Love Began with the First Meeting

Elsa turned to Evelyn and Ezra with a confused look on her face. "Am I right?"

Ezra narrowed his eyes at her, and then turned to Anna and Ann. "Yes," he answered, nodding. He had never met Quintin before. Shaun had once met him by accident. Judging from what had happened earlier, he roughly deducted that the man must be Quiet Misery. Anna and Ann exchanged worried glances, and Anna was overcome by guilt and sadness. Charlie had warned Anna that Quiet Misery was not a simple person. However, even though she had been worried, she had not tried her best to prevent Olivia from falling into this relationship. If anything happened to Olivia, Anna could never forgive herself for the rest of her life.

Elsa knitted her eyebrows and her lips thinned into a tight line. She was worried about Olivia, but she was also concerned about Charlie. She kept looking back at the elevator. No one was coming.

Elsa was so restless that Evelyn was dizzy from her movements. She turned to Elsa and comforted her, "Elsa, rest easy. Charlie is fine. And as long as he is fine, you don't have to worry about Olivia. Can you stop fidgeting now? You are making me nervous for no reason as well."

Elsa made an apologetic face, but she couldn't calm down. All of a sudden, it felt like she and Charlie had drifted far apart. He didn't have his cell phone on him, so there was no way for her to contact him.

If Evelyn and Bess hadn't been there, Charlie would have ended up...

Elsa's mind was spinning out of control. She knew that Charlie was a powerful man and would never put himself in danger, but she just couldn't control her rampant thoughts.

'Ding!' the elevator rang as it reached the floor they were at. Elsa sprang up to her feet and fixed her eyes on the elevator door. When the doors opened, she saw Charlie step out with Olivia in his arms. It didn't seem like she was hurt.

Ezra and the girls quickly walked to the elevator.

"Olivia! Olivia!" Elsa and the two girls shouted nervously as they ran to her. Seeing that Olivia was still unconscious, Elsa looked up at Charlie and asked, "Charlie, what's wrong with her?"

Charlie gazed deeply at Elsa. Without answering her, he turned to Ezra and Evelyn and said, "Get the cars."

They nodded and headed towards the garage to bring the cars to the hotel gate. Meanwhile, Charlie took Olivia to the rest area and gently put her down on the sofa. To the three girls, he said, "Forget what happened today." He looked back at Olivia, who was sound asleep, and then turned back to them. "Olivia won't remember anything that happened today either. Although it was nothing serious, I don't want Quiet Misery to cause her anymore trouble. And if you want Olivia to be happy, you'd better keep today's events a secret." Anna eyed Charlie with a suspicious look, while Ann and Elsa nodded at him obediently.

About five minutes later, Charlie picked Olivia up in his arms and led all of them out of the hotel.

"You girls go with Evelyn. I'll bring Olivia in Ezra's car," Charlie said.

"Okay," Elsa said, and the other two nodded in response.

The place was pretty quiet now, as if nothing had happened. Ezra and Evelyn had parked the cars near the hotel gate and Charlie quickly got into the car with Olivia in his arms. As he got in, he could sense unwanted gazes on them, and some people were taking photos of them secretly.

As the two cars rolled out of the hotel, Ezra asked, "Did you hypnotize her?"

"Yes," Charlie responded indifferently and held out his hand. "Give me your phone."

The corner of Ezra's mouth twitched in annoyance as he handed Charlie his cellphone without saying anything.

Charlie turned to glance at Olivia, who was in the back seat, and then quickly dialed a number. The call was picked up almost instantly. "Hello?"

"This is Charlie."

The person on the other end was slightly surprised. He asked, "Mr. Charlie Long?"

"Yes," Charlie leaned back on his seat and replied. He watched the street lights flicker by as Ezra picked up speed. Charlie said lazily into the phone, "Monitor the headlines of all the major newspapers coming out tomorrow. I don't want to see any reports about the Sophia Grand Hotel. Also, keep a close eye on major internet websites and news pages. Stop the photos of the Sophia Grand hotel from spreading online."

"Yes, sir."

"Hm." Charlie acknowledged shortly before hanging up.

Ezra glanced at him and asked curiously, "Why did Quintin come to A City now?"

"Olivia must have caught his attention," Charlie said with a tired expression. "Besides, I am here. That could be another reason."

Ezra thought for a moment and said cautiously, "Shaun told me that you were fooling around with Quintin's woman?"

"..." Charlie didn't know how to respond to Ezra. After a few moment's silence, he said, "I don't understand him. He holds an important position. How could he be so bad at understanding people?"

Ezra shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, I sort of think what he said is true." He stole a glance at Charlie, who was frowning at him. Ezra scoffed and turned his attention back to the road. "If it weren't for you, they wouldn't have been separated. It is because of that reason that Quintin resents you so much now."

Charlie smiled bitterly. "Well, that was in the past. I didn't have the right to decide what's right and wrong. But Quintin clearly knows that even if it weren't for me, they still would have gone their separate ways. Why would you be with someone if you're not happy with him or her?" "Most people would try to solve their problems rather than advising them to separate," Ezra said, shaking his head. "Anyway, they are not married."

Charlie sighed, but he was too lazy to continue the conversation. He lay back against the car seat to get some rest. He had met Quintin four to five years back during an adventurous game. It was probably because they were highly competitive, or because they greatly appreciated each other's skills, by the end of the game, they had become good friends. They felt like they should have met earlier because they were both interested in games and they had so much in common to talk about.

After they got to know each other well, they realized that they had already met when they were kids. However, they were not familiar with each other at that time and their personalities did not match at the time, so they were naturally not interested in making friends. But after that game, they developed a good relationship. He had also met Quintin's girlfriend, the woman who had played the new role game against him last time in T City. Quintin and his girlfriend were very much in love in the past, but some things were just not in their control. They could never foresee the future.

While Charlie was still lost in his thoughts, the car entered the campus. Private cars weren't allowed inside the dormitory area, so Charlie had to get out and carry Olivia to the dormitory building.

After putting Olivia to bed, Charlie warned them once again not to tell Olivia about what had happened that day, and that they must pretend like nothing was wrong. Saying that much, he turned around and left their room.

"Charlie!" Elsa called, chasing after him.

Charlie stopped and looked at Elsa with a faint smile on his lips. He saw her lips quiver as if she was trying to say something, but she didn't. He patted on her head gently and said, "It's all right. There are many people around me now, and there's no threat for Olivia. It's all okay now." Seeing that Elsa was still worried, he laughed and comforted her, "I'll explain everything about Quintin and Quiet Misery when I get back. Okay?"