Love Began with the First Meeting
Chapter 965 Extra Story 103 Of Aaron Love

she thought in her heart but didn't dare utter the words out loud. As the silent words etched into her heart, she sat weak and limp in the chair. Her eyes trailed off, staring into nothingness.

*

Aaron gestured to Brian, who was sitting opposite him, by raising the glass of wine in his hand. Brian glanced at him with his falcon-like eyes and closed his thin lips while he raised his glass of wine as well. His movement looked extremely cold as if he was telling everybody else to keep away from him.

It had been two years since Aaron had last seen Brian through a video call. He didn't attend the opening ceremony of Grand Night Casino in QY Island. Instead, he had sent Jason and Shane in his place. Brian had looked like a wild man on the video call last time, but now he looked quite domineering, just like a king. His falcon-like eyes rotated slightly, giving off a cold and menacing appearance.

While they were engaged in conversation, Aaron's phone beeped with a message, and he opened his cellphone. With his eyes lowered, he clenched his jaw slightly, causing his temples to move. Aaron couldn't help but purse his lips when he read the short message. Brian's deep eyes had been fixed on Aaron the whole time. At the sight of Aaron's expression, an almost invisible smile played on Brian's thin lips. He twirled the glass of wine with his slender fingers and asked in a dull tone, "Is there anything that could cause trouble for you in QY Island?!"

Upon hearing the question, Aaron raised his eyes to look at Brian. In an indifferent tone, Brian continued, "Is that about a woman?"

Aaron reacted by frowning as his mind was read by another person, even if that person was Brian Long. He still felt uncomfortable and vulnerable.

"It's nothing," Brian said, looking at Aaron. "Everyone has that somebody or something that they're not able to let go of their whole lives." It sounded as though he was talking from experience. "Don't beat yourself up because of it... We're only human, and some things are just too difficult to overcome in life," he added.

A tinge of bitterness appeared at the corners of Aaron's mouth. He looked at Brian, and Brian was looking at him. Without saying a word to each other, they both raised their glasses as if to toast silently and they sipped the wine. Sometimes it wasn't necessary for men to talk about what they were feeling with each other. They could understand each other tacitly.

The dinner dragged out until midnight.

Brian didn't stay long in QY Island. Instead, he only went to the casino to

have a look before he flew back to T City.

Aaron watched as Brian's private jet turned on the runway and then accelerated with a roar of its engine as it took flight. He then turned around and left the airport.

Ken was driving the car, heading to the manor. The car passed through the most prosperous roads in QY Island that were lit up with different colored neon lights. As the car sped past, the lights gave out the most beautiful colors, like dazzling fireworks in the sky, while leaving behind sad figures and lonely hearts in the night.

As soon as the car stopped, Aaron got out and strode towards the manor. On the way there, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye that stopped him in his tracks.

He turned his head to look in the direction that had caught his eye, and there he saw a light coming from the garden house. It was only a dim light, but he noticed it because he hadn't seen any activity there for the whole of one year.

As Ken got out of the car, he realized that Aaron stood there unmoved. He too followed the direction of Aaron's gaze. When he saw the dim light in the garden house, his eyes opened wide in astonishment and gaped at the sight. 'Has Miss Mo gone to the garden house?' he wondered.

Ken was so excited at the prospect that he felt his heartbeat race. He moved his gaze to Aaron and said, "Your Highness..."

Aaron stared at the garden house for a moment longer and smiled with self-ridicule. He then proceeded to head towards the manor and said to Ken, "You can leave and have a rest now."

Ken gave him a courteous nod and answered, "Yes, Your Highness." He looked at the garden house once again and sighed before he turned and left.

The night was getting darker and darker.

All was quiet except for the sound of crickets chirping in the night.

Sitting on the beanbag, Ximena admired the beautiful roses that were blooming under the backdrop of the vast starry sky, lost in her thoughts. She reflected on the story of the rose and found that the end of the story wasn't final as she had thought previously. After the prince changed his mind and came back to the multiflora rose, he rescued the dying rose and abandoned the rugosa rose completely. The prince spent every day together with the multiflora rose. As a result, the rose gradually regained her previous happiness and self- confidence. She tried her best to live a colorful life. The rose lived happily like this until one day; a bee came to tell her why there was no other rose in the garden. The bee said that the prince's mother didn't like the thorns on the multiflora roses, so she had violently ripped out all of the multiflora roses from the garden. As the multiflora roses were being rooted out by the prince's mother, the rose's mother had tried her best to drop a seed into the soil before she had been uprooted. Had her mother not done that, the rose would not have survived.

Once the multiflora rose learned the truth from the bee, she began resisting the prince and became cold towards him. She was no longer vibrant and blooming. Instead, she began to wilt. By doing that the rose punished herself in the process while taking her revenge on the prince. However, when she saw how sad the prince had become, the rose felt no pleasure in the revenge. On the contrary, in the end, she felt so unhappy that she gradually withered and died.

It turned out that the rose was destined to die in the end, no matter which version of the story was told.

With these thoughts on her mind, Ximena sighed. Leaning her head back against the beanbag, she looked at the stars that were shining brightly in the black sky. Her mind was a jumbled mess. The report that she had read from the newspaper clipping about her parents and the things that the political commissar's wife had said to her all swirled around inside of her head. The two different trains of thought struggled and collided against each other, and the constant feeling of pushing and pulling in opposite directions of her mind was nearly driving Ximena insane.

Then suddenly, her thoughts were distracted by the sound of the glass door moving, but Ximena didn't move. Shortly afterward, the soft rhythmic noise of footsteps was heard heading her way, and it stopped when the person was standing by her side.

It was Aaron. He looked into Ximena's eyes, which had no focus now. It was as if she had lost her soul. Sighing quietly, he said, "It's very late. Come back to your bedroom and go to bed. Okay?" He wasn't ordering her to go. It was more of a request. Even though Aaron had the power to destroy everybody, and he stood in the highest position, Aaron could still lower his head and humble himself in front of the person that he cared about.

Ximena moved her gaze to Aaron and blinked as if to come back to reality. 'This man... is in pain as well, isn't he? It's okay. We can be in pain together,' she thought.

After a moment when he saw that Ximena didn't move at all, Aaron bent down without saying a word and gently picked her up in his arms. He then turned and carried her out of the garden house and headed to the main house. Such was the relationship that they were fated to have. Aaron and Ximena resisted each other and yet they were both attracted to each other. Despite the torment, Aaron was content for at least Ximena shared the same home as him.

Sometimes when he passed by,"Only Memory," he always had the impulse to walk into the shop and have a look. According to the shop manager's daily report to him, Aaron learned that she was able to smile, at least at work. He had been happy to hear that. It was not until then that he understood how it felt when a person's emotions were affected by another person, as his mother had put it.

After entering the main house, with Ximena in his arms, Aaron strode towards her bedroom. However, on the way there when he reached the center of the living room, he heard Ximena quietly ask, "Aaron, have you ever loved me?"

*