.
Brian was silent for a while. He then said, "I'll drive you there."
"You go ahead and do your work," Molly replied. "I'm just going to have a look at him," she continued
hastily.
Brian uttered not a single word from what she just said. Instead, he turned his head to have a look at
her. As his eyes turned dark, he nodded and said, "Then, let Eric take you there."
"I can go there by myself..." but even before she could finish, Brian dialed Eric without taking her words
seriously.
When the line was connected, instead of asking Eric to bring her to visit Daniel, he first asked Eric what
he was doing. After learning that he didn't have anything important to do in the morning, he said, "Molly
wants to have a look at Daniel. I'll take her to your place. Then, you take her there."
Feeling the morning breeze at the terrace of the hotel, with a cup of coffee in his hand, Eric looked
ahead with his deep sight and asked in a nasty tone, "Do you trust me that much, enough to let me be
along with Little Molly?"
Upon hearing his words, Brian raised his eyebrows in a domineering manner. Then, he said, "It's not
because I trust you, it's because I'm confident in myself.'
Eric laughed bitterly from the confidence in his words. Even during their childhood, there had always
been a gap between him and Brian that he hadn't been able to pass. Perhaps it was because he'd
been hesitant all this time that he had missed so much.
Later that morning, Molly and Eric were together. All this time, she felt that there was something off in
him, but she could not tell how and where. He still looked frivolous, unruly and arrogant as always, with
the usual nasty smile at the corner of his mouth. However, the air of danger in his body seemed have
reduced largely, which was more stressing.
Wondering what it was, Molly remained quiet. Eric noticed her perplexed actions. Suddenly, he asked,
"What are you thinking about?"
"You've changed. You're weird now..." Molly told him frankly. Whenever she was together with Eric,
despite disliking some of his behaviors, she actually felt relaxed. With him, she could be herself and
say anything she wanted to say without thinking twice.
Despite her words sounding a bit harsh, he just raised his eyebrows and said, "Well, since I haven't
said any emotional words to you, you..." Eric did not finish his sentence. His eyes were taken aback by
something. As a sound of severe brake came through all of a sudden, Molly could not help but lean
forward. Thanks to her sharp eyes and agile hands, she supported her body with her hands, pressing
against the front workbench of the car to prevent her body from striking against the front window and
even flying out.
"What happened?" she asked in an anxious tone. Molly assumed that there was an accident, so she
looked around to see what was happening. It was not until she saw the empty road ahead then she
realized they were going to a drug rehabilitation center in a remote mountain. Further looking around,
she noticed there were no people or car nearby, except them on the road.
Eric's sight turned treacherous. He stretched his hand towards Molly. With good reflexes, Molly tried to
keep away from his hand, but she failed. Feeling that something slid across her neck, she screamed in
fear. Later, she found out that something was in his hands.
For quite some time, he fixed his eyes at the Firefly Stone that was giving out warm red light in his
hand. All of a sudden, he raised his head and looked at Molly, "Did Brian give this to you?"
Seeing his curious and angered reaction, Molly nodded by instinct. She saw the weird light shining in
his eyes, she then asked cowardly, "Why? What's wrong?"
As if he didn't hear her, Eric lowered his eyes to look at the Firefly Stone and grasped it in his big hand.
After a while, he replied, "Nothing!" His words sounded like self-mockery, which contained bitterness.
Gradually loosening his hand where the Firefly Stone was held, he looked at Molly with his deep,
sorrow-filled eyes. "How strange. Three men - me, Spark and Brian, every single one of us gave you a
necklace as a gift," he said. "But, you only have one neck. I wonder whose necklace will you choose to
leave a trace there," he continued. Eric couldn't think of anything else. He could only try his best to
contain the jealousy and pain in his heart for Molly's sake. Upon saying these words, his finger slightly
touched her neck that was beautifully covered by the gauze kerchief.
Hearing his word, Molly frowned, feeling nothing but sadness in her heart from what she just heard.
She said, "Eric…"
"Don't explain!" Eric exclaimed with a bitter smile, cutting her words short. Standing back straight and
looking ahead, he remained silent for a while. Suddenly, he uttered, "Molly, I would be okay as long as
you always remember that it was me who gave you the first necklace, which I solely made for you."
"Eric..." Molly was trying to find the right words for Eric, but it seemed like she couldn't think of any.
As Eric turned his head to Molly, the heavy sadness in his eyes was replaced by nasty arrogance. He
said with a smile, "Don't look at me with those pitying eyes. Otherwise, I might do some crazy things
against Brian. And then later on, you'll regret it and you'll cry."
"Eric," Molly put a restraint on the ache of her nose and said, "there are things I couldn't change. I've
never had the right to make a choice for myself in my whole life. Perhaps, meeting you and Brian is the
biggest surprise that I've ever had. But what I want to tell you is that no matter how things change with
time, the warmth you once brought to me is irreplaceable."
Suddenly, her mind was filled with memories of her and Eric. Whenever she was feeling sad and
desperate, it had always been him who found her before anyone else. It was him who always opened
his arms for her to cry on.
Listening to her, Eric tried to hide his sadness with arrogance. He said, "Don't say such emotional
words to me, or I will do something you don't want me to do right now."
Without waiting for her to react, he averted his sight, restarted the engine and pressed on the gas
towards the drug rehabilitation center. The car ran so fast that Molly was too scared to think about
anything else. She bit her lips hard, grasped the handrail tightly with both her hands and stared ahead
with eyes wide open. She felt like she was about to die at any moment.
As Eric kept hitting on the gas, they ran at the highest speed indicated on the speedometer. His sight
was gloomy, and his heart was quivering. His mind recalled his conversation with Brian yesterday,
asking him if he would be happy if they kept fighting this way.
Confused, he didn't know whether he would be happy or not if he and Brian patched things up. But,
what he did know was that he was currently in pain, knowing that everything's going well between Brian
and Molly. While everybody believed that he just wanted to fight against Brian, but the truth was, he
really had fallen hard in love with Molly. It was because he was in love with her that he found himself
not being able to deal reasonably in anything related to her. On one hand, he wanted to fight for her
and keep her by his side. On the other hand, he was afraid that she would get hurt by doing so. And
just like what Brian said, he was unhappy. He had never been happy.
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