Brian reached the passenger's side of his car and opened the door. Joanne got in obediently. After settling herself into the passenger seat, Joanne took out that Centurion Card and handed it to Brian the moment he was in the car. "Here."

Brian frowned. "The card doesn't work?"

"You gave me the wrong card," Joanne said earnestly. "My salary for two years is 48, 000 in total. But you gave me a credit card. What, you want me to use up exactly 48, 000 worth of credits and then return the card to you? But that's going to be a real pain. How am I supposed to keep track of the amount I spend every time I use it..."

The crease on Brian's brow deepened. "You only want two years' worth of salary?"

He seemed to recall that yesterday Joanne had mentioned something about taking her responsibilities seriously for the next two years.

Why only two years?

"That was what you said, wasn't it? You said that we'll be getting a divorce after two years," Joanne said. "It's not like I can drop by every day after the divorce just to prepare your meals. Other people will probably think that we couldn't get over each other..."

Brian's knitted brow eased up. He did not retrieve the card. Instead, he stepped down on the accelerator, hard. The high-performing ONE77 propelled forward like an arrow leaving a bow. Joanne's back slammed against the back rest. In a fit of anger, Joanne glared at Brian. But then she noticed the dark gloom on his face, which looked a lot like a mass of cloudy storm.

Before they got their marriage license, Joanne had already experienced Brian's icy coldness at the hotel. But that was just coldness. Now, he was... terrifying.

Yes. Terrifying. His long and narrow eyes were cold and dark. His entire body exuded a murderous air, as if he were a cheetah on the verge of going berserk.

The endless terror she felt had taken away her ability to speak.

All of a sudden, an ear-piercing screech rang out as the car braked. The ONE77 stopped in front of the police station authoritatively. "We're here," Brian said coldly.

Joanne tried hard to put a smile on her lips. "Thank you."

Brian's handsome face did not show any reactions. He did not even spare Joanne a glance. Anger rose within Joanne. She flung the door open and got off the car.

"Why is he acting like such a poseur? It's not like I begged him to give me a ride. I could've ridden Shawn's car just fine, thank you very much!" Joanne thought.

Swiftly, the ONE77 left the police station in a whirl. The departure was hurried and without the slightest bit of hesitation or reluctance. Joanne recalled Brian's warmth and gentleness back at Moonlit Dine. "As expected, that was just him putting on a show," Joanne thought. Now that they were not under watchful eyes, it was back to treating her like she was his personal enemy.

It should have been the heart of men, not women, that were like deep oceans of secrets!

However, Joanne was already used to Brian's random outbursts. When she turned around, she had forgotten about all that had happened. She carried on her afternoon work without showing any signs of being affected.

After work, Joanne rushed home.

She would ensure that her twenty thousand monthly salary was rightfully earned by having dinner prepared before Brian's return.

Lunch at Moonlit Dine had been oily, so Joanne deliberately prepared a mild dinner. She waited until 8pm, but there were no signs of Brian.

Simon was even more anxious than Joanne. "Young Madam, why don't you... give Young Master a call?"

"Sure."

Joanne pulled out her phone. Then it hit her that she had no idea what Brian's phone number was.

Hah. What a joke that would be if it ever got out. She was Mrs. Lambert, and yet she did not even know Brian's phone number.

Simon took Joanne's phone and dialed Brian's number. After a while, they heard the voice of a female operator. "Sorry! The subscriber you dialed is power off..."

"The Young Master probably has urgent matters to attend to," Simon said, "Young Madam, why don't you have dinner first?"

Joanne had always thought of meals as one of those things in life that should be prioritized. Meals and sleep should never be neglected. It could be that she had eaten too much for lunch, because tonight, she did not have much appetite at all. After two measly mouthfuls, she set down her fork. "Simon, when Brian gets back, please warm up the food for him. I'll head back to my room first."

Simon stared at Joanne's back and sighed, "Things between them seemed to have shown some improvements too. I wonder what happened this time..."

Joanne got back to her room. After a bath, she chatted with Freya while reading a book. Slow and soft music emanated from the room's top-quality speakers. Joanne felt that she had not been affected by Brian's absence at all. What she did not notice was that she had kept her door slightly ajar just so she could be aware of any movements downstairs.

There were no signs of Brian's return even until 12am. Numerous possibilities flashed across Joanne's mind - He was busy, he was in trouble, or... he was with Rosalyn.

Joanne felt a strange emotion at that last guess. She did not dare to probe any deeper into that emotion. Instead, she quickly closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

The following day, Joanne was roused by the alarm clock. She got out of bed at the speed of light and began her morning routine. Still groggy from sleep, she went downstairs.

Brian was sitting in the living room.

Joanne rubbed her eyes. "Hey, when did he get back?" she thought.

Joanne was still chewing over her thoughts when Brian looked ever. Joanne smiled. "Morning."

Brian hesitated for a brief moment before he spoke, "I had overtime, so I slept at the company."

"Huh?" Joanne's eyes widened in surprise. "You didn't come back last night?"

In truth, Brian did not have time to come home this morning too. But he had taken two hours off his busy schedule all the same just so he could come home and explain to Joanne the reason for his absence last night.

But this, what kind of reaction is this? She did not even know that her husband was missing home for the whole night?

Noticing the strange look on Brian's face, Joanne cleared her throat. Her movements were rather weak and unsure when she handed the credit card back to him. "Um, this. Yesterday, you forgot to take the card."

Brian's eyes narrowed. Joanne had a feeling that he was about to snap, so she piped up, "I don't need this card!" Other than electronic products and camera lenses, her usual purchases were not lavish at all.

"You either take the card, or you can consider your duties as voluntary labor."

Brian turned around to leave.

"Young Master!" Simon shouted as he trailed after Brian. "Please come back! You haven't had breakfast yet!"

"..." Brian kept walking without so much as a backward glance. Simon stared at Joanne and sighed.

Joanne released her own sigh. "Seems like Brian has had a rough night..."

"Young Madam, actually the Young Master's mood had turned sour only after he got home," Simon said. Obviously, his words meant more than what they sounded.

For a moment, Joanne went blank. "So he hates coming home that much, huh? Poor guy. Must've been tough on him."

Simon released yet another long sigh. Poor Young Master indeed.

Since then, Brian had suddenly become very busy. He was rarely home for dinner. He was missing during the mornings either.

At first, Joanne had been overjoyed. Because with the way things were, she was practically claiming her salary without having to serve Brian at all! Nothing in this world could feel more awesome than something like that!

It was also for the same reason that on the rare occasions that she had run into Brian, there was always a grin on her face, as if the unhappy incident that noon had never happened. Brian, on the other hand, seemed exhausted every time she saw him. He would head straight to bed whenever he got home and leave before she woke the second day.

A few times, when Joanne got home from work and saw the empty living room, she was hit by a sudden feeling of unfamiliarity.

Brian's longest absence from home lasted four days straight. Simon did not mention him and Joanne had refrained from asking about him due to pride.

She was starting to miss him.

She missed the way he looked during his occasional smiles.

She missed his voice.

She missed the warmth of his dry palms.

She wondered if he really was busy or if he was just... unwilling to come home.

Joanne squatted in front of her bed, hugging a detective novel. She did a quick count in her head and found she had only seen Brian four times in the past half month.

Today, Brian was about to break his record by being absent from home for five days straight.

Today marked the fifth day she had not seen Brian.

Why was she remembering all these figures anyway? "Seems like being good in math and being sensitive to numbers isn't such a good thing after all..." she thought.

"Young Madam!" She heard Simon's anxious voice followed by a series of frantic knocks on her door. "Young Madam!"

Joanne flung the novel away and went to open the door. "What's wrong?"

"Young Master was hospitalized."

As Joanne sat in the car on the way to the hospital, her hands were trembling slightly.

Simon told her that Gavin had called to say that Brian had been hospitalized. Then he had hung up hurriedly without giving any further details. She did not even want to think how bad the situation must have been.

Right then, she felt as if her heart was suspended in midair. Bottomless fear and panic pervaded her heart.

A man like Brian seemed almost invincible. Joanne had never imagined a day where he would end up hospitalized.

Even more unexpected was the fact that she would feel this frightened at the news of his hospitalization.

When she reached the hospital, Joanne rushed towards the internal medicine's ward as if nothing else mattered. It took her considerable effort to locate Brian's room. When she pushed open the door and saw the man lying on the hospital bed, her steps halted immediately.

He had lost so much weight in just five days. He lay there on the bed, his face pale and dotted with green stubble. Although his current look did not make him any less handsome, it gave him a morbid and unhealthy look.

He really had fallen.

Joanne's eye sockets grew warm. As she walked towards the bed, it felt as if she had just roused from a dream. "Brian, wake up..."

She wanted Brian to open his eyes and look at her with his usual subtle smile. She wanted him to flick her forehead and call her a dumb girl.

"Brian, open your eyes and look at me..."

Tears fell from Joanne's eyes and dripped onto the back of Brian's hand.

If this were a scene from a TV drama, the male lead would have been woken up by the burning sting of the female lead's hot tears. He would have slowly opened his eyes and began to gently dry the female lead's tears.

Instead, Joanne heard Brian's voice. "What's so nice about looking at you?"

His voice sounded a little weak, though the infuriating teasing tone capable of rendering anyone speechless was still there.

"You're awake?" Somehow, Joanne had forgotten her anger. She swiped away her tears swiftly. "I'm calling the doctor!"

Brian clutched Joanne's hand in his own and pulled her back. "Call the doctor for what? I'm not ill."

His sight lingered on Joanne's face.

For the past half month, he had been so busy that he barely had time to take a sip of water, let alone see her. Now, when he looked at her, he saw a pair of earnest, sincere, and red-rimmed eyes.

"Falling ill isn't something to be ashamed of, you know," Joanne said in a soothing voice, "Just admit that you're ill. I won't tease you about it."

"..." Brian was speechless.

Right at that moment, Gavin entered the room. He had just finished dealing with the hospital procedures. Seeing the redness in Joanne's eyes, the alarms went off in Gavin's head. "Joanne, please don't be scared. Brian is only like this because he hadn't been eating on schedule for the past five days. It's his old gastritis, that's all. Well, he nearly had gastrointestinal perforation, but he won't die."

"You have gastritis?" Joanne stared at Brian. "Gastritis are a form of illness too! Yet you're still claiming that you aren't ill?"

Brian pinched the bridge of his nose. Seeing that the IV drip had run out, he went to work on the catheter attached to his hand.

Joanne stilled Brian's hand movements. "Let me do this." Like it or not, she still held a surgeon's license, so she was clearly more adept at this task than Brian.

With great care, she removed the needle from Brian's hand. After dealing with the needle wound, she placed a piece of cotton over it. "Press on it."

Her delicate, slender hands tugged at his palm. Her touch felt warm and tender. Brian suddenly did not feel like letting go. So he feigned a look of agony. "Help me press on it. Let's go home."

"Hey!" Gavin said, "I just went through your admission protocols!"

"You stay here if you like. I'll cover the fees."

Gavin looked as if he was about to cry.

"Running around like this is tiring, okay?" Gavin thought. Scaring Simon on purpose just to trick Joanne into coming here took a lot of brain juice too. Now, what did he get after going through all that trouble? Free two nights' stay in a hospital room! What a cheapskate!