Strewn with Stars, Paved with Her Death

Eleanor Maxwell once charmed a billionaire and won a fortune in investments for Simon Chen, the struggling man she married. He pampered her, bought her a French chateau and shares, and named an asteroid after her. Their daughter Ariel was born with hemophilia, so Simon hired Mandy Smith, a secretary with the same rare blood type, as a "mobile blood bank." Then he fell in love with Mandy, and Eleanor chose to stay.

Now Eleanor is dying of late-stage stomach cancer. She hides her diagnosis and has Dr. Evelyn falsify a clean bill of health, arranging for Mandy to find it. When Mandy accuses her of faking illness, Simon storms out, and Eleanor smiles: the false report will make him doubt every report Mandy brings later. She begins a diary of their years together, to be aged and locked in a safe, and tells Ariel to guide her father to it after her death.

But Simon freezes her card, and Mandy reveals the heavy September snow that made Ariel fall again and again was bought for her unborn child. Eleanor, hearing this, resolves to die a death that will secure Ariel's future.