Molly held onto the chopsticks when she heard Brian's remarks. Biting her lower lips slightly, she stared
right at the man sitting in front of her. Fire was burning in her eyes. "I've agreed to stay at your house
for a month..." Molly paused for a second," to be your woman." It appeared that she had made a great
effort just to say those words. "But I need to work. I... I really need the money," Molly added.
She felt sorry for herself when she finished speaking. What she really wanted to do at the moment was
have a good cry somewhere, anywhere else but not in front of this man. She shouldn't have made any
compromises, but she couldn't just run away. Reality was very cruel, and she didn't have any choice
now.
Brian didn't even take a look at Molly, and he had kept a straight face the whole time. With a stony
expression, he continued with his dinner unhurriedly. It appeared that he had known that Molly would
say yes and he would get whatever he wanted. Molly had become his pawn and everything was under
his control now.
Molly had waited a long while for a response, but she felt that Brian was going to remain silent. It took
her a lot of courage to negotiate her conditions with him, but now that he was not saying anything, she
started to feel worried. She pursed her lips and said with tears brimming in her eyes," I'm begging you.
I really need to work..."
Brian finally raised his head and looked at Molly, and it seemed like he could see right through her. A
feeling of loss and sadness pinched his heart.
She wasn't Becky.
Becky had begged him a couple of times before, but it was truer to say that she was asking more than
begging for what she wanted. He had always seen the stubbornness in her eyes, which made him feel
a little angry but powerless at the same time. Brian finally broke the silence and said," Being my
woman means you don't have to work. Okay?" Molly felt the unhappiness radiating from his voice. His
eyes were fixed on her with a piercing stare and his thin lips tightened while swaying the glass of wine
with his long fingers.
A dead silence fell in the room. Shivering slightly, Molly felt that she was about to suffocate in that
atmosphere. She was scared because of the tone of his voice, but the fear was replaced by anger as
she heard his disrespectful remarks.
"I agreed to be your woman to pay you back the 200 thousand loan… But I will never be your
mistress," Molly had the courage to blurt those words out finally. It was hard to figure out whether she
said those words out of anger or out of other reasons. There was intensity in the way she said those
words and her hand gripped the chopsticks so tightly that it seemed to snap any minute.
Brian opened his mouth slightly, as if to object to what she had said. Instead, he just said coldly,"
Whatever." He seemed to have changed his mind to argue as his lips curved in a barely perceptible
smile while he spoke.
Molly had been very nervous about what his answer would be. She had been afraid that he would
refuse her conditions. Now that he had given her a very short answer, which barely counted as a yes,
she was too shocked to react.
Before Molly could think of anything else to say, Brian stood from the table, left the dining room, and
went straight upstairs to the study. Once again, Molly was left all alone in the big dining room.
Molly pursed her lips as if to suppress whatever disappointment or anxiety she was feeling that
moment. She raised her head and was stunned as she noticed the intricate design of the stairs. After a
while, she withdrew her gaze and began to eat alone quietly. Her mind was busy trying to figure out
what Brian meant by his answer. Unknown to her, someone looking enraged had been observing her
the whole time in a dark corner.
Meanwhile, in the study, Brian was gazing at the snow outside as he stood in front of the window. A
fresh layer of snow had covered the buildings like thick powder. Earlier it had been a bright sunny day,
but now, the sky had gloom all over it. It seemed that more freezing days were ahead.
Thinking about it, Brian didn't know the reason why he wanted Molly to keep him company for a month.
He wanted her to stay probably because her eyes looked like Becky's, or because he found some
comfort being around her since the night she had spent with him unintentionally. For some reason, he
had come up with this idea out of nowhere when he saw her sitting on the ground the day they had
been at David's place.
He had never felt lonely before. Richie, Shirley, and Wing were always around when he was growing
up. But at that very moment when he saw Molly at David's place, he felt unusually lonely. He wanted
her companionship, even just for a month. It might have been because Becky had left him again.
'Well done, Becky, '
Narrowing his eyes, Brian said to himself with a sneer.
'Weren't you wondering why I didn't chase you to the airport to stop you from leaving this time? You
have decided to leave or come back to me whenever you want regardless of how I felt. You've always
thought that you were free to go, and that I had no choice but to put up with it. You never thought that I
would leave you, didn't you?
That's fine. I'll let you go this time, and as you've wished, I won't come to find you. Let us see how long
it would take for you to come back to me on your own, '
Brian thought to himself. His angular face darkened as his heart sank when he thought about Becky.
His mouth tightened into a thin line. It appeared that there was a lot of grievance in his heart that he
couldn't vent out.
"Ding", the alert sound from Brian's mobile phone brought his thoughts back to reality, as he felt his
phone vibrate. Withdrawing his gaze from the snow, he picked up the phone and answered. The anger
on his face had disappeared and had shifted into a distant look right away.
"Brian, we got news from Shawn," Tony spoke calmly at the end of the line.
There was a gentle smile on Brian's face when he heard the news. Then he answered slowly," Isn't he
afraid that Richie would take him back to the Hell Forest?"
He said to Tony teasingly, in a way he had never done before.
"He is on QY Island as of the moment," Tony said with a smile. It was Brian who leaked the information
to Shawn Lie. Now, all they needed to do was to watch the fire from the other side of the river. The idea
was smart and absolutely admirable. Tony thought that not anyone could have come up with such an
idea like Brian had.
Brian looked out of the window again, and said in a cold tone," I enjoy having interesting friends. Aaron
was very tough and I'd be more than happy to tell him this news."
Tony shrugged his shoulders when he heard Brian's remarks. XK had the largest number of narks
around the world. You could get the news you wanted as long as you could pay them with whatever
they asked. But not anyone could make a deal with XK unless they would be satisfied by what they
could get. Obviously, Aaron was a lucky man.
Tony thought of something else while he was talking about the news which he had told Brian on the
phone," Vincent said that QY Island's government had already made a decision. It is going to be the
development zones in the Eastern District."
"Umm," answered Brian shortly. He was not surprised at this result at all. He had already presumed this
when he knew Aaron had been planning to take action.
"I," Brian said then stopped all of a sudden. He momentarily forgot what he was saying as his eyes
caught someone who was walking out of his villa. His eyes were burning with anger and brutality when
he saw this.
"Stop Molly Xia!" shouted Brian.
"What?" Tony asked at the other end of the line as he was confused by what Brian had said. But Brian
had hung up on him before he could ask further what he was talking about.
He was startled for a short while, but then he understood what Brian had asked him to do at that
moment. As his assistant for so many years, he had learned to read Brian's mind in just a few words.
He ran to the front gate and stopped Molly from leaving the villa. Gasping, he told Molly coldly," Miss
Xia, Mr. Long is looking for you."
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda