His dangerous lover

Chapter 2: Rising from the Ashes

In the early morning, the bright and spotless glass scattered light gently across the room. Outside, insects and birds sang their songs while sturdy old trees stood firm against the rushing wind. Their dense branches and leaves simply swayed in the breeze, allowing sunrays to slip into the quiet room.

On the bed, a haggard woman curled up into a ball, breathing erratically as if she was struggling against something. When the beams of light fell onto her closed eyes, her curled eyelashes trembled uneasily before her eyelids suddenly sprang open.

Rose had finally woken up from a terrible nightmare, but still, the fear of drowning lingered in her heart and mind. In an effort to calm herself, she took a deep breath of the warm and dry air around her, absently noting that it had a strangely pleasant smell.

She swept her eyes weakly around her and found that she was in a spacious but unfamiliar bedroom. Although the room was decorated luxuriously, it did not seem to be a deliberate display of wealth. She could tell that even a Nordic oil painting hanging on the wall as an unassuming decoration was worth a lot of money.

"Where am I…?" Rose asked of no one. Her voice came out quietly due to how dry her throat felt. It hurt to even speak that much.

As she slowly forced herself to sit up on the bed, her memory slowly returned.

The electric shocks… the wheelchair… the cliff…

Amber pushing her into the sea intentionally...

She should be dead now, but unless this was the afterlife, she clearly wasn’t yet.

Had someone else saved her?

That was the only obvious answer.

And whoever had done it, that person’s identity was clearly not ordinary if this was the kind of place they had brought her to.

Squeak—

At the sound of the door handle being turned, Rose looked towards the door.

Her eyes beheld a man walking in.

Whether or not he was also surprised at finding her already awake, Rose saw no indication of it.

All she had to focus on was his appearance and general demeanor.

His dark brown hair was neatly combed back. Under heavy brows, he had a pair of eagle-like eyes that were a much lighter shade of brown. They nearly appeared golden when hit by the sunlight streaming into the room.

Both bright and sharp, those eyes also seemed to be the type that could see right into people's hearts. Just looking into them for such a brief instant had already made Rose's heart jump. She was afraid to meet the man’s gaze any further at the moment.

Instead, she looked at the rest of him.

The bespoke suit he was wearing complemented his tall and muscular stature and gave him a commanding presence. At a single glance, it was evident that despite his relative youth, he had a high status. At the same time, however, he did not appear overly formal.

Rose thought with certainty: this man must have been the one who had saved her.

"You're awake," the man said as he stepped into the room. For a moment, he too had been given a pause.

The man's voice had sounded mellow. But though he was smiling at her gently, his eyes also held a trace of indifference.

"I…" Rose tried to reply, but she stopped when the man waved his hand and a uniformed house staff pushed a dining cart past the doorway.

"You’ve been in a coma,” the man continued, approaching more slowly behind the house staff. “But since you're awake now, you should eat something to regain your strength."

The man's words gave the impression that he was only making a suggestion, but his tone ruined the effect and left no room for doubt—he was actually giving an order.

For now, Rose didn’t mind. She knew that the man was making a good point. Although she still had many questions in her heart, she simply nodded silently.

Once her food had been served right there on the bed, she sipped on a few mouthfuls of warm water, picked up a small spoon, and swallowed a few spoonfuls of the pureed vegetable soup.

Despite the kindness of her rescuer, she had no appetite and found the food to be tasteless.

On top of all the cruel truth she had learned, the torture she had endured and the harrowing experience of falling into and nearly drowning in the sea had caused serious harm to her body and spirit.

This made the Sommers’ once-innocent daughter—the one who used to view the world through rose-tinted glasses—wither quickly.

However, some new shoots were already starting to emerge from the ashes.

Joseph could see this clearly, which was why he felt that he had not saved her in vain.

The woman in front of him might look worn out and defeated, but her eyes seemed to be filled with the flames of determination. Yes, the flames might still be weak at the moment, but soon enough, they could prove nigh unextinguishable.

From the information that his people had gathered, Joseph knew that Sean Sommers had doted on this young daughter of his. Protected and insulated from reality, Rose Sommers had grown up ignorant of what the world was truly like.

Nearly all her life, she had simply been a little sheep surrounded by wolves, clueless and happy inside her bubble.

However, despite the odds, this woman who should be dead after "accidentally falling into the sea" could still muster such fierceness and fire in her eyes.

The man just sat there quietly, but Rose could not ignore him—especially when she felt his gaze on her without letting up.

It made her shiver uncontrollably. Somehow, she felt like a hunted animal, with the man beside her as her predator.

Even though she did not know who he was, his strong and unparalleled aura was comparable to her father's when he was operating in the business world.

Rose put down her spoon and gently picked up a wet towel to wipe her hands and mouth with.

This was a signal that she wanted to move on to the most pertinent topic right now, and she believed that Joseph would understand.

As expected, Joseph smiled and said, "I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Joseph, and I was the one who found you while I was at sea. Fortunately, I hadn't been too late to save you."

Rose was a bit shocked. The name Joseph sounded familiar, but she couldn't recall where she had heard of this particular Joseph before.

Alas, she didn't have time to think about it right now. Before anything else, she had to express her gratitude first.

"Thank you, Joseph,” she said, her voice full of sincerity. “And not just for saving me. You even went through all this trouble to make me comfortable. I can’t tell you how truly grateful I am…” She paused before adding nervously, “My name is Rose, by the way… Rose Sommers."

"I know,” Joseph replied with a small and solemn nod. “You are Sean Sommers’ daughter." He also paused. "I am deeply sorry about what happened to your parents. Your father… although we were business competitors, I admired him very much. It was truly unfortunate that…"

When Joseph shook his head in regret and didn’t continue, Rose thought, I see… So that’s who you are… You were my dad's business rival…

That explained why she found his name familiar. In front of her, her father would only ever mention the names of people he deemed worthy of his respect, even if it was only grudging sometimes.

Despite also being praised by such a person, her father had been killed by his own relatives—his nearest and dearest.

Rose forced a smile and said, "It’s regrettable that my father never knew you thought so highly of him. In his place, I will gratefully accept and remember the sentiment."

Nodding, Joseph returned the smile. After several moments of patient and respectful silence on his part, he then steered the conversation to something more immediate.

"Right now,” he began, “there is something else that we need to discuss. Since you have woken up, would you like to call home to clear the misunderstanding?"

"…Misunderstanding?" Rose repeated blankly, unsure of what he meant.

What kind of misunderstanding could there be?

And now that both her parents were gone, who was there left at home for her to even call?

Observing her confusion, Joseph drew closer and handed her a mobile phone that displayed a news report.

The title on the screen immediately caught her attention: "Rose Sommers Death Confirmed, Relatives In Agony!"

Her fingertips suddenly felt cold as she grabbed the phone and clicked on the attached video.

The screen immediately displayed journalists and other media personnel flocking two people while frantically asking questions over one another.

Richard, her “kind-hearted” uncle, was flushed with emotions and choking on his tears.

Meanwhile, Amber—his wife and Rose’s “aunt” who had mercilessly pushed her off the cliff—also appeared to be sad as she held on to him in support.

However, when Amber looked at the camera with a mournful expression, Rose saw a hint of laughter and malicious glee in her eyes.

As blood rushed to her head, Rose dropped the phone from her shaking hands.

"Those shameless bastards!" she exclaimed. With her eyes red, her voice sounded broken when she continued to shout, "They’re nothing but murderers!"

“…Do you have proof?”

When the man beside her asked that question in a slightly sarcastic tone, it caused Rose to freeze.

The rage and madness gradually faded from her expression, and she deflated as more tears streamed down her cheeks.

She despised herself for having been so useless, for not discovering the truth sooner, and for being too late to do anything. She had no evidence at all of what she was accusing her aunt and uncle of doing. There was only that brief conversation she had with Amber where she had actually admitted to committing her parents’ murders—her and her husband both.

However, she didn’t even have a recording of it to serve as evidence, only what had been engraved in her mind. It would just be her word against those lying bastards.

She really should have known sooner.

When she had tried to suggest before that her parents’ deaths be reinvestigated by the police, she had immediately been deemed an irritating hindrance by Amber, who had then forcefully placed her in a mental institution.

That was what had first tipped Rose off about Amber’s involvement in her parents’ death.

But back then, she truly thought Amber was only scheming on her own. She never would have suspected that her own uncle had been working with her all along.

How could she have?

Amber was unrelated to her by blood, but Richard was her uncle—her father’s brother.

He wasn’t supposed to be capable of doing his family any harm…

How wrong she turned out to be.

Later, she herself had almost been killed by Amber, likely with Richard’s blessing. And now, she could only watch as these people pretended to be compassionate while announcing her supposed death—just as they had done with her father and mother before her.

Rose regretted her lack of action. Not only should she have done more when she still could, but she also shouldn’t have let her aunt and uncle manipulate the facts and deceive everyone, particularly herself.

Even now, no one else even seemed to suspect that her parents should not have suffered such a tragedy—that it was these two beasts who had caused their untimely deaths.

How could they have succeeded so thoroughly in all of their evil plans?

It was so unfair…

Rose's frail body trembled, and her hoarse voice as she let out sobs of pure anguish was barely audible.

However, her determination soon won out against her other emotions.

When she finally raised her head and forced her tears to stop, her expression made it clear that a storm was now brewing inside her.

"I won’t let them get away with this…” she said, her blazing eyes looking into the distance but seeing nothing except revenge. “I will not let them get their filthy hands on my father’s company. They have no right to benefit from what they didn’t rightly earn! I swear on my f*****g life, I will expose them and get justice!"

Joseph slowly raised his eyebrows, once again surprised by the woman before him.

Rose, who was once seen by the world as pampered, spoiled, indecisive, and unable to take action, had proven everyone wrong. After "accidentally falling into the sea," she still had the will to carry on. After learning that her loved ones had been murdered, she might have shed tears, yes, but she also knew how to grit her teeth in determination.

Rose had not only retained her spirit but also emerged stronger in adversity. Joseph wondered if his men had mistakenly given him false information about her.

The Rose Sommers he was looking at, after all… she was actually quite a remarkable woman.