What did she mean she would be fine as long as Shawn was there? Did she trust Shawn that much?

Joanne was completely oblivious to the dark scowl forming on the face of a certain someone.

"Huh? Are you mad?" Joanne raised her head and gazed at Brian with hazy, drunken eyes. "But I didn't disobey you, did I? I didn't drink alone. I... I was drinking with a lot of people!"

As she spoke, she spread her arms wide to draw a large circle in the air, as if to convey to Brian just how many people she had been having drinks with.

Brian's scowl had darken to a point where it could no longer get any darker. He picked Joanne up in a fireman's carry, slinging her body over his shoulders and stomped indoors.

"Hey, Brian!" Joanne began to struggle against him, kicking out her legs until her shoes fell to the lawn. "Let go of me!"

Inside the house, Simon, Martha, and the entire staff of servants had heard Joanne's voice from afar. They dared not speak a single word when they saw that Joanne was carried into the house by Brian. They had all acted in sync by pretending not to see anything.

Joanne understood that it was pointless to ask Simon and the others for help. With all her might, she pounded Brian's back with her fist. "Put me down! Don't touch me!"

One of her statements had gotten on Brian's wick as he suddenly picked up his pace and carried Joanne straight into the bedroom. The door slammed shut with a bang. Following that, he tossed Joanne onto the bed.

The large, 1.8-meter bed felt soft and comfortable as if it had been put together using a pile of cotton; rather than feeling any pain from the fall, Joanne actually felt very comfortable. Plus, with her mind being all fuzzy and hazy, she wanted to just pull the blanket over herself and then go to sleep, which she did.

Brian yanked the blanket away.

He climbed onto the bed and then planted both hands above Joanne's shoulders. With his body hovering above hers, they were now facing to face, and he was gazing down at her. His eyes were filled to the brim with danger.

The only thing that went through Joanne's mind was how intimate this position was; her shoulders flinched back instinctively. Just then, the end of Brian's necktie fell down, tickling her lips.

Somehow, Joanne found the courage to smiled at Brian and then twirled his necktie around her palm. "What are you trying to do, hm?"

With the drunken look on her face and a voice as soft as cotton, she looked just like a lazy kitten.

Brian lowered his body and brought his face closer to hers. Each breath he released was filled with danger as it caressed her cheeks. "If I'm not allowed to touch you, then tell me, who else has your permission to touch you, hm?"

She was speechless. "Err, don't tell me it's that statement that had ticked him off?" She thought.

When Brian saw that Joanne was deep in thought, as if she was considering the idea, he bit down viciously on her lip. "Don't tell me Shawn can touch you?" He growled.

"Why can't he touch me?" Joanne asked without even thinking.

"She thinks that Shawn is allowed to touch her?!"

Brian's eyes clouded over instantly, just like the unpredictable sky during June: dark, heavy clouds and raging thunderstorms.

Meanwhile, Joanne still had a clueless and innocent look as she lay underneath him. Her small hands remained tangled in his necktie as if in a silent invitation.

Brian was practically driven by animal instinct when he cradled her cheeks with both palms and then kissed her.

Hurried and desperate, yet without lacking in warmth, he sucked and tasted every inch of her goodness.

The subliminal part of Joanne's brain kicked into gear as she moved to struggle against him. But when she summoned enough strength to her hands to push him away, she could not bring herself to follow through. In the end, her hands ended up gripping Brian's shirt.

It might have been some alcohol-induced delusion, but she felt as though the familiar Brian was back again. Her Brian, not the cold, and aloof Brian.

Brian was thrown off guard the moment he felt Joanne reciprocating his kisses.

She was probably doing that under the influence of alcohol, but him? What about him? What excuse did he have?

He had already decided to let everything go back to the way it used to be, which meant letting her go. And yet what was he doing now?

Brian suddenly released Joanne and pushed her hands away from his shirt. Joanne stared up at him in confusion as Brian climbed off the bed with an icy expression.

It was as if this man was completely different from the one who had been kissing her passionately just now.

All of a sudden, Joanne felt a surge of coldness in her heart. "Brian, why have you become like this?"

"I've always been like this."

After throwing out those cold words, Brian turned around and left Joanne's room.

After a long time, Joanne finally recovered. She yelled in the direction of the door, "You're lying, you bastard!"

He had not always been like this. When she was in danger, Brian came for her just in time. When she was in pain, he brought her to see a doctor. When she complained about him not keeping his promise, he brought her to Happy World.

Brian was not some emotionless sociopath. Why was he claiming that he had always been this way?

Before Joanne could even delve deeper into them, the haziness of her mind drowned out her thoughts. She clung to the blanket and fell asleep.

Little did she know that Brian had been standing outside her door the whole time.

She said that he was lying.

She was right. He had been lying to her ever since she was a kid.

Brian stood at the corridor for an unknown period before he turned around and opened the door of Joanne's bedroom. He peered inside and saw that she had indeed fallen asleep. The covers were thrown over her body haphazardly. A few strands of hair stuck to her cheek.

He entered the room and adjusted the covers for her. Then he pushed her hair aside. After that, he stood beside her bed and just watched her sleep.

After a while, a frown formed on Joanne's sleeping face. "Brian, you bastard..." She mumbled.

So she hated him even when she was asleep, huh?

Brian sat on the edge of the bed, running his fingertips over the planes of her cheeks.

"Joanne, I'm sorry," he thought.

He stood up immediately and left the room without looking back.

Something else in life awaited him: a tough, all-out war. He did not have much time left to stay by her side.

...

The following day.

Joanne woke up to a heavy sensation in her head; it was as if her head weighed several tons. She had experienced this sensation before, so she knew what must have caused it: alcohol.

But that time, she had woken up in Brian's arms. This time... the only thing on this huge bed was emptiness.

She recalled the events from the previous night: Brian's kiss after they got to her room, and after that, his sudden change of behavior from warmth to coldness. Was it just a dream, or did it happen?

She parted the beige curtains of her bedroom. Bright sunlight pierced in, bringing a considerable amount of alertness back into her mind. She noted the time and realized that it was no longer early. She did not have much time left to wallow in her thoughts. She slipped into the bathroom to wash up.

When she got downstairs, Brian was already seated in the dining hall. The Chinese style breakfast served before him was still steaming. He sat there, flipping through the business section of the newspaper.

Joanne headed over and took a seat at the table. She noticed a bowl of white congee already there for her. In the past, whenever Brian had had too much to drink during a work function, she would always ask the kitchen to prepare a bowl of this congee for him the next day.

She tested out the congee's temperature, which was just right. "Thank you," she told Brian.

"The person you should be thanking is Simon," he said, flipping the newspapers expressionlessly. "He was the one who asked the kitchen to prepare the congee."

"Oh, so it isn't him," she thought. Joanne masked the disappointment in her heart with an "oh". Then she said, "Last night, I-"

"Must be fun, sharing drinks with a bunch of people," Brian said, cutting her off. "You must be very happy now, aren't you?" Brian set down the newspaper. His cold gaze was now focused on her. "Have you forgotten who you are?"

Joanne was not a weakling. "I merely had a bit more to drink. I didn't do anything that will bring you embarrassment," she said, defending herself reasonably.

"You better not have done anything shameful." Brian slammed the newspaper onto the desk. He took two sips of congee and then frowned as he set down his spoon. He stood up to leave.

"Hold it right there!" Joanne stood up and walked over. When she was standing in front of him, she said, "Brian, who are you so mad at? Why are you acting so strangely?"

Brian stared at Joanne deeply. He smirked. "Joanne, haven't I been acting like this from the start?"

He turned around and left Joanne there in a stupor. She felt as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water on her.

She had stubbornly assumed that there was an underlying reason behind Brian's strange behavior. How could she forget the fact this was exactly how Brian had acted from the beginning: cold, aloof, and seeing her only as a nominal wife.

Perhaps he was tired, tired of playing the lovey-dovey married couple with her. That must be why he was reverting everything to the way it was in the beginning.

A sudden wave of sadness hit Joanne. It was like someone was squeezing her heart, and there was a feeling of intense heaviness pressing down upon it. Her hand went to her chest, trying desperately to find where the wound was, where it hurt the most. She found none; there was no wound. Just like that, every fiber of her being was seized by that strange bitterness and sadness.

She pounded her chest again and again. All she wanted was to find a place where nobody could see her and then cry her heart out.

In the end, she grabbed her keys, dashed out the villa, and drove to the police station.

She had to work. Work would be able to calm her down. She could not afford to fall apart, nor could she allow Brian to see just how heartbroken she was.

Having been utterly humiliated, she did not want to lose the final shred of her dignity to him.

Today's work did not go smoothly at all; she had been careless, forgetting things here and there. She had always been flawless in her work, never making any mistakes at all. Today, however, it was like she was cramming all the tiny mistakes she would be making in her entire life into the span of a single day.

Not even Captain Turner could bear the sight of her any longer. "Joanne," he said, "why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

Joanne snapped out of her daze and shook her head. "No need, Captain Turner. I'm sorry. I won't let personal matters interfere with my work from now on."

She took a deep breath and poured everything into her work. Although her mind would still wander off from time to time, she no longer made any silly mistakes.

Near the end of her shift, Captain Turner called everyone for an emergency meeting.

"There's been a homicide in a small town in City Z. The local and town police aren't able to crack it. Our superiors had assigned us to the case. Chief Taylor had decided to let me lead the task force. Now I need a medical examiner to join the task force. Joanne, Shawn, both of you decide between yourselves who will go."

"I'll go," Joanne said without hesitation. "Captain Turner, I'll go with you guys."

Shawn gave Joanne's arm a few tugs. "What do you think you're doing? Do you think this is some kind party you can gate-crash? Didn't you hear what Captain Turner just said? The place is a small town. The conditions and facilities there are probably so primitive that even air-conditioners are considered luxuries. Do you think you can handle it? No. I don't think so. I'll go!"

Captain Turner nodded his agreement. "Also, Joanne, the emotional state you're in right now..."

"My emotions are fine," Joanne pledged, crossing her heart. "I know psychology, so I know how to adjust my own emotions. Also, I can handle it regardless of the town's conditions."

Shawn released a hiss and suddenly pressed a hand over Joanne's mouth. "Captain Turner," he said, "when are we set to leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," said Captain Turner.

Shawn gave him an "OK" gesture. "I'll hash things out with Joanne and give you an answer tonight. Is that alright?"

"No problem."

Shawn nodded. Then he dragged Joanne back into their office and shut the door. "You're sulking!" He yelled.

Joanne lowered her head. "Just let me go, okay? I don't want to see Brian these days."

"What you need to do right now is to calm yourself down," Shawn said, putting a hand on Joanne's shoulder. "Listen to me and don't do anything rash right now. Go home and think things through calmly. Maybe there's some misunderstanding between you and Brian. If you go and leave things unresolved like this, the misunderstanding between you two will just become worse. Just call me tonight, okay?"

For a moment, Joanne was quiet, pressing her lips together as she chewed over his words. She nodded in the end. "Okay."

Shawn heaved a sigh, "Good girl."

At that moment, neither of them could guess what Joanne was about to see when she got home.