Emma Belmont, adopted daughter of the Bush family, gave up everything when Ethan Bush was crippled and cast out by his family seven years ago. She followed him to St. Louis, enduring seven years of darkness as his shadow — taking bullets, bearing whips, selling her blood, even sleeping in sewers to keep him alive. Yet seven days before their wedding, Ethan drugged her porridge and cut her open to extract bone marrow for his first love, Lilia. Emma lay fully awake beneath the knife, and her heart died on that operating table. She broke off the engagement and accepted a marriage alliance with the Winston family. On the wedding day, while Ethan exchanged vows with Lilia, Emma boarded a plane to Los Angeles in her wedding dress. There, Leon Winston — head of the Winston family and the mute boy she had once saved, who had searched for her for seven years — swept her into his arms, vowing never to let her go. Ethan chased her to Los Angeles, spiraling into madness. He tried to win her back, only exposing his cruelty, until he kidnapped Leon and forced Emma to come alone. She shielded Leon with her own body as the blade stopped at her chest. The police arrived; Ethan was arrested. Emma completed her final revenge: an irreversible sterilization — "You took my marrow, I take your lifeline." Broken beyond repair, Ethan was sent to a psychiatric hospital, receiving Emma and Leon's wedding photo that read: "Thank you for letting me go." Emma burned her past and, as Mrs. Winston, began a new life with Leon.