Episode 1 · Nora, Lucian Ashford, Bianca
Nora remembers ten secret years with Lucian Ashford before overhearing him describe her as an insignificant fling to his peers. Crushed by his words, she chooses to act like an obedient niece. At a family dinner, Nora agrees to meet a suitor. Lucian pulls her into a corridor in fury, but Nora stays detached. Lucian speeds away in his car. Nora returns to her apartment and unscrews her front door lock cylinder.
At a high-society party, Nora reflects on her ten-year secret relationship with Lucian Ashford. Standing nearby with Bianca beside him, Lucian tells his friends that Nora is only a fling who would be nothing without his help.
Nora sits in her apartment and then rides in a car, dealing with her broken heart. She chooses to bury her romantic feelings for Lucian completely. From now on, she intends to behave only as his obedient, proper niece.
During a family dinner, elders introduce Nora to a suitor, and she accepts. An enraged Lucian grabs her arm and drags her into an empty corridor. Nora faces his anger with calm, chilly politeness, offering no resistance.
The confrontation spills outside into the estate driveway. Lucian gets into his Range Rover and drives off into the dark at high speed. Nora stays behind alone on the colonnade, watching his taillights disappear down the private road.
Nora returns home to her own apartment. She pulls out a toolbox and grabs a screwdriver. Working at the front door, she removes the lock cylinder so Lucian can no longer walk inside whenever he wants.
“Nora? A fling, nothing more. Who would take it seriously? Without me, she's nothing.”
“You dare, Nora?”
“Uncle, don't you like me 'sensible' best? What's wrong with being an obedient 'good niece'?”
Nora pulls the dismantled lock cylinder out of the apartment door and drops it onto the floor. She stands in silence, staring at the empty hole. Lucian still thinks he controls her, but Nora has shut him out. How will Lucian react when he finds out she changed the lock?