Love Began with the First Meeting

"Do you still have harsh feelings about what happened at that time?" Brian asked, but he had no doubt about the answer. However, he wanted to hear the response from Molly.

now.

Molly pursed her lips and gazed at Brian for quite a while, contemplating whether she should speak frankly or not. Finally, she realized that Brian wanted her to speak her mind because he always knew what she thought, and he must have known what she was thinking "What if..." Molly said with a deep sigh, "I say yes?"

"Then I will tell you the truth!" Brian answered in a casual tone, but his cold, handsome face looked solemn.

"All right. I want to know... why..." Molly began. She could feel her heart beating fast in her chest, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. It was a sensitive topic for her to discuss so frankly, so Molly took a moment to compose herself. She was also afraid of what would happen when she learned the truth. Molly worried when she found out the real reason it might put a barrier between her and Brian.

However, if she didn't learn the truth, then she could go on deceiving herself and remain blissfully ignorant. She could continue convincing herself that she had only misunderstood Brian. On the other hand, if she got to know the truth, and it was what she had expected but tried to deny all these years, then things would gradually become awkward between them. That was because she would magnify everything and make a mountain out of a molehill as women tended to do.

Most women knew that it was something that they shouldn't do. When Molly encountered something that she was afraid to know about, she would try to persuade herself to ignore it, but all the while, she was eager to see the truth. Hence the old proverb; curiosity killed the cat.

The woman was a paradox! It was ingrained in her nature to be curious, and it is a habit that was hard to break.

Brian felt sorry for the unnecessary torment that Molly was putting herself through. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. Sighing slightly, he said, "Whenever you found a problem between us that you couldn't figure out, you would always think about it in a negative way instead of a positive one. Now you're doing the same thing again." His tone sounded somewhat helpless as if he could do nothing about it. While gently criticizing Molly, he was, in a way also criticizing himself. Had he been frank with her as soon as any problem had occurred, many things would not have happened as a consequence. He had always chosen to solve problems on his own accord and hadn't bothered explaining the reason to her even though he knew that she was a person who lacked a sense of security. As a result, he had left a permanent scar on her heart and a bad memory in her mind for the dignity of another woman.

Hearing what Brian had said, Molly lowered her eyes and began criticizing herself as well. It had been many years since that had happened and they got on quite well with each other. They had three beautiful, healthy children, and a peaceful life and loving relationship. Why did she have to delve into the past and risk rocking the boat now?

"Bri, forget about it," Molly said from her heart. "Let bygones be bygones. I'm very happy now, and everything is going well. That's enough for me." While she was upset that Brian gave her corneas to Becky, she had nearly forgotten that Cathy had donated her corneas to her.

If Cathy hadn't been cured in a timely manner, her amblyopia would have affected the prospect of her career, and she wouldn't have been able to become an elite in new military technology. However, Cathy had never blamed her as Molly had blamed Becky. On the contrary, she had felt grateful that she could help Molly and put her corneas to good use. Just like Newton's third law, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Nobody got by in the world without being unscathed in some way, so why would she risk causing trouble for herself now and become unhappy?

While Molly had changed her mind and chickened out, Brian hadn't. Since the topic had already been raised, he wanted to nip it in the bud once and for all. He didn't like to leave any loose ends that he might later live to regret. If Molly hadn't mentioned Becky or talked about the past, Brian wouldn't have thought about bringing it up now to explain it to her. That's because it was in the past and unnecessary to discuss any further and it would only have resulted in making them both unhappy again.

"If I don't tell you the truth now, you will always wonder why and it will be a heavy burden on your mind and in your heart that would eat away at you for the rest of your life. I would rather tell you frankly," Brian said in a slow and soft voice with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth. "Do you remember what happened when we went to Phoenix Mountain because of Daniel?"

Of course, Molly remembered that. Although she had no other choice at the time, her actions had nearly cost Brian his life. Whenever she remembered that incident, she felt her heart pounding hard in her chest with fear.

"At that time, your corneas were damaged by the flashbang. Your eyes could no longer function normally," Brian said, briefing Molly on what had been wrong with her eyes. Then with a slight sigh, he continued, "I thought I owed Becky something. I had promised to love her forever, but my feelings for her had changed when I met you. So, out of guilt for hurting her, curing her eyes became the only thing that I could do for her at that time. Due to the blood relationship between the two of you, her body had little rejection against your corneas. However, if your eyes were sound at that time, I wouldn't have agreed to give your corneas to her. Í knew that your eyes were damaged and even if you didn't give them to Becky, they would have deteriorated and become useless."

Molly was astonished to hear that because nobody had ever told her that her eyes had been severely damaged. Moreover, she hadn't expected that the reason why Brian had given her corneas to Becky had been because he wanted to break up with Becky on his own accord and to cure her eyes had been the only condition why Becky had left. Thinking back, Molly remembered that she had been just like a hedgehog, always ready to defend herself. If she hadn't been like that, she would have discovered that Becky had said those words to her only to arouse her distrust towards Brian and make her choose to leave. While gaining her corneas, Becky had forced her to leave at the same time. It had been obvious that Becky's ultimate aim was to win Brian back in the end.

With this realization, Molly felt a cold shiver go down her spine. She wondered if they would ever have met each other again in their lifetime if Brian had been enraged by her leaving.

She shuddered at the thought and struggled to get out of Brian's embrace. Standing in front of Brian, she gaped at him in disbelief with her eyes wide open and asked, "Does that mean we wasted more than four years only because of a misunderstanding?" It would take them over six lonely heartbreaking years to realize that they were meant for each other and finally come together. After the separation of more than four years, Molly had returned only to leave again after a conflict had arisen between them. That resulted in her leaving Brian once again and going to Britain taking Mark with her for two years. Right up until Molly had fallen pregnant with Charlie and Evelyn, all those years had been wasted in misunderstanding. Which could have been avoided had they only been open and honest with each other.

"More than that..." Brian said, shaking his head helplessly. Brian pulled Molly into his arms again and said with sincere regret, "I didn't imagine that a decision I made would cost us so dearly and rob us of over six precious years of spending our lives together. Perhaps I had been too conceited..." He didn't mention that there had been another factor that had played a crucial role in the reason that they had missed out on so many years together. That had been because of the rivalry between the Long family against the central government. Richie had decided to make him understand clearly what the responsibilities of a person were required, especially a man's. However, if he hadn't fallen into a coma at that time, would Richie have been able to send Molly away successfully? 'Probably not,' he thought.