Love Began with the First Meeting

"Really?" Molly asked with surprise as she grabbed Wing's hand excitedly. Her eyes were glittering with joy. This was the best news she'd had in days.

Wing nodded in reply, "Yes, and then..." She paused for a second, "By then, Richie and Shirley can already send him back."

Tears rolled down Molly's cheeks. All of a sudden, she felt that nothing else mattered anymore. As long as Mark was safe and healthy, nothing else mattered.

***

At the Empire Hospital in A City.

Becky was lying on the bed in a senior ward. She stared at the doctor standing in front of her and asked weakly, "Besides the fact that I won't be able to stand anymore, anything else you're hiding from me?"

"Miss Yan," the doctor replied with a sigh, "During the car accident, the broken guardrail stabbed into your waist and cut your womb. Your womb actually bled heavily. To ensure the safety of your life, we talked to Mr. Brian Long and decided to remove your womb." Becky stared with her eyes widened. She fluttered her lids and asked blankly, "You mean... You mean I can't get pregnant?"

The doctor sighed and nodded.

Becky's breathing became shallow and difficult. She looked towards the ceiling and murmured with horror, "No, it can't be, it can't be..."

"Miss Yan," the doctor tried to console her, "What's important now is that you're alive."

"Shut up! I don't even want to be alive!" Becky suddenly screamed hysterically. She shouted at the doctor, "Why didn't you just let me die? Why did you save my life? Now I can't get pregnant with Brian! I won't ever be a mother of our kid!"

The doctor frowned at her words. He wanted to remind her that Brian was already married and was already a father to his own son. But he decided against it-it was never wise to argue with a patient who just received terrible news.

While Becky was still flipping out, suddenly the door flew open and two men in suits came inside. They wore a platinum-edged shield logo of the Dragon Island on their chest, which meant they were members of the Dragon Island Royal Guards.

"Miss Yan," one of them said, "your father is suspected of disrupting the political order of the Dragon Island. You need to come with us. We need to investigate you."

Becky froze. She stared blankly at the two men, then she suddenly realized that she hadn't seen her dad since she woke up. She asked, "Where's my dad?"

"He's in prison and he'll be sentenced soon," the man spoke harshly.

"No! I can't believe this! Why is this happening? Why?" Becky yelled. She wanted to sit up, but the wound in her waist broke open and the sharp pain shot through her stomach.

The man from the Royal Guards had no plans in answering her. He snapped his fingers and his peers in the same suits came into the room from outside. They didn't say anything as they marched away with Becky. The doctor stood dumbstruck as he watched them leave the room.

"I'll inform Mr. Brian Long," the man said to the doctor before he left, "You can pretend you didn't see anything. If you speak word about this, you're going to regret it.

The man glared at the doctor one more time before leaving. The doctor wasn't able to breathe properly until they were completely gone from his vision. He shivered in horror.

***

The sky was always clear and blue after a storm.

At the office on the top floor of Emp, Brian and Harrow had just finished most of their backlog. Leaning wearily against his chair, Brian closed his eyes in meditation as he pinched his nostrils together between his thumb and finger.

"Mr. Brian Long, do you need to take some medicine?" Harrow poured him a glass of water, "I can handle the rest of this. You can go home and rest now."

Brian slowly opened his eyes. During his past life, he had only fallen ill a handful of times. In the past decade, he hadn't taken any medicine except for several gunshot wounds. But he was surprised to find that he had gotten a bad cold this time.

He took the medicine from Harrow's hand, put it in his mouth, and washed it down with water. He sighed lightly as he put the glass back on the table.

Tony stood aside and observed the look on Brian's face. Brian was so tired that he didn't even have the energy to hide his exhaustion. When Molly fell ill, Brian didn't rest ever, not even for one minute. He took care of her and never left her side. He was probably worrying too much that even his strong body gave up on him.

Tony's gaze darkened as he thought of this. He had already gotten used to how Brian treated Molly and although he didn't agree with this, he knew it was way out of line too if he commented on it. He thought to himself, 'Maybe it would be better for both of them if she just left him.'

In the end, Brian didn't go home that day still maybe because he couldn't stop himself checking up on Molly if he went home or maybe he just really didn't want Molly to see him in such a state.

As the next few days passed, Molly and Brian just kept avoiding one another. Molly didn't even see Brian at all and instead she just spent most of her time with Wing.

Wing had attracted much attention from the public when she took one year off from her music career. However, no one from the media would bother her with any interview if she refused to do it. She decided to take the year off because of the tune Brian had given her. And for this reason, she became a regular at the Summer Breeze because Spark claimed he hadn't got any inspiration on that. And she waited for his inspiration patiently.

But, except for Manny and Spark himself, nobody knew about Spark being unable to play when Molly wasn't with him.

Holding a cup of coffee in his hand, Spark stared at Wing and Molly who were sitting by the window as his eyes ran through different emotions. With a deep sigh, he recollected himself and walked up to them. "My fair lady, please enjoy your coffee," he greeted Wing as he served her coffee.

"Mmm, so it is true! The coffee here is really good!" Wing teased as she took a sip.

Spark smiled and shrugged. To others, Spark was more known to be talented but arrogant.

He sat down in one of their chairs and they all started chitchat. Gradually, more and more people were coming in the shop. Maybe because Spark was so charming and the service there was really good and all their pastries tasted amazing-they had already formed some sort of loyal following.

They could overhear some of the gossip from the tables nearby.

"My brother told me that the party at Mr. Song's villa will be held by his granddaughter."

"Really? That sounds interesting!" "Doesn't it? They said it's going to be a masked ball!"

"Oh really? A group of people from the underworld attending a masked ball? Wow, that sounds so funny!"

"Hey, didn't you know that even people like them like to enjoy things like this too, you know. Besides, it's fun to follow trends nowadays. In fact, I'd be interested in that."

"So are you going then?"

"Of course, so many famous people are coming and who knows? I might bump into someone really cute! Don't you want to take chance too?"

"Hmm! Sounds fun! Maybe, I will try!"

The two girls at the other table both burst into laughter.

"Are you going?" Spark turned to Wing and asked. For the sake of Molly, he had tried to learn about the people in Brian's life so he was very well aware of Mr. Song and Wing's relationship.

"Why wouldn't I?" Wing raised an eyebrow, "What about you? I think you got an invitation."

"I'll think about it," Spark tapped his fingers on the table as he stole a glance at Molly. Molly was looking out of the window in a trance, and she seemed to be totally out of it.

He learned from Myra that Molly had fallen ill after that day they got soaked in the rain. When she came back to work, she was already fully recovered, but Spark noticed that she looked different. She looked tired and she looked unsatisfied. Molly was trapped in her daze until Wing left the table to answer a call thus leaving her and Spark alone.

"Mol, do you want to go to the masked ball?" Spark suddenly asked, a grin plastered on his face.

"You seem to be chill nowadays so do you want to come with me?"00000