio anymore, I’ll open one for you. You can still do what you love.”
I hated him acting this way.
He always made use of his power to make others obey him.
“Avalon didn’t do anything wrong. Why did you do that to him?”
“Summer, that job almost cost you your life. Can’t you just stay by my side and listen to me?”
I felt sad as I stared at him. “Why do you keep wanting to control my life? I don’t need you controlling me. I’m an adult. I can be in charge of my own future.”
“Summer, you’ve talked back to me multiple times because of him.”
“I promise you that I won’t work at his studio anymore. Could you not stop making his life hell?”
“Really?”
I nodded. “I won’t go. I’ll listen to you.”
Zachary smiled. It was a rare sight. “Good.”
Soon, Avalon’s studio resumed operations, but I did not bother him anymore.
His pieces had become much better lately, and he even won an award.
I was happy for him.
My ex-colleagues spoke about throwing a celebration party for him.
[Come along, Summer. It’s been a long while since we met.]
I agreed to go, but I dared not inform Zachary about it. The time and venue were both huge taboos to him.
The party would be held at a hotel at midnight.
So, I decided to pull a little trick.