Love Began with the First Meeting

The air around felt frozen. Everyone had their eyes fixed on Aaron to see what he would do. Would he believe Zoey and help Vivi, or would he take Ximena's side? "Aaron, I'm fine. She must have done it unintentionally. Don't blame her, please," Vivi said, with tears in her eyes. Her look was so pitiful and innocent that any gentleman would have defended her.

Remaining silent, Ximena scorned her act secretly. She wasn't sure what Aaron was thinking. He had been treating her like family lately. But she didn't know why. Was it for the sake of his aborted child or did he just merely want someone to be his family? She felt dejected as she thought about it. She looked away from Aaron and stared at a vase of roses indifferently.

She had designed that vase. Not long after she had completed the design, the vase had appeared in her room. She didn't know when Aaron had found her design. She took the vase to her shop when she had set up shop as a designer. Everyday, she would pick some roses at the manor, bring them to the shop and put them in the vase. She never figured why she did so, but these were her favorite flowers which came from Aaron. She placed them in her line of sight everyday. But it seemed so ridiculous at the moment.

Aaron squinted when he saw that Ximena had an indifferent look on her face, as if she was saying that she didn't care about him at all. "Let's go." He tilted up Vivi's chin and looked down at her fair face. "I'll drive you home."

"Aaron..." Vivi called his name with immense surprise and she blushed because of his gaze on her.

"Don't you want me to drive you home?" Aaron asked Vivi, while looking at Ximena out of the corner of his eye.

"Yes, of course!" Giggling with her face down, Vivi replied with a coquettish, soft voice which really contrasted with Ximena's indifference.

She took his arm shyly and leaned closer to him intentionally and even managed to dart a defiant glance at Ximena when she turned around.

Ximena sneered without knowing whom she had directed it towards--Aaron or Vivi. After losing her child, she always wondered why she hadn't left him. Though there was a justification that she couldn't live without him, why didn't she WANT to leave him? Did she lose her heart to his gentle and thoughtful nature? Was she looking forward to the home he had promised? Or was it just that she didn't want to live a vile life like before?

At that very moment, she told herself, 'My self-esteem in this scenario shouldn't matter at all. I shouldn't be bothered about who Aaron believes or who he falls in love with. I need only to press forward towards my ideal life, as I stay with him. Yes, that's it! That's all that matters to me.'

Aaron darted an indifferent glance at Ximena and said, "Go and treat the bruise on your face." He couldn't ignore her after all, though he knew that they no longer had any connection without that aborted child.

Ximena smirked, "Thanks for your concern, Your Highness. Rest assured, I will treat it carefully until it completely heals, lest it disgusts you to be in my presence."

Her ironic tone made everyone tense up. How could she dare talk to Aaron in such a defiant tone?

Zoey and Vivi hoped that Aaron would give Ximena a tight slap across her face. The shop assistants pursed their lips in worry. But Aaron just frowned, without saying anything.

Zoey gritted her teeth when Aaron didn't threaten or lash out at her. But he was still holding Vivi in his arms, so she said to Ximena in a scathing tone, "You'd better run away as far as you can. When Aaron and Vivi get married, you..."

"Zoey, I really think that you have brother complex," Ximena interrupted her and sneered. "Aaron is your brother, not your man. Why do you care so much about who gets into his bed? Get married to Vivi? Ha! If Vivi ever gets married to Aaron," Ximena mocked them without a glance at Aaron. "I would give them my blessing in person!"

"You..." Zoey was outsmarted by Ximena once again and her fingers quivered in anger. She could not say anything.

"Door is that way. Goodbye," Ximena said with a distant look. She was unconcerned about Zoey's defiance, Vivi's excellent acting and Aaron's indifference.

Aaron glared at Ximena with fury flashing in his dark eyes.

"Let's go," he said again, looking away from Ximena. He then took Vivi out of the design shop.

Zoey left with them, without accepting her defeat. She even glared at Ximena as she walked out. 'How malicious she is!' But she figured that she deserved it in some ways. She knew clearly that she couldn't beat Ximena in an argument, but she always provoked her. She thought she could humiliate her verbally, yet she was humiliated instead. In the car, Vivi noticed that Zoey was in a sour mood and asked, "Zoey. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Zoey looked at him. "Aaron, why don't you leave her already? She is just so under-bred and lowly, and has nothing else other than her coquettish face."

"Mind your own business. Don't poke your nose in mine," Aaron replied coldly. His icy tone made Zoey freeze. The atmosphere in the car became awkward.

"Aaron, Zoey is only saying it because she cares about you," Vivi said sheepishly with concern on her clear face.

"I'm starting to think that words enter one ear and leave out the other very quickly for her," Aaron said without any emotion. He looked at her and said distantly, "Vivi, what did I warn you about last time? Don't tell me that your brain broke down and you forgot." Stared at angrily by Aaron, Vivi trembled in fear. 'He was serious about that! He truly cares about that woman?'

Vivi's tears fell uncontrollably. Aaron was about to wipe her tears away, but she shivered when he touched her face. Realizing that he was just wiping away her tears, she felt slightly eased.

"Feeling wronged?" Aaron asked. She didn't know if it was concern or a warning.

"No," Vivi replied spontaneously.

Aaron stared at her and asked further, "Then, what are you crying for?"

"I..." Vivi's tears stopped.

When the car arrived at the villa, Vivi glanced at it and then looked at Aaron. Biting her lip, she asked, "Aaron, aren't you staying tonight?"

Aaron spared a glance at her, which made her tense for the moment. "No," he said flatly.

Vivi was disappointed, but didn't dare say anything. He was only making use of her. She knew that from the very beginning. But she couldn't accept it and also lied to her father about it. Feeling heartbroken, Vivi got off the car with a malicious fire in her eyes.

Aaron winded the window down and without looking at Vivi, he said distantly, "I don't like sophisticated women." He tilted his head sideways and looked Vivi in the eye, and then said to the driver,"Move on." Ken started the car and drove away. Vivi was left alone to stand there, trembling in her defeat. She would never forget the ruthlessness in Aaron's eyes as he warned her. It stabbed her like an ice sword. "Miss. Miss?"

She finally came back to her senses when she heard her servant calling her name again and again. She hugged herself tightly and hurried to her bedroom.

"Vivi! Vivi!" Carter looked at Vivi with concern in his eyes. But Vivi didn't respond. He turned his head and asked the servant, "What happened to her?"

"His Highness just dropped miss back," the servant replied sheepishly.

Carter frowned and looked at Vivi's retreating back with a confused look. 'Didn't Vivi have a falling out Aaron? Did he change his mind?' Carter was delighted at the thought. If Vivi became the wife of the president of Leng's Corporations, then he would be Aaron's father-in- law. Their status would rank high in QY Island.

Carter started making future calculations without knowing what had actually happened.

*

Aaron dropped Zoey home and warned her before leaving, "Do not trouble her with Vivi again. Next time, I won't go easy on you, even though you are my sister."

Zoey was frightened to say anything. She gritted her teeth silently. 'Does that woman have any merit? Why does Aaron defend her like this? Why?! Even though I am his younger sister, he has never treated me like that! He blames me every time I say something out of line, but today, when that woman said such offensive words to him, he didn't say a word against her.'

Zoey stamped her feet hard in the floor, and lost her balance in the process. "Ah!" she screamed and fell onto the cold ground. Her face went pale and distorted immediately.

Zoey sat on the ground. It was so painful that she sweated and panted.

Aaron got a phone call from Zoey when he was about to leave the villa district. "What?" he asked impatiently.

"Aaron, I sprained my foot. Come back, please. It hurts badly." Zoey struggled hard to control her tremulous voice.

Aaron frowned and knew that she was not pretending. "Go back."

The car turned around and went in the opposite direction. Aaron sighed. Even if he didn't want to admit it, she was still his younger sister after all.

He took Zoey to the hospital. The doctor said that she was badly injured and needed to be hospitalized to find out whether the bone was broken. By the time he had arranged everything for her, it was dark. He needed to go home soon. He knew that Ximena must be waiting for him to have dinner.

"Aaron."

Zoey grabbed onto his shirt with her trembling hand. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying.

Aaron looked at her distantly.

"Aaron, could you please stay with me?" Though usually domineering, Zoey was afraid to stay in the ward all alone. She grew up under constant protection because she was Aaron's sister, but now, she had no one looking out for her. "I'm afraid to stay in the hospital alone." Aaron frowned and wished to leave. But when he saw her sorrowful face, which closely resembled his mother's, he could not reject her anymore.

"My dad is not home, and I'm afraid of the dark." Zoey hung her head low and sobbed.

When he looked at her crying face, something stirred up in his heart. Finally he said, "I will stay."

Zoey looked up at him suddenly. She gazed at Aaron with happiness in her tear-filled eyes.

Aaron withdrew his arm from her grasp and sat on the sofa. He was in a daze for a long time. All he could think about was Ximena's distant face at the shop.

Maybe she was why he yearned for a home now. But he had lived without a home for so many years. He had gotten used to this, hadn't he?