After obtaining justice for his father, Magon began to improve his financial situation. Having made his father pay for his treachery and deprived him of his entire fortune, the stern son himself was left penniless. Now the former heir to a huge capital barely made ends meet. However, it was not in vain they said that trade was invented by the Carthaginians, and Magon had this ability in his blood. As he often substituted for his father on trips and negotiated for the supply of raw materials, he had good trade ties with merchants in other countries.

Having moved into the heart of Carthage's craftsmanship, Magon was able to observe many artisans and their work on new inventions. The discovery of glassblowing was therefore immediately noticed by him. In order not to lose the lead in selling the first glassware, he organized all the artisans into one artel and offered them his international connections in return for their work. Despite the fact that Magon had no money, the creators of the unique technology knew very well that he was the son of a legendary Carthaginian merchant known for having a good instinct and being able to make money "out of thin air". Therefore, the masters unanimously agreed to this venture. Thus, working ahead of the curve, Magon gained a significant advantage over potential competitors. He unmistakably knew to whom to offer a new product. Therefore, the sale of decorative glassware in a year brought all parties to the contract a solid profit. But Magon did not stop there and continued to expand his trade network by selling bronze products and even began supplying salt, which was expensive and sold at the price of rare metals.   

Magon's finances were getting better, but not so much for his family. Matan was twelve years old at the time, and he didn't understand why his own father was so fond of another man's girl. The teenager observed the difference between Magon's attitude toward himself and Alice on a regular basis. Once, during a family dinner, his father ordered a suckling pig to be cooked. When the dish was served, he personally cut off the most tender part of the meat for Alice. Matan and his mother had to make do with what was left and jealously watched as Magon carefully cut the meat into small pieces for Alice. Seeing that her half-brother was not getting the best cuts, the girl, with her natural compassion, offered Matan a piece of her own. Alice's caring gesture brought back fond memories of Bertine giving him all her sweets. Alice was so much like her mother in appearance and inwardly that Magon deeply regretted that the girl was not his own daughter. Matan, unlike his father, had the opposite feelings. He found Alice's willingness to share with him humiliating. He did not want to accept such a gift from her, so he carelessly tossed the baked meat to the dog, who always lay under the table during the meal, hoping to eat something tasty. This behavior of his son angered Magon.

- Why did you do that?

- I wanted to treat our pet.  

- Don't play dumb. You disrespected Alice by doing that.

- I'm supposed to show respect for a piece of meat?

- For showing you care.

- Did I ask for that? I don't need her concern.

- And I don't want a son with an ungrateful heart.

Angry at his son's insolent behavior, Mahon threw him out of the table. When he was deprived of his dinner, Matan rebelled against his father's actions and refused to eat for several days. By protesting, he hoped that Magon's heart would be moved and his father would come to talk to him. Magon regarded his son's prank as childish and showed no interest in Matan's hunger. Matan realized that he would achieve nothing but physical exhaustion. The teenager had no choice but to clench his teeth and admit defeat.

The girl was trying to make friends with him, but Matan was so angry that he didn't notice. To make up for the incident at the table, Alice asked Magon to take her and Matan for a boat ride on the canal. Her father gladly agreed to fulfill Alice's request, as he had long been accustomed to refusing her anything. Matan, however, was not happy about the trip. If it were up to him, he would never have gotten into the same boat as Alice. As soon as the boat left, the girl took the opportunity to sit close to Matan. But her sincere and ingenuous gesture only made the boy angry and annoyed. Matan was dismissive, but Alice didn't seem to care. As a young girl, she didn't fully understand the range of negative feelings that colored Matan's mood on this beautiful sunny day. Taking advantage of the fact that the boy could not get out of the boat, the girl decided to talk to him. But no sooner had she said the first word than their light little boat caught the oar of another boat passing by. The impact rocked the boat violently to the side. Magon tried to level the boat and twisted the steering oar too sharply. The boat rocked again and more violently. Matan and Alice, who were sitting near the side, lost their balance and both fell into the water. Neither of them knew how to swim. The children panicked and tried to stay afloat as best they could. Magon rushed to save Alice without a second thought. Drowning, Matan saw his father swim past, supporting the frightened Alice. The boy once again swam into the water and began to sink. The last thing Matan saw when he lost consciousness was a picture of his father rescuing Alice and the girl trustingly holding him by the neck. Then the boy never remembered which servant had pulled him out of the water. But it was not his father, and it was not his father.

Matan regained consciousness in his room. His eyelids felt as if they were filled with lead, and his eyes opened with difficulty. Returning from the matte darkness in which he had been immersed for almost twenty-four hours, Matan faintly felt someone holding his hand. Not yet fully experiencing reality, he was sure it was his father. At least he wanted to think so. Eager to savor this warm moment, Matan took his time opening his eyes and simply held his breath.

- Sir, are you feeling better?

The stranger's voice seemed to bring the blurred reality into focus, and Matan opened his eyes. He saw an elderly man standing in front of him, probing his pulse. In spite of his dizziness, Matan lifted himself up and looked around the room for his father, but to his dismay there was no one there but the healer.

Lying on his bed, crushed with loneliness, he was tormented by the thought that no one wanted him. Matan did not even realize that while he was unconscious, Alice was always at the door of his room. Worried about Matan, the girl was on guard duty and was afraid to leave even for a minute. She breathed a sigh of relief when the healer finally informed her that Matan had regained consciousness. Alice rushed to the kitchen to make tea. As she brewed the herbs, she hummed and imagined Matan sipping from a cup of the fragrant drink, a blush coloring his face, so pale and frowning lately. She wanted Matan to get well soon.

Alice, inspired by hope and the process of making tea, ran like a nimble kitten to Matan's room and literally burst in. As soon as she was there, a painful memory flashed before Matan's eyes of his father leaving him to drown to save Alice. And when Alice, with a shy but sincere smile, handed him a cup of hot tea, Matan pushed her hand away with force. After all that had happened, he took the girl's concern as outright mockery. And he was not embarrassed by the tears in Alice's eyes, as the tea got on her wrist and burned her delicate skin.  Alice tried not to cry. Not because she was too proud or too brave. She didn't want Matan to get hurt and punished again because of her. She was about to leave, but at that moment Magon entered the room, suddenly determined to visit his son. His eternal suspicion made Magon very observant. He noticed the burn on Alice's arm and immediately became habitually angry. In spite of his son's weak condition, the stern, implacable father ordered him to be flogged. Gritting his teeth and enduring the blows in silence, Matan realized that he would never get fair treatment. In the moment of pain and humiliation, he made a firm decision to avoid all contact with Alice, to ignore her as if she did not exist. As he continued to watch from the sidelines as her father cared for and showed her undeserved tenderness, Matan grew a real monster inside of him: hatred. His resentment and jealousy had covered his heart with a crust of cynicism that no one would ever be able to break through.

But Matan was not the only one whose hatred of Alice grew daily. Just as the Greeks and Romans hated the successful Carthage, so Arishatbaal, Magon's wife, despised with all her heart the girl who had made her husband so distant that he could not be reached. Matan was often a witness to family scandals, his mother's tears and her complaints about her unhappy fate.

- Why?! Why are you doing this to me?! What have I done wrong, Magoon?! What have I done to deserve your disregard?! - Arishatbaal screamed hysterically.

- You chose to treat yourself this way by agreeing to be my wife," Magon answered her calmly as usual.

- That's not true, I didn't choose that! I chose respect, reciprocity, understanding!

- You're asking me for something that didn't exist in the first place. You knew perfectly well that I had no feelings for you. Then why did you become my wife and now you're complaining?

- I loved you!

- Did you? What do you know about love? We've never even met. No, you didn't love me, you loved your desire to marry me.

- If I didn't love you, then tell me why your indifference - right here in my chest - makes me ache so much that I want to die?

- So die.

- Are you even human? How can you say that to your lawful wife and the mother of your child?

- I was human until my father stripped me of all humanity. And by the way, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have you or that misunderstanding named Matan in my life.

- It was her! Alice! You're obsessed with that girl. If she wasn't here, we wouldn't be a misunderstanding.

- Arishatbaal, learn to keep your tongue in check. Nothing is going to change in your life, as in mine. And no one likes a hysterical woman.