Love Began with the First Meeting

Inside the house, Ximena looked around. It wasn't a big room, and there weren't many things in it either. Nearly everything visible was a basic necessity of life. Ximena noticed an old worn desk with a rusty table lamp on it in the corner. The desk and table lamp would only be kept and used by someone who had lived very poorly. She walked to the desk and slowly pulled the drawer open. Inside the drawer was an old tin biscuit box that was just as rusty and worn as the table lamp.

Ximena carefully removed the box from the drawer and opened it. The biscuit tin was filled with many receipts. "QF Orphanage, SY Shelter, XX Orphanage, XX Orphanage..." she mumbled as she sifted through all the receipts. All of the receipts were of donations that Freya had made to many different orphanages. It seemed that she had donated money every month for many years, so the tin box was full of them.

Ximena's heart filled with sorrow and pain while her eyes became moist. Although she didn't know the reason why her aunt donated money to orphanages regularly, she had never felt so grieved as she did now. She was hurting so much that it was suffocating her as if her whole body was being twisted.

She raised her head slightly and blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks and swallowed the lump in her throat. After heaving a heavy sigh, she composed herself before walking out of the decrepit house. Ximena strode directly towards her car with her eyes fixed in that direction. She completely ignored the flattering smile on the woman's face who had been waiting outside for her. She got into the car and accelerated hard, leaving a trail of dust behind her.

*

Meanwhile, at the International Airport of QY Island.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Flight QW7832 to A City, will close the boarding channel in twenty minutes,"

the pleasant voice of a ground service staff came through the broadcast. Dressed in humble clothes, Freya looked out of place amongst the crowd. She hung her head down low as she looked miserably at the first class ticket in her hand. The mixed emotions that she was feeling right now were too complicated to be described. Freya had a feeling of helplessness, hesitation, entanglement, bitterness, and unwillingness.

Ken stood in the periphery and watched Freya, who was standing in line waiting to board. His face was cold and expressionless, void of any emotions. If he had known that things would go the way they did from the beginning, then he would never have agreed to find a private detective for Ximena. Such a result was totally beyond their imagination.

"You don't need to worry about Miss Mo, she is by His Highness's side, and he will take good care of her," Ken said, offering some solace to her. "When you arrive at A City, you will be picked up by somebody at the airport and everything will be arranged for you. Don't refuse this offer. It's what Miss Mo wants to do for you, and His Highness is acting on her behalf."

Silently, Freya gave her boarding pass to the staff in charge of ticket checking. What Ken had said to her a moment ago kept resounding in her mind. When Freya was in jail, she was eager to be discharged as soon as possible so she could find her child. However, despite her efforts, it was to no avail. Initially, her inmates had bullied her making it difficult, but gradually they felt pity for her when they learned that Freya's child had been taken away from her by force. Since then, they didn't stand in her way and allowed her to work hard and have an excellent record so she would be able to apply for parole. Although, even with her hard work and good behavior, Freya had not been able to be released earlier on parole.

Freya couldn't understand why her application for probation had not been accepted. Then, six months after her baby had been taken away from her, an inmate had been released from prison. Freya asked her if she could go and see Manson on her behalf and give him a message. Eventually, after serving more than a year of her prison sentence, she finally got a visitor.

Freya had gone to the visiting room with such urgency that she didn't even consider the possible embarrassment that she might feel when she and Manson saw each other again. However, to her surprise, the person who had been waiting for her in the visiting room had not been her ex-lover, Manson but, Gracie.

When the two sisters came to sit opposite each other face to face with only the thick sheet of glass between them, there was no love lost. Once they had cared very much for each other, but that was a very long time ago. Now there was only contempt and antipathy between them. Freya had never regretted killing her elder sister's mother because it had all been the consequence of Gracie's act. If it hadn't been for Gracie, perhaps everything that had happened would never have happened at all.

"Why didn't Manson come?" Freya asked. Even though she hated Gracie very much, she swallowed her pride and gave up her dignity for the sake of her child whom she only cared about at this moment.

"What made you think that he would care enough to come?" Gracie sneered back at her younger sister who was looking gaunter than she would have expected. "The only reason I came here today was to tell you that Manson and I have been married and we have a child to look after now. So never ask anybody to come and see him again!"

It wasn't until that moment that Freya had noticed that a middle-aged woman carrying a child in her arms had been sitting on a chair behind her sister. Gracie's voice had faded off into nothingness when Freya saw her child. She stared wide-eyed in a daze. "My baby..." she whispered and then stood up all of a sudden, putting her face and hands against the glass, she whimpered, "My sweet, sweet child..."

Gracie balled her hands into tight fists and gritted her teeth. "This is the first time that I came to see you, and it will be the last! Freya Fu, you are nothing to me! Don't ever come and disturb our lives ever again!" she said in a cold and spiteful voice. While she spat the words out, she glared at Freya who had collapsed in a sobbing, inconsolable heap. She added, "Do as I said, for her sake!"

"Thank you. Please board the plane," the staff said politely with a welcoming smile.

Freya took her boarding pass and shuffled forward silently without turning her head back. 'In the past, because of certain circumstances, I wasn't allowed to disturb Gracie, Manson, and my child. How can I disturb Ximena's life now?' she thought mournfully. Although she desperately longed to embrace Ximena, she was aware that she couldn't do that. Given Ximena's position in QY Island at present, how could she humiliate her by having a mother such as herself? How could she taint her daughter's reputation with what Freya had done in the past?

The thoughts came like a cruel slap across the face for Freya, as she took slow, heavy steps towards the plane. Passengers rushed past her bumping into her with their luggage, but she didn't react at all. She had never left QY Island despite all the hardships, and she had lived like a pauper because she donated all of her money to the orphanages. Freya reflected on what she had done for all of those years since being released from prison, which she had always denied herself of the truth. However, now she had no choice but to admit, the only reason why she had done everything that she did was to see her daughter again. 0000000☐☐☐☐☐☐☐