"Brian... Brian?"

After the car galloped at its full speed for ten minutes, Brian, not saying a word, still held Joanne's hand firmly. His knuckles were white.

Her fingers were small and slender and had been clutched by Brian for a long time. She had to call him.

But there was no response.

Something was wrong.

Usually, after seeing Rowdy, Brian should regard him as an opponent. He would never react like that in the face of his opponents.

Was Brian angry with Joanne?

Joanne took a careful look at Brian, finding that he was not angry. That's not how he looked when he got angry.

"Brian," she shook his hand and asked carefully, "what's up?"

Only then did Brian come to himself. He looked at Joanne and said, "Sit closer to me."

Joanne followed his order and thought Brian would say something to her. While he just hugged her tightly. "Is the work very tiring?" asked Joanne.

When Brian hugged her like this before, he said he felt very tired.

"I feel fine." Brian paused and suddenly called her name, "Joanne..."

"Well?"

"Don't meet with Rowdy again." said Brian, "Please contact me as soon as possible if he comes for you. I'll arrange for some people to protect you from tomorrow. If you're out on business trip, let them follow you."

Joanne could not digest so much information for a moment, and looked at Brian in a daze. "It is just Rowdy... Is he that scary? Do you know him?"

"Joanne," Brian said slowly, avoiding the point, "I can take a gamble with the company. But for you, I can't risk anything."

Nevertheless, Joanne still felt something wrong.

Brian was so haughty and arrogant that he never regarded others as an opponent. But why did Rowdy make him so startled?

Before Joanne came up with an answer, Brian said again, "You should listen to me during this time. I know Rowdy is by no means a good person. He is even more complicated than you think."

His relationship with Rowdy was a hundred times more complicated than Joanne had imagined.

Brian's words made Joanne realize that the criminal suspect in David's case was Milo, and he called Rowdy brother.

Being the leader of a suspected murder, how could he be a good guy?

She nodded and said, "Hum, I'll follow your words and never see Rowdy again!"

Raising his lips, Brian hugged Joanne tightly into his arms.

More than ten years later, the deep uneasiness enveloped him again.

That's why he hadn't seen Joanne in the past ten years. He knew this day would come finally. Letting Joanne being with him was like stepping on a time bomb.

At this moment, only by holding Joanne tightly could his suspended heart be stabilized for a moment.

Returning home, Brian made a few phone calls in the study room and said to Joanne after the dinner, "I'll go out and have something to discuss with Wesley."

Joanne had already become accustomed to it for he usually met with Wesley and some other friends at this time. She just asked, "When will you come back?"

"Before 12 o'clock." Brian kissed the place between Joanne's eyebrows, "Sleep first if you are sleepy, OK?"

"OK!" Joanne nodded her head, "Be careful!"

Getting in the car, Brian asked Winston to send him to the club on the top of the mountain.

It was the first time that Winston had seen Brian like this. He looked very calm while his dark eyes could make people gasp for air.

He dared not ask any more questions. Thus he started the engine and drove as fast as he could and sent Brian at the gate of the club in the shortest time.

"Mr. Brian." said the manager of the club, who knew Brian would come and waited at the gate a long time ago. He opened the door for Brian as soon as the car stopped, "Mr. Mu and Mr. Gavin are already waiting for you in the private room on the top floor."

Brian nodded slightly as he entered the special elevator and went straight up to the private room on the top floor.

Gavin and Wesley had already drunk half a bottle of wine. When Brian came in, Gavin first asked, "What happened? You sound so urgent on the phone."

"It was Rowdy." Brian sat on the black leather sofa, his face as dark as the rainy June days, "Joanne knew him by accident, and he is pursuing her now."

"Pohh-" The first reaction from Gavin was not fear. He thought that was very funny instead, "How did the freak Rowdy lay his eyes on Joanne?"

After Brian gave a simple account of what happened in the Happy World, Wesley furrowed his brow and said, "Did Rowdy know your relationship with Joanne?"

"He knows that Joanne is married, but he is still stalking." Brian grinned coldly, "Rowdy wants to steal her from me."

Gavin made a "stop" gesture, "Brian, the point is, did Rowdy discover you?"

Brian paused, a touch of coldness passing over his eyes, "Perhaps not. The news was all over the place more than 10 years ago. He probably thought I was dead. At best, he may only think my surname familiar."

The thing that happened a decade ago was a taboo among Brian, Wesley, and Gavin. Though they all thought it a must to rake over the past since they all knew Rowdy was back, when Brian mentioned it straightforwardly like this, Wesley and Gavin were still surprised.

Wesley asked while frowning, "What do you do now?"

"The game with Rowdy is inevitable. It's better to face him earlier." Brian looked at Wesley and said, "How about you?"

"There is no doubt that Rowdy wants to occupy my place in Glasgow. But I couldn't find out the undercover he set around me." Wesley felt a little headache, but a smile was still hanging on his lips, "If I pulled this undercover out one day, I would really be reluctant to punish him. This person is such a talent good at playing cat-and-mouse game."

Gavin leaned on the sofa with rare dignity, "We've been prepared long enough. I don't believe that we three people can't beat Rowdy. He wants to pursue Joanne, and we'll have our revenge together! But then again, we have to speed up the settlement. I'm not married yet!"

Wesley contemptuously smiled and said, "As if you could marry someone after you get rid of him."

"You're a pot calling the kettle black!" Gavin resolutely retaliated, "Wesley, aren't you still single? What's more, you are older than me. You old bachelor!"

"Because I chose to be." Wesley didn't think too much of being single, "Marriage is a burden to me. Just be wife fans yourself, and I'll be watching."

Brian took a look on his watch, finding out it was late. He stood up and said, "I'll go home now."

Wesley responded, "Goodbye, number one wife fan."

Ignoring Wesley, Brian left the club for home.

Gavin walked to the window and saw Brian getting in the car. He sighed, "Wesley, do you think Brian will tell Joanne the whole thing?"

"Not now." Wesley shook the wine glass, "The greatest wish in Brian's whole life is that Joanne could live a happy and simple life. That's why he never met with Joanne for so many years. So to stop Joanne from worrying, he won't confess the whole thing about Rowdy to her until the last moment."

"Let alone you, I also couldn't figure out what kind of power does the so-called 'love' actually have. It can even make people like Brian behave abnormally." Gavin sat back on the sofa and thought about it, "Right, I have something to discuss with you."

"What's that?" Wesley asked.

Gavin smiled mysteriously, "It'll be Brian's birthday soon..." He told Wesley about his long-planned plot and said, "Brian has already confessed his love to Joanne. Thus it is no longer meaningful to hide these things. It's better to spill all these things to give Mr. Brian a hand!"

The corner of Wesley's mouth hung up in a disturbing arc. He raised his hand and said, "I agree with you."

Gavin high-fived Wesley, then took out their mobile phones to send group messages to other people, waiting for the show with a wicked smile on his face.

Brian was unconscious of Gavin's conspiracy, only asking Simon to drive faster. It was more than 11 o'clock when he got home. Joanne was still awake, lying in bed yawning at the movies.

Joanne finally saw Brian come back, happily turned off the tablet and got up to get his pajamas. "Go take a bath." She yawned again.

Brian took the clothes, frowning to show his care for Joanne, "Why don't you sleep first when you're sleepy?"

"I want to wait for you." Joanne said with a smile.

Brian helplessly stroked the Little Monster's head, "I'll wash quickly."

Finishing the words, he entered the bathroom. Joanne jumped to the bed, pulling over the quilt and wrapping herself in it. Listening to the splash of water in the bathroom, she felt inexplicably quiet and peaceful.

Brian dried his hair and walked out and found that Joanne had fallen asleep. She wrapped herself in a soft quilt like a silkworm pupa, showing only her head. She breathed shallowly, sleeping peacefully and sweetly, which made Brian unable to disturb her.

He tiptoed to the bed and sat down, lifting the long hair sticking to Joanne's cheek. She seemed to know that it was his hand, suddenly grabbed and dragged his hand to her arms with a satisfied expression.

Joanne didn't wait for him to come back on purpose, only she could fall asleep when he was at home.

Brian's heart suddenly melted. He lay down and hugged Joanne tightly.

In the following days, it was not Joanne who relied on Su Brian, but he depended on her. He may even don't know how to spend the long night if there was no sign of Joanne in this house.

Joanne was a heavy sleeper, but she always woke up in time when she sensed something was wrong.

However, she woke up inexplicably at about three o'clock in the morning that night. She saw Brian sleeping heavily with frowning brows and compressed lips by the dim light of the yellow wall lamp. Although he slept quietly, she could see he was deep in pain.

"Dad..."

Brian suddenly called his father with a faint voice. If it was not the second time he had called his father in sleep, Joanne would nearly reckon it as her illusion.

Every time Brian had nightmares, it was about his father.

Joanne could not help thinking that the accident fourteen years ago was not as simple as it seemed. It may have an inside story.