Love Began with the First Meeting

"Ahh!"

Ximena cried out in pain. All of a sudden she was propped up against the wall, Aaron growling at her with gritted teeth.

"Didn't anybody ever tell you..." Aaron leaned closer and grabbed Ximena by the chin, "that pawns such as yourself should not be having thoughts of your own?"

Ximena, however, showed no signs of being intimidated. This reflected her headstrong character and she stared back into Aaron's eyes with conviction. "If I am not allowed to have my own thoughts, Your Highness, would you still be able to achieve your goal today?" "What?" Aaron looked a little surprised.

Ximena scoffed at him and said, "I may not be very clever, but I'm not a fool either." Her collar bone was starting to ache due to the pressure Aaron was asserting on her with his forearm, but she did her best to bear the pain. "I didn't know what was your purpose behind bringing me here, but after what happened just now, it would be ridiculous if I still didn't understand anything." She gasped to take a breath before continuing, "You brought me here and even took me straight to Aldrich. Do you expect me to believe that bumping into James was a matter of pure coincidence? It was all a part of your plan, wasn't it?"

"It was. So what?" Aaron shook his head and smiled arrogantly. "I've never sold anything at a loss. You thought I wasn't going to take something in return? I wouldn't have saved you if I didn't think you were going to be of some use to me."

Aaron released her chin and demanded coldly, "Now come along. It's time to go and see James."

"What on earth do you want to do?" Ximena felt as though her heart was being ripped apart. Trying her best to hide her sadness and stay calm, she slowly said, "What do you want from me? What does our relationship mean to you? What do you intend to gain from this? Your Highness, he doesn't remember me at all. There's nothing I can do for you now."

"Oh, really?" Aaron peered into Ximena's eyes and slowly said, "It's more complicated than you think."

"What do you mean?" Ximena asked, her mind desperately scrambling to make sense of it all.

Aaron glared up at the woman as he released her from his grip and moved away. "Let's go."

He straightened up, dusted himself off and walked forward.

While Ximena stared at his figure with a baffled expression on her face, feeling a cold shiver up her spine, it became obvious to her that she was getting closer to the truth. But it seemed as though this man knew exactly what he was doing and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

She knew that he was using her to achieve some kind of sick, petty goal, but she couldn't stop herself from following him.

Meanwhile, all the guests cramped up in the main hall, talked, laughed and mainly waited for Aldrich to show up and start the birthday party. In contrast to that, the garden behind the villa was a lot quieter. In the dim light, a man in casual clothes was sitting in a wheelchair and pruning a potted plant attentively. Behind him stood a man in a grey suit, tall and imperious.

"James," he called out, "I saw her."

The man in the wheelchair suddenly paused to look at the man behind him and then went back to what he was doing.

This seemed to have irritated the man behind him. "James, don't you want to see her?"

"James is dead," the man in the wheelchair said, with a straight face, his voice showed no emotions as if he had come from the heavens and was not supposed to exist in this world.

"James..."

The man in the wheelchair sighed impatiently as he put the plant down and wiped his hands with a towel. Then he slowly turned around and faced the man in the suit. His face turned out to be exactly the same as the man standing in front of him. "Teddy, please take good care of her if you can."

"Hey, you're the one who made that promise, not me!" The man named Teddy, did not look too pleased.

The man in the wheelchair looked down at his paralyzed legs and smiled bitterly. His body had become a shell for the shattered remains of who he was. Very slowly, he spoke, almost under his breath, "You are James now, aren't you?" He looked up at his twin brother, his calm eyes glimmering in the relative gloom. "Watch over her for me. See to it that she finds a good husband."

"She came here with Aaron today." Teddy angrily glared at the real James, his twin brother, who once used to be their father's favourite.

The wheelchair-bound man sighed in resignation, crossing his arms to his chest. "I suppose Aaron is ready to make his move now?" He looked burdened by a guilt that sat not on his chest but inside his brain. "It seems like he has had everything planned and prepared." "So you're going to let him take everything away?" Teddy gritted his teeth in frustration, "Including your woman?"

With a calm and indifferent expression on James's face, he explained, "Teddy, it's the basic principle of cause and effect. We will have to pay for our mother's actions, sooner or later. As for her..." He rolled the wheelchair forward to look out the glass window at the city under the soft moonlight. Very slowly, he murmured, "I can never give her the happiness that she deserves, so I should let go and let her find her own happiness."

Teddy had strong mixed and ambivalent feelings surge up as he stared at the man in the wheelchair, bereft of hope. There was a time when his brother, the real James, was a bright, ambitious young man with hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow just like any other person. That James would have wanted to give Ximena all the love in the world. But now, confined to his wheelchair, he allowed his unrealized hopes and dreams to vanish forever. That accident had changed everything. Sometimes Teddy even thought that perhaps it would be better if he didn't try his best to save his brother's life after the accident and James just died. Then James wouldn't have to live through all the pain and misery this life had to offer.

Suddenly, a knock on the glass door caught their attention.

The servant outside politely said, "Mr. James, His Highness is waiting for you.

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