Love Began with the First Meeting

Molly held onto the chopsticks when she heard Brian's remarks. Biting her lower lips slightly, she stared right at the man sitting in
front of her. Fire was burning in her eyes. "I've agreed to stay at your house for a month..." Molly paused for a second," to be
your woman." It appeared that she had made a great effort just to say those words. "But I need to work. I... I really need the
money," Molly added.
She felt sorry for herself when she finished speaking. What she really wanted to do at the moment was have a good cry
somewhere, anywhere else but not in front of this man. She shouldn't have made any compromises, but she couldn't just run
away. Reality was very cruel, and she didn't have any choice now.
Brian didn't even take a look at Molly, and he had kept a straight face the whole time. With a stony expression, he continued with
his dinner unhurriedly. It appeared that he had known that Molly would say yes and he would get whatever he wanted. Molly had
become his pawn and everything was under his control now.
Molly had waited a long while for a response, but she felt that Brian was going to remain silent. It took her a lot of courage to
negotiate her conditions with him, but now that he was not saying anything, she started to feel worried. She pursed her lips and
said with tears brimming in her eyes," I'm begging you. I really need to work..."
Brian finally raised his head and looked at Molly, and it seemed like he could see right through her. A feeling of loss and sadness
pinched his heart.
She wasn't Becky.
Becky had begged him a couple of times before, but it was truer to say that she was asking more than begging for what she
wanted. He had always seen the stubbornness in her eyes, which made him feel a little angry but powerless at the same time.
Brian finally broke the silence and said," Being my woman means you don't have to work. Okay?" Molly felt the unhappiness
radiating from his voice. His eyes were fixed on her with a piercing stare and his thin lips tightened while swaying the glass of
wine with his long fingers.
A dead silence fell in the room. Shivering slightly, Molly felt that she was about to suffocate in that atmosphere. She was scared
because of the tone of his voice, but the fear was replaced by anger as she heard his disrespectful remarks.
"I agreed to be your woman to pay you back the 200 thousand loan... But I will never be your mistress," Molly had the courage to
blurt those words out finally. It was hard to figure out whether she said those words out of anger or out of other reasons. There
was intensity in the way she said those words and her hand gripped the chopsticks so tightly that it seemed to snap any minute.

Brian opened his mouth slightly, as if to object to what she had said. Instead, he just said coldly," Whatever." He seemed to have
changed his mind to argue as his lips curved in a barely perceptible smile while he spoke.
Molly had been very nervous about what his answer would be. She had been afraid that he would refuse her conditions. Now
that he had given her a very short answer, which barely counted as a yes, she was too shocked to react.
Before Molly could think of anything else to say, Brian stood from the table, left the dining room, and went straight upstairs to the
study. Once again, Molly was left all alone in the big dining room.
Molly pursed her lips as if to suppress whatever disappointment or anxiety she was feeling that moment. She raised her head
and was stunned as she noticed the intricate design of the stairs. After a while, she withdrew her gaze and began to eat alone
quietly. Her mind was busy trying to figure out what Brian meant by his answer. Unknown to her, someone looking enraged had
been observing her the whole time in a dark corner.
Meanwhile, in the study, Brian was gazing at the snow outside as he stood in front of the window. A fresh layer of snow had
covered the buildings like thick powder. Earlier it had been a bright sunny day, but now, the sky had gloom all over it. It seemed
that more freezing days were ahead.
Thinking about it, Brian didn't know the reason why he wanted Molly to keep him company for a month. He wanted her to stay
probably because her eyes looked like Becky's, or because he found some comfort being around her since the night she had
spent with him unintentionally. For some reason, he had come up with this idea out of nowhere when he saw her sitting on the
ground the day they had been at David's place.
He had never felt lonely before. Richie, Shirley, and Wing were always around when he was growing up. But at that very moment
when he saw Molly at David's place, he felt unusually lonely. He wanted her companionship, even just for a month. It might have
been because Becky had left him again.
'Well done, Becky, '
Narrowing his eyes, Brian said to himself with a sneer.
'Weren't you wondering why I didn't chase you to the airport to stop you from leaving this time? You have decided to leave or
come back to me whenever you want regardless of how I felt. You've always thought that you were free to go, and that I had no
choice but to put up with it. You never thought that I would leave you, didn't you?

That's fine. I'll let you go this time, and as you've wished, I won't come to find you. Let us see how long it would take for you to
come back to me on your own, '
Brian thought to himself. His angular face darkened as his heart sank when he thought about Becky. His mouth tightened into a
thin line. It appeared that there was a lot of grievance in his heart that he couldn't vent out.
"Ding", the alert sound from Brian's mobile phone brought his thoughts back to reality, as he felt his phone vibrate. Withdrawing
his gaze from the snow, he picked up the phone and answered. The anger on his face had disappeared and had shifted into a
distant look right away.
"Brian, we got news from Shawn," Tony spoke calmly at the end of the line.
There was a gentle smile on Brian's face when he heard the news. Then he answered slowly," Isn't he afraid that Richie would
take him back to the Hell Forest?"
He said to Tony teasingly, in a way he had never done before.
"He is on QY Island as of the moment," Tony said with a smile. It was Brian who leaked the information to Shawn Lie. Now, all
they needed to do was to watch the fire from the other side of the river. The idea was smart and absolutely admirable. Tony
thought that not anyone could have come up with such an idea like Brian had.
Brian looked out of the window again, and said in a cold tone," I enjoy having interesting friends. Aaron was very tough and I'd
be more than happy to tell him this news."
Tony shrugged his shoulders when he heard Brian's remarks. XK had the largest number of narks around the world. You could
get the news you wanted as long as you could pay them with whatever they asked. But not anyone could make a deal with XK
unless they would be satisfied by what they could get. Obviously, Aaron was a lucky man.
Tony thought of something else while he was talking about the news which he had told Brian on the phone," Vincent said that QY
Island's government had already made a decision. It is going to be the development zones in the Eastern District."
"Umm," answered Brian shortly. He was not surprised at this result at all. He had already presumed this when he knew Aaron
had been planning to take action.
"I," Brian said then stopped all of a sudden. He momentarily forgot what he was saying as his eyes caught someone who was
walking out of his villa. His eyes were burning with anger and brutality when he saw this.

"Stop Molly Xia!" shouted Brian.
"What?" Tony asked at the other end of the line as he was confused by what Brian had said. But Brian had hung up on him
before he could ask further what he was talking about.
He was startled for a short while, but then he understood what Brian had asked him to do at that moment. As his assistant for so
many years, he had learned to read Brian's mind in just a few words. He ran to the front gate and stopped Molly from leaving the
villa. Gasping, he told Molly coldly," Miss Xia, Mr. Long is looking for you."