Love Began with the First Meeting

He walked towards her and sat down on the beanbag. After staring at her for a while silently, he sighed deeply and asked, "Ximena, do you have to torture yourself in this way?" She didn't respond to him immediately. After a long wait, she said slowly, "I'm torturing you..."

Aaron's heart tightened. He laughed at the irony. She was right. While torturing herself, she was torturing him as well.

"Aaron," Ximena said in a weak voice. She was not as emotional as she had been in the moring. "What on earth happened?" she asked as she stared at him with her begging eyes. "I think I have the right to know everything that concerns me." Her eyes were menially asking him to tell her the truth, but her tone was serious, not allowing him a chance to refuse her.

Aaron looked at her with his deep eyes. He was in quite a dilemma-to tell her, or not to tell her. Both choices seemed wrong. Had he ever been so hesitant about doing or saying anything? Never! Not as far as he could remember.

As Aaron remained silent, Ximena wore a smile on her lips. Her smile was cold, and froze at the corners of her mouth. "You can't wrap fire in paper, Aaron. Nothing could be kept a secret forever in this world. What's done by night would appear by day," she said in an extraordinarily calm voice. "Even if you dispose every evidence today, can you be sure that I will never uncover the truth in my lifetime?"

Of course, Aaron could not be absolutely sure of that. Even if Hugo hadn't appeared, Ximena would have found out about her past sooner or later, no matter how perfectly he handled the issue.

Nevertheless, he still chose to hide it from her, because he didn't want her to be unhappy. And he would try his best to keep it from her for as long as possible. Perhaps when that day finally came, she would have started a family with him. She would have their children and him to cherish and love. So if she found out the truth somehow, she might care less about what had happened in the past.

However, all these were his optimistic imagination, while the reality was much harsher.

"Ximena," Aaron said in a voice as calm as the bright moon in the dark clouds. "You know better than anybody else that sometimes it's better to leave some things unheard."

Ximena smiled with self-mockery in her eyes. "I understand that. But I still want to know," she said with so much misery on her face. "My mom would rather not tell me who she really is. She would rather I see her as my aunt... Aaron, do you understand how I feel? When I got to know, what I felt was not anger. It was pain! I am grieved." Her eyes became red and moist. Tears were about to spill over from them.

For so many years, she had been strong and had been eager to have a family even though she always said that she hated her parents.

When she had lost her baby, she had tried to convince herself that it wasn't as bad as she had thought. However, nobody else could understand what a child-what a family, meant to her. That was also the reason why she had been unwilling to leave Aaron. He was as eager as her for a family. She felt the similarity in him. That's why she didn't want to leave him.

Seeing how hurt Ximena looked, Aaron felt his heart ache for her. He stretched his long arms to hold her tightly against his chest. Gritting his teeth, he said, "You know very well that what I'm trying to hide from you is something that would hurt you like hell. Why do you insist on knowing?"

Hiding in the familiar embrace and smelling the familiar body aura, Ximena closed her eyes slowly. In a somewhat hollow voice, she said, "Aaron, although you knew it would be painful for you to know what happened in the past between your mother and your father, you still wanted that man to give you an explanation, didn't you?"

In an instant, her words brought back Aaron's memories.

Memories were like healing wounds; they wouldn't hurt as long as they were untouched. However, once you touched them, they would hurt. If you poked too hard and caused them to tear, they would hurt worse than when you were actually injured. 'Ximena, in order to know what happened to your parents in the past, you chose to tear my wound and feel the pain together with me. Do you have to go this far?' Aaron thought.

His eyes had become darker. Slowly, he said, "It is because I felt the pain at that time that I don't want you to suffer through the same. Ximena, we have undergone a lot of hardships in our relationship. Do you have to add what happened so many years ago as a new obstacle between us when we are getting along quite well with each other now?" His voice no longer sounded arrogant. Instead, it showed the helplessness of a man who wanted something precious in his life, but was unable to grab it with his own hands. "If..." he said, pursing the corners of his lips and squinting slightly, "If I say 'I love you', would that be enough to replace what you want to know?"

Ximena's body, which was wrapped in Aaron's arms, froze all of a sudden. She hadn't at all expected that Aaron would say those words to her. Even though their relationship had been ambiguous, and even though she knew that their ambiguous relationship would be determined once they talked about it frankly, she hadn't expected that Aaron would ask her such a question at such a time. She didn't know how to answer him.

Aaron released his grip on her slowly. Seeing that she looked dazed, he sighed deeply. He said, "You have stayed by my side for all these years. I had never had a long relationship with any other woman before. If I just wanted a company, I would have more better choices and I would not have treated you this well." Ximena couldn't look into his serious eyes. He continued, "Ximena, I love you. Would you give up asking about your past for the sake of my love?"

Ximena's heart missed a beat, and gradually she grew short of breath. Aaron's confession was a big surprise to her. She was completely unprepared for it. He chose to say that he loved her at such a moment when she was in such a bad mood... 'Wrong timing, Aaron,' she thought sadly.

She shook her head. Ximena saw the disappointment in Aaron's eyes, but she could do nothing but shake her head again.

"Aaron," she called his name softly, her voice contained her complicated emotions. When his name spilled over her lips, she felt her heart tighten abruptly. "Even though I found my mom..." she paused, lowering her eyes and sneering at herself. "She is no longer my mom." Raising her eyes to look at Aaron again, she continued, "Even though I found out about the accident that was reported in the newspaper clippings and hated you, I still didn't leave you. All the reasons I gave at the time were lies. The only real reason was that I didn't want to leave you." Hearing that didn't comfort Aaron at all. He felt like his heart was being crushed and he was suffocating. His sight turned blurry. He had known clearly how she would respond to him, but he had still asked her that question. What an unnecessary move!

*

Outsiders could never tell what kind of relationship it was between the two of them, but nobody could step in between them either. At the same time, neither of them could tell what kind of relationship they really had either.

"I will not tell you what you want to know," Aaron said in a low voice. "She will not tell you either." Even after seeing the anger in Ximena's eyes, he continued, "I will try my best to prevent you from knowing the truth by all means." "Aaron!" Ximena yelled, gritting her teeth to put a restraint on her anger.

Aaron shook his head and said, "Ximena, there's nothing you can do." Sighing slightly, he said, "I will send everybody who knows that secret away from QY Island. Being my woman, you are able to do many things in QY Island. So, I'll just have to send them out of this island. But you can't leave, because if you leave QY Island, you will go further and further away from your past, just like a bird who has lost her wings."

"Aaron, aren't you afraid that I will hate you?" Ximena asked in despair.

Aaron shook his head. "I would rather you hate me..." he answered slowly with a sad smile on his lips, "than you being unhappy all your life."