Love Began with the First Meeting

The slow creaking sound of the door opening grabbed her attention as she turned her head to glance at the door. "You're back!" Molly sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Why haven't you gone to sleep yet?" Brian asked. Glancing at the clock and realizing that it was already 1 a.m. in the morning, he frowned. "You haven't completely regained your health since Charlie and Evelyn were born. You should make it a habit to go to bed early..." Calmly slipping out of his suit jacket, he hung it on the hanger and sat down by the side of the bed next to her. Molly ran her hand gently down his cheek, a loving caress as she gazed at him. "What's wrong? Why do you look so glum, honey? Do you have something on your mind?" Brian asked.

"Why would you say that?" Molly asked him back. Sometimes she wondered whether it was good or bad that Brian could see through her. All it took for him usually, was a single glance to know what she was thinking about, even when she didn't utter a word. Sometimes that gift would become a curse when he'd realize that she loved romantic gestures, but sadly he could not offer her any of that.

Heaving a deep sigh of exhaustion, Brian held Molly into his loving embrace and slowly said, "You only have to know that there is no other woman except you, in my heart."

The moment she heard that, Molly immediately knew that his concerns were attributed to some other woman.

As far as Molly could tell, the only woman that could affect him like that emotionally was Becky.

Other than that, who else could it be? She wanted to ask him about the other woman, but in the end she decided to leave it be. Besides, they had undergone many hardships before they had finally understood each other and gotten married. Considering everything that had happened to them she didn't want to jeopardize their marriage because of some baseless notion.

With these thoughts in her mind, Molly decided to cast her curiosities aside for the time being. Smiling at him tenderly, she nodded and said, "It's late. You should get a shower..."

"I want you to accompany me..." Brian said, leaning his head towards Molly in a meaningful way. When he got closer, he caught a faint whiff of her post-bath fragrance and, all of a sudden, he felt a kind of heady trance that brought a butterfly to nectar. Losing control over his desires, a small tent was set up inside his suit pants in an instant.

Eventually they got into shower together, but that happened only after Brian's primal hunger had its way with Molly's body, multiple times. In truth, he was still hungry for more. However, considering the fact that it was late, he decided to put his desires to rest.

For the past a few days, ever since Molly had known that Spark's left hand had recovered, the two of them met each other every day. When they parted ways in the evenings, Molly always spoke of Spark to Brian. As a result, his sexual desires had been driven away by his jealousy. Finally that had passed. In such a case, when Molly was all his own, how could Brian refrain his desire any longer?

"Mol..."

"Hum?" In her afterglow, Molly mumbled lazily. Exhausted, she was bending over the bathtub and enjoying the high treatment like a queen-Brian was applying body wash for her.

"What do you think about having one more child?" Brian regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth. Considering the fact that Molly was already spending most of her time looking after the twins, how could he want to have more child?

"No..." Molly refused firmly in a lazy voice. "I don't want to divide my attention to too many people." Turning around to look at Brian, she continued, "We don't have a very big heart. If a heart is divided into too many pieces, we will lose the important things while trying to keep up with everything else."

Although Brian regretted asking the question, he was happy to hear Molly's refusal. However, when he learned about the reason behind her refusal, he felt a slight quiver in his heart. They loved each other, but their lives no long involved just the two of them. They loved their family; a family that didn't permit the existence of disagreement as a result of uneven division of love among the members.

Just as Molly was about to turn her back to him, he stopped her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "What you're worried about will never happen in our family. I promise." Brian could never fall in love with any other woman, neither could he have a child with anybody else. Now with Molly, Mark, Charlie and Evelyn, he felt as though there was nothing else he could ask for in life.

*

On the next day.

It was a lovely day in A City, the first of all the days of spring. The grass was soft green that almost had a hint of blue and in the sky was enough pristine white cloud to show how beautiful the sky was. The early morning breeze soothed the office-goers on their commute to their eventual destinations. Ever since Charlie and Evelyn were born, Molly's mornings would generally start with greeting them in their baby cots. Kissing each other good-bye, Brian left to tend to an important matter, while Molly took the twins out to play in a park near their villa. Tenderly looking at the twins sitting on a bench by the side of the lawn, Molly felt a sense of deep happiness from her heart. Compared to Mark, who always wanted to be with his mother when he had been a young child, the twins could be described as independent individuals. In addition to Mark, Charlie was another person Evelyn loved being with. Perhaps that was because they were twins and they shared a special bond that allowed them to understand each other easily. For instance, after Evelyn scrapped her knee by accident, Mark, being the protective elder brother that he was, accompanied her to sit on the bench.

Molly sighed in comfort at the sight of that, proud as any mother would be. She slowly leaned against another bench next to the twins, to rest her back. Tilting her face slightly upwards, she closed her eyes under the morning sunlight and drifted off to in deep reflection. She had not been treated by Brian in the romantic way she always wanted, but she knew that he loved her from the bottom of his heart. What else did she have to care about?

All of a sudden, Molly giggled to herself, blushing in shyness thinking about what had happened last night. The natural glow on her face was complimented by the sunlight.

When she recalled how Brian made love to her repeatedly, and then bathed her later with care, which as far as she knew he had never done for anybody else, she realized that perhaps that was his way of showing his romantic side to her. Although admittedly it was different from how other men showed their affection, his uniqueness was all for her, and her only.

The thought left Molly immersed in peaceful satisfaction and happiness. With the help of Charlie's baby talk and Evelyn's chuckle to brighten up her mood, Molly felt as though life couldn't be any better than this.

However, her peace was interrupted by an unwelcome and observant gaze she had sensed instinctively.

Following her acute instincts, Molly squinted her eyes at the direction her senses were leading her. What appeared in her sight was only a row of willows, whose sprouting twigs were waggling as the breeze blew. Strangely, there was nobody in her sight. Molly slowly sat up straight, while staring to the direction, maintaining a steady eye contact. After all, she had been trained by the five Golden Flowers under the leadership of Victor. She was no longer the Molly Xia from the old days. Now she was still as sharp as a tack.

Her son, Charlie, perhaps inherited his mother's attentiveness, as he too had sensed something strange in his mother's behavior. He slowly raised his finger and put it to his lips, gesturing at Evelyn to keep quiet. Shifting his sharp eyes to Molly, he drew her attention, "Mom?"

Molly quickly glanced at Charlie and then locked her gaze in the direction of the willows as she stood up to walk towards the twins. "Who's there?" she asked in a cold voice. "First you call me on my number and now are peeping at me. If you're so curious, why don't you come and take a closer look?"

By now, Molly was absolutely certain that the person who was peeping at her now was the same person who had called her number last night.

It seemed as though time had stopped moving. After about a minute, a woman in grape purple fitting jeans and a spring coat walked out from behind a willow slowly. Needless to say, the woman looked attractive even in her regular clothes.

Cora scanned Molly up and down for a while. Then she walked towards Molly with a smile at the corners of her mouth. All the while, Molly found her smile a bit disconcerting and uncomfortable.

Charlie looked at Cora in a defensive manner and pulled Evelyn with his little arm behind him subconsciously. "Mom? Who's this lady?" he asked.

Molly didn't respond to her son. She took two steps forward towards Cora and said, "I don't think we've met before."

With a faint smile, Cora glanced at Molly with contempt and said, "I'm Brian's fiancee."

Almost immediately, both Molly and Charlie's jaw dropped to the floor collectively. While, Evelyn was too young to understand what was going on anyway.

How could a married man with three children have a fiancee?

"What?" Molly said with an indifferent smile on her face after hiding the great confusion in her heart as soon as possible. "I'm Brian's wife!"