Love Began with the First Meeting

Yesterday, Shirley had taken Mark to the hotel for dinner. That was the first time he had seen Richie. He had almost thought it was Brian who was standing in front of him. He could hardly tell the two people apart except for the age difference. He had wondered who that was, but he didn't ask Shirley. Then after Shirley had told him Richie's name, he connected all the dots. He also recalled how Shirley had introduced herself when they first met so Mark figured out who Richie was from there.

Shirley was very happy that Mark finally knew who she was. She had been thinking about how to introduce herself and Richie to Mark these days. Unexpectedly, her smart grandson had worked out the puzzle by himself.

It should have been a happy family reunion, but too many things had happened that day.

***

In QY Island, Brian was having a meeting while Molly was reading a magazine in the lounge. But not one single page had been turned after a long while. She raised her head every now and then, looking towards another room through the glass window.

The meeting had been ongoing for more than three hours now. They had even skipped the meal. The secretary had brought her takeout food instead but she barely touched it. Her brows were furrowed in worry.

All over the news was the bombing at the amusement park - things were definitely serious. She put the magazine down and walked to the glass window. The expression on Brian's face was cold as usual. He listened and wrote every once in a while.

Molly lowered her eyes, turned around, and sat back on the sofa. She watched Brian. Her heart tightened. Somehow, she found it difficult to breathe. She pressed her lips together and called Eric.

"Hello, hello, look who's missing me," Eric joked.

Molly frowned and scolded, "How can you be in the mood to joke right now?"

Eric raised his brows and asked, "Little Molly, are you worried about me?"

"..." Molly was silent.

"Don't be embarrassed. Just tell me. If this thing led you to call and worry about me, then it was worth it even if I lost the Empire," Eric continued teasingly.

"Eric Long!" Molly roared.

better," Eric

wordless. She rolled her eyes

going to say. "Let men worry about these things. Brian will take care of the things on QY Island. I am not worried. And things here are

much relieved, "Eric, is everything

I promise," Eric answered earnestly. "Don't you believe in Brian and

looked

okay? All you need to do is take good care of yourself so we won't have to worry about you.

worked like a tranquilizer. They talked for a few more minutes

again towards the meeting room. The

who were busy, time flew by but if you were waiting, time ticked away extremely slowly. The sun was starting to set. When the night fell, QY Island was lit by various kinds of lights. The meeting that had lasted almost all day finally

If things go wrong again this time, don't bother going back to Dragon Island.

the room looked

when Brian walked out of the meeting room. "He's

stopped to look at Tony, "Take him to Aaron and tell Aaron I'm coming over later,"

Tony left right away.

Brian assumed that his enemy's scheme was working from two angles: one was for Mark and the other was for Molly. Once they controlled them, they controlled Brian. He remembered how worried he had been when he had gone back to the villa and Molly wasn't there. He had called her

he made his way to the lake, he kept thinking about what

distraction from the

on the rear-view mirror from the sunshine and the glass in the building.

Instead of walking straight, he had walked in a zigzag line, which would make

when he recalled all this, but it was gone quickly. He opened the door of the lounge and

hand. His heart ached. He walked over and sat

moaned with a frown. Her

and looked at Brian. After a while, she came to her