Love Began with the First Meeting

When you gamble with the happiness of your lifetime, how could I stand by and watch you lose? I will make sure you win by any means. -Spark

*

Spark frowned slightly when he saw Molly's expressions change and asked, "Mol, what's wrong?"

"This place... It doesn't look strange to me. I think I have been here," she said as she gazed at the dense forest. Her voice sounded empty, as if she was caught in a nightmare. Spark looked confused. He asked, "Have you been here before?"

"Yeah, I think so... In my childhood," Molly answered, still in a daze.

Spark's brows furrowed deeper. He didn't know much about Dragon Island, but had heard a lot about it through the news and if it weren't for Molly, he wouldn't have been here at all. Even though he was unfamiliar with the island, it was common knowledge that there was a mountain behind the royal garden. It was a restricted zone and public entry was forbidden. Nobody, except those invited by the Long Family to the royal garden, was permitted to enter the mountain.

"You have been to the royal garden?" Spark asked curiously, "Did you spend your childhood in Dragon Island?"

Molly withdrew her sight from the tall trees and looked at her feet, concealing the bitterness in her eyes. She answered solemnly, "Yeah, I lived here for a few years." But looking around again, she corrected herself, "No, I can't say that I had a life here. I just stayed here for a while, I guess."

Her mind re-winded to one particular summer in her childhood. The weather had been quite pleasant in Dragon Island at the time-moderate temperature with frequent spells of rains which cleaned the island, making it look like heaven on earth.

With the support of the National Congress, the business summit sponsored by the four big families in Dragon Island had been allowed to be held at the royal garden. During that time, Molly had come here secretly, following Becky. While she was loitering in the mountain, she had encountered a boy. He was good-looking, like a scaled-down version of Brian.

Molly's mouth opened slightly and she fixed her eyes on the forest. In her mind, the boy's image gradually became clearer. Despite his young age, his long eyes had been as sharp as a falcon's and his mouth was pursed into a straight line. When she had unexpectedly run into him in the forest, he was playing with a pistol which had a blue diamond on it. The diamond shone brilliantly as the rays of the sun hit it through the gaps in the thick trees. When she had approached him and asked him what that was, he had calmly put his pistol into his pocket and had told her that it was a toy.

Molly's eyes popped out as the memories came back to her. "That was him!" she yelled, astonished by her discovery.

Spark didn't say anything. He just looked at her silently.

Her face was pale. She tried hard to search her memory about what had happened after that meeting. But she couldn't remember anything except their meeting and the few words they had exchanged in the beginning. So she couldn't tell if anything had happened between them after that. Her thoughts kept wandering and her mind was a mess. In the end, she wasn't even sure if that boy was Brian. She had a feeling that she was idealizing what had happened because she was missing Brian too much and maybe that had been an ordinary incident between her and some ordinary boy.

"Let's go," Molly said, turning away from her memories. But Spark could tell that she didn't want to leave the forest. Only she knew why. Perhaps she was unwilling to discard her past memories, or maybe she was unwilling to discard her current feelings.

Spark didn't ask Molly any question about what she had just said. Instead, he tactfully decided to ask her something else. He looked at her absent-minded face and asked, "Mol, do you truly love him?"

Molly looked at him in surprise, as if he had asked her a stupid question.

He sighed. "If you truly love him," Spark paused for a moment and continued, "then please agree to marry Eric."

Molly looked at him, confused by his words. She asked, "Spark, what do you mean?"

"I meant exactly what I said, Mol. You have to marry Eric." Spark looked at her intensely as if he was staring into her soul, "Mol, do you trust me?"

"Spark, I..." Molly could not describe how she was feeling. She felt that Spark was hiding something from her.

"Don't think too much about it," Spark said with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth. "Just let things run their course and work out by themselves. When you turn around the corner, you might just see exactly what you've always wanted." Seeing Molly's blank expression, he raised his hand slowly and touched her cheek with his fingertips. His eyes were intense as he said, "Mol, you should always be happy. You will be."

*

At A City.

The whole city had been covered in a thick layer of snow overnight. The city was as beautiful as ever, like a pretty lady in a white gown.

Brian was standing in front of the window on the top floor of the Grand Night Casino. One of his hands was in his trouser pocket and the other was at his side. A cigarette lay forgotten between his fingers. The smoke curled upwards slowly surrounding his lonely figure. There was a soft knock on the door. Without waiting for a reply, the door was opened and Tony entered the room.

"Mr. Brian Long," he greeted. Tony looked at Brian's silent back. He had a red invitation card in his hand. "Mr. Eric Long has sent someone to give you..." he looked at the card in his hand and continued, "an invitation card."

Brian didn't move. He squinted his eyes slightly at the snow outside his window. The look in his eyes at the moment would have been colder than the freezing snow outside. He pursed his thin lips into a straight line, as if he was trying hard to put a restraint on his emotions.

Tony felt helpless as he stood in his spot with the deadly card in his hand. In ordinary circumstances, Eric would have come in person to invite Brian for his engagement. However, this was a rather complicated situation seeing that the woman he was getting engaged to was once Brian's wife.

These thoughts weighed heavily on Tony's mind, and he was also worried about Vincent's position at the moment. It would be impossible for Vincent to return to XK Intelligence Agency in this lifetime if Molly married Eric. Vincent could never have anything to do with Brian after that. Things might turn out to be worse for him than before.

Tony looked at Brian once again. His silence was heavy. Tony called in a low voice, "Sir?" "Leave it on the desk," Brian finally said. There were no emotions in his response.

Tony placed the card on the desk. He took one last look at Brian and walked out of the room silently. He knew that Brian would not want to be disturbed for a while. Even though Brian's voice had remained indifferent, Tony knew how much he was hurting inside. Brian remained in his place near the window even after the door was shut. He stared at the snow outside the building.

The first snow this year had come late in A City. It had been cloudy almost everyday, like the skies were warning about the impending snowfall. But they hadn't seen any snow till the day before.

Brian turned away from the window slowly. His gaze fell on the red invitation card on the desk.

Tony's deduction as to why Eric had sent Brian an invitation instead of coming in person was absolutely wrong. Brian knew his cousin's intentions better than anyone else. Eric wanted to avoid a situation where Brian could refuse his invitation. This way, Brian didn't have a chance to give any excuse to not attend the engagement. In other words, Eric was coercing him into attending the ceremony. 000000☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐