atricia clutched one of Joanne's hands and made her unable to move or dodge.

If Steven really hit her, this would be the second time.

Though she had lost hope in Steven, her so-called "father", when he hurt her again and again, Joanne still felt something was gradually peeling off her heart...

In the ballroom, people had noticed the argument between Joanne and Patricia. When Steven stormed to them, a large audience had gathered. As Steven raised his palm in front of Joanne, the audience all clapped their hands over their mouths, waiting for what would happen next.

The thing that peeled off Joanne's heart quickly died and vanished...

She closed her eyes and wait for the pain on her cheeks.

No one expected Brian to suddenly show up.

They even didn't see how he got near Steven. The only thing they saw was Brian stopping Steven's hand in the middle of the air, his handsome face with a bone-chilling coldness.

The knuckles on the hand he used to stop Steven went white as if he were going to rip off Steven's hand just like that.

Joanne knew Brian came. She opened her eyes and stared at him. Suddenly, a mist seemed to cover her eyes. Though her vision became blurry, she still fixed her gaze firmly on Brian.

She felt helpless.

Brian felt a whipping on his heart and he glared at Patricia. "Hands off!"

The two words were so loud that Patricia couldn't help but shiver. Then, she involuntarily released Joanne's hand.

Almost at the same time, Brian slammed Steven's hand away. He pulled Joanne to him, and President Frenk had already had the waiter send a moist handkerchief.

He picked up the white handkerchief on the tray and carefully wiped the wine stain on Joanne's face.

The entire room seemed to stop to stare at Brian, even waiters in trousers and vests stopped walking in the crowd. Everyone fixed their gazes on Brian.

"What's wrong, dad?"

Abruptly, Mia screamed to break the silence. She nervously grabbed Steven, who frowned in pain. Everyone readily jumped to the conclusion that Brian had hurt him.

When the father wanted to slap the daughter's face, the son-in-law injured his father-in-law. What a show!

"Brian!" Mia held Steven's hand, her delicate face with both affection and anger. "As the president of Lambert Group who leads tens of thousands employees, you don't even respect your seniors?"

Brian sneered. "Miss Scott, talk to me when you figure out what a senior is."

In other words, Steven couldn't be taken as a senior.

"You-!" Mia looked at Brian with a sense of grievance. She seemed to be choked with rage and appeared pitiful.

She thumped on the ground, got rid of Steven's hand to approach Joanne. "Sister, I know you don't want to accept me and my mom, but how can you hurt dad?" In the end, her eyes reddened.

Joanne did not want to see her acting so she looked away. "Steven is not my dad since ages ago."

Her calm voice rang, and everyone present heard it clearly in this quiet room.

All of a sudden, everyone startled. They pointed and turned their whispers into talking.

"When will you stop?" Mia wept, like a wavering flower in the rain. "Do you want me to die?"

Coldness flashed upon Joanne's lips. "So will you die or not?"

The audience talked even louder. Patricia stormed to Joanne with a pair of widened eyes. "Joanne, how dare you curse my daughter? I'll slap you in the face..."

"Mrs. Su!" President Frenk stopped Patricia and signaled at Brian to comfort Patricia. "Today is my birthday party, please, stop it for me." Then, he lowered his voice. "I can help Scott Group's funding with other methods."

Hearing that, Patricia finally calmed down, but she still wanted to curse Joanne. "How vicious you are! One day you'll end up dead on the street!"

Joanne did not mind it so she tugged at Brian's hand. "I want to go home."

"Alright," Brian said, "I'll drive you home."

Just now, when Mia poured the wine, she did not hold back. Now, not only her face was wine-stained, the upper part of her dress had the salmon marks. Then, Brian once again took off his coat to cover her. After apologizing and saying goodbye to President Frenk, he clutched her shoulders and walked her through the crowd to the gate.

When Brian looked at Joanne, his eyes showed affection and tenderness, but his face appeared very grave. Thus, no one dared to discuss anymore and only watched them leave.

After getting in the car, Joanne kept silent.

She never knew what it felt like to have a father.

When she was young, her mom looked after her. "Dad" sounded like an ordinary title to address someone in the family, as common as Granny Wallace, Uncle Chen, or Aunt Laura.

When she grew up, she realized what "dad" meant but still didn't feel close to him. He was always busy and hardly spent time with her once a week.

Then, Steven brought back Patricia and her daughter. He confessed that he had another family, making her mother die of a heart attack.

Since then, they completely fell apart.

What Joanne couldn't figure out was why Steven betrayed them when her mother was such a good woman, why he abandoned his family and never saw her as his daughter.

After the car was started, Brian held Joanne in his arms.

He knew what she was thinking.

Though disappointed in Steven, she still felt a family tie with her father deep down in her heart.

Last time, when Steven slapped her in the face and she said she wouldn't see him as her father anymore, they were alone.

However, this time, when she said that out loud despite the people watching, she almost cut all ties with her father in her desperation.

She would be lying if she said that she was not hurt at all and Brian would not buy it.

However, Joanne was not that hurt, only felt a little tired. Lying in Brian's arms, she was breathing in air that could comfort her. Suddenly, she remembered that Brian used to say that he would be with her for the rest of his life.

That was enough. As long as Brian wouldn't leave her, she wouldn't fear anything.

The car drove steadily and Joanne slowly fell asleep.

Upon arriving, Brian didn't want to wake her up so he carried her into the bedroom. Moreover, the dress she was wearing might be uncomfortable, so he changed her gown into pajamas.

However, he was not good at it, so after a few movements, he woke her up. He had to stroke her head. "Go ahead and sleep if you're tired. I'll be here with you."

Joanne rubbed her eyes and straightened up. "I haven't removed my makeup."

Then, she realized that her gown had been changed into pajamas. She remembered that she felt a pair of hands touching her body just now, and now, it turned out to be real.

Joanne flushed with embarrassment and quickly jumped off the bed. "I'll take a shower!"

After removing her makeup and taking a shower, Joanne felt refreshed and fetched Brian's pajamas as well.

Brian readily took it and went to the bathroom. After finishing the shower, he saw Joanne lying on the bed idly and stroked her fingers on the sheet. So he walked to her, tucked her in, and lay beside her, asking, "What happened at the party?"

"PatriciOriont to me, said the Scott Group was in short of money, and needed my help, but I didn't give her anything."

Brian frowned. "Didn't your bother tell you that he's now targeting the Scott Group?"

Joanne was dazed. "Which means my brother stole their money?"

Brian did not deny it but just added, "Steven didn't know it, so he sent Patricia to you for help."

Joanne did not reply.

She did not know about business, no matter what Chris and Brian did, she was in no position to interfere, but...

Brian knew that Joanne pitied her father. No matter how much she hated Steven, she did not want to see him like an underdog.

"Forget about it." He pressed Joanne into his arms. "Your bother knows how to do it."

Joanne nodded and took the initiative to circle Brian's waist with her arms. She did not know if it was because of her emotional change just now or something else, she could not fall asleep.

She touched the sheet under her and said, "I like the bedding in my old room." They were soft, felt comfortable, and of light color. Everything was to her liking.

Brian said, "I bought it for you."

"You... bought it?" Joanne found it hard to believe. "How was that possible?"

"Why?" Brian sounded natural. "I drove past a bedding store and saw them displaying their new arrivals, so I happened to buy one of them. What is strange about that?"

"... you, went to a bedding store to buy stuff... that sounds weird enough."

While saying, Joanne curdled into Brian's arms and imagined Brian walking into a bedding store.

The clerks must have gawked at him, and he personally bought a set of bedding for her.

At that time, did he also look forward to their marriage, didn't he?

As Joanne was about to ask that out loud, she found something wrong-

Brian's breaths!

Just as she looked up, Brian pressed her down onto the bed.

The danger was lurking in his dark eyes, and he stared at her lips. "Well, I was going to let you off tonight, but since you've been stirring in my arms..."

He looked down, and the rest of his words seemed unnecessary.

Starting from the first time, Joanne couldn't remember how many times it had been. However, every time when she smelled his familiar smell and when he hit her with violent kisses, her heart would race and she would be out of breath.

She did not know if she was moved or out of her mind, because when his lips were a few centimeters away, she raised her head and kissed him.

Brian was startled.

Joanne was shy, and she barely took the initiative.

However, every time she did, she would turn him on just like now.

He pressed Joanne's head against his and kissed her deeply...