Love Began with the First Meeting
Chapter 425 Two Different Worlds Apart (Part One)

It was our inevitable destiny to forget. Everything was like an unaligned drawing. Anything in the past could no longer return to the past. Everything slowly extended like this and staggered inch by inch. In the end, our lives might have been different.

*

"She's gone, right?" It was almost a statement, not a question. And she had no immediate response.

Shirley always wanted to be honest with her son, but she could not tell him that Molly had left.

Slowly, Richie walked towards Shirley, his feet dragging. Astonished by the brutal atmosphere surrounding her son, she was forced to walk backward, one step at a time, until she finally fell into an embrace with the familiar smell of tobacco.

Raising her head slightly, Shirley looked at Richie. Her expression was gloomy, while his cool and sculptured face was impassive. His cold eyes shifted to Brian and stared at him sharply as a falcon would.

It made Brian uncomfortable to have his father looking at him, so he clamped his teeth before inquiring, "Did she leave on her own accord, or did you send her away?"

"Is there a difference?" There was a subtle hint of annoyance behind Richie's calm tone. "After all, she's already left!"

"With my men in the hospital, it was impossible for her to leave the premises!" Brian retorted. His eyes had turned scarlet, and there was a danger that his wound could burst open if he continued to rage. The wound's moist appearance and the metallic smell of blood further added to an already bleak atmosphere.

"I sent her away, so what?" Richie said insolently. "If she didn't want to leave, how could I send her away?" He laughed grimly. His tone was frosty as he related what had happened. "I offered money for her exiting A City with the least hesitation. She accepted the check and understood the conditions." Eyes rolling in exasperation, Richie emphasized, "It was she who wanted to leave. Understand?"

"No!" Brian roared. The combination of panic and fury shook Brian's body, but he managed to stay on his feet. His cheeks already sunken from severe weight loss looked even thinner. Nightmares filled his thoughts, and after hearing what Richie said, they exploded all of a sudden. He gritted his teeth to hold back the pain and cried, "She promised to wait for me!"

There was an uncertain persistence in Brian's roar. He stared at his father as if he were looking at an enemy.

Ignoring the irreverent image of his son, Richie believed it was necessary for Brian to receive training in various aspects of life. "You should know better than anyone else if she was going to wait for you or not and whether she wanted to leave or not!" Richie said.

His words were like an arrow that shot straight through Brian's heart. And the pain was like nothing he had ever felt before. He had never known anything could be as painful as what he was feeling now. He had suffered many injuries in the past, but the pain he felt then was nothing compared to what he was going through now.

'Mol, you said that you would wait for me. Why didn't you wait for me!' Brian grieved.

Already grief-stricken his body was weakened by stress and now consumed by resentment resulted in darkness coming over his eyes until he finally lost consciousness.

As her son lost consciousness again, Shirley's heart ached for him, while tears burned her eyes. Looking at Richie, she mumbled, "Do you have to irritate him more when he wakes up?"

Sighing a little, Richie spoke slowly, "Shirley, love involves two people. It cannot be tenable if only Brian wants it."

His words speared Shirley's heart and made her burst into tears. She knew very well that two people need to work to nurture their love. Shirley had been deeply impressed by how Ryan's persistence had hurt several people at that time. But Brian was her son. How could she prevent herself from feeling his pain and sorrow when she saw him like that?

She felt Richie pull her into his arms. Then he spoke softly, "Let's give everybody a chance to calm down. Let's not push anything. If Brian and Molly are truly destined for each other, then fate will bring them back together, sooner or later. If not, time will smooth things out. Just let them calm down and carefully consider what they truly want."

"But Brian is so persistent and he will surely look for Little Molly by whatever means," said Shirley. Buried in Richie's arms, her voice sounded muffled. While Shirley was well aware that you could never force love on two people, she liked Little Molly very much. She noticed that only Molly brought out the emotional side of Brian, and it was in her presence when he acted out of love.

Staring at Brian who lay in the bed unconscious, Richie only replied with a "Hmmm," and said nothing more.

With the current situation, it did not seem proper for Molly and Brian to meet each other. Besides, Richie feared that the State Parliament would not let it go because the magnates in power were quite mean.

Time flew. The sound of firecrackers bursting eardrums signaled the coming of another new year.

At the mountain villa in A City...

Brian stood in front of a French window, looking calm with his hands inside his trouser pockets to ward off the cold. It was snowing outside, and a thick layer of snow covered the ground. In the night light, falling snowflakes appeared crystal clear. It seemed to have snowed more this year than in previous years. Brian recalled many fond memories of his snow experiences from the past.

There was the night when he and she met at the gate of the Grand Night Casino, and it had been snowing heavily. At that time, she was just an ordinary girl. There was another night when she climbed into his bed, and the next day, she knelt in a field of snow and wept aloud. And how could he forget that night when she made a snowman in the courtyard by herself, with a bright smile that lit her face like the stars lit the night sky. He was unable and unwilling to take his eyes off her at that moment. He remembered that night when he and she walked hand in hand at a street park all covered with snow, enjoying the silence then later listening to her whispered confessions. Finally, there was that one night when he helped her build snowmen, one to represent her and the other to represent him. He broke the faraway look that transported him to the past. Then he saw the cellphone in his hand and slid the screen smoothly with his thumb, and out popped the photo of the two snowmen they built. The one that looked like a girl was her, and the more masculine was him.

'Mol...' he called out in his heart.

The mere mention of her name even in his mind was so painful that he could not help but frown. He closed his eyes to shut off the pain, and felt suffocated as his heart contracted. 00000☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐