As Leonel stood in the foyer, listening to the sound of the car starting outside, he couldn't help but reflect. Alexis appeared to have reverted to her former self—the one to admire, the one others couldn't resist wanting to be close to.

And he appeared to have reverted to his former self, the old Leonel.

Without Alexis, he felt empty.

He didn't even feel like himself.

After Alexis left, the servants dared not approach him. Leonel abstained from eating, retreating only to the upstairs bedroom. There, he entered the cloak room and opened the closet door. Inside, the clothes were neatly arranged, and her usual jewelry remained untouched.

Alexis left without taking a single item of clothing or jewelry, refusing anything associated with him, perhaps finding it distasteful!

Even the glass ornament she had crafted for him lay in pieces.

Leonel squatted down and gathered up the pieces of glass. His palm was cut and bleeding, yet he remained numb to the pain.

It was already late at night.

Nova was very worried about Leonel, so she went to knock on the door with the intention of using dinner as a pretext to get a response from him. “Mr. Douglas, how about I heat up the dishes and..."

She was stunned into silence by what she saw as she peeked in. But she quickly recovered herself and ran over to meet him.

"Oh, so much blood!" she exclaimed. "Please come downstairs. Let me go get the first aid kit."

After leading him to the living room, she made him sit down on a sofa before rushing to go get the kit. Out of habit, Leonel pulled out a cigarette. He was just about to light it when Nova returned.

She quickly took it from him and broke it in two.

"Do you want to die?! You just came back from the hospital for crying out loud!" she exclaimed.

Leonel didn't say anything. He simply leaned back on the sofa while Nova administered first aid. "How can you live without a woman in your life?" she mumbled as she worked. “Mrs. Douglas is from a very decent family and she is excellent in all aspects. No matter how attractive other women out there are, they're not as good as Mrs. Douglas."

"I don't think the women outside are any good," Leonel quietly replied.

Nova glanced at him for a moment before asking, “If you really think so, then why are you still paying attention to them?"

But Leonel didn't answer this time. He was just feeling the urge to smoke.

At this point, his phone suddenly began to ring. The call was from James. When Leonel answered it, James promptly invited him to come have a drink.