When Joanne was returning to her office, she met a few colleagues along the way. The way they looked at her was mixed with an additional sense of suspicion and distrust.

She could only hasten her steps, and hid in her office. She opened a news site; the financial news, social and even entertainment news had reported about the Fontine Gardens's construction collapse.

Social news questioned the credibility of Lambert Group. Financial news analyzed how Lambert Group would be impacted by the incident. Entertainment news even speculated that Rosalyn had found out about Lambert Group' current problem long before, prompting her to leave Lambert Group.

All discussions were against Brian and Lambert Group.

Joanne closed the webpage, and paced to and fro in the office.

A long time later, she looked back on that day when everything drastically changed. She could not recall any other feelings apart from torment and uneasiness of that half a day.

At about 2 p.m., the family of the deceased in the accident had rushed over to Arlington from other places, and arrived at the police station to identify the bodies.

Joanne hesitated for a moment, then walked up. Shawn stopped her immediately, and asked, "Where are you going?"

"The morgue," Joanne said.

"Are you crazy!? You cannot go!" Shawn pressed Joanne back on her seat. "It's not like you are unaware of the family's emotional state when they are identifiying bodies. If they learned about your relationship with Brian, who could guarantee that they would not beat you up?"

"But if I don't go take a look, I won't get over it," Joanne said. "I will be careful."

Shawn knew that he could not win against Joanne in an argument, and resigned, "I'll go with you."

Cries could be heard from the morgue at a distance; police stations stood at one side, looking sympathetically but there was nothing that could be done.

Joanne walked over, handed a piece of tissue to a family member. Words of comfort were stuck at her lips; she could not say them.

It was about people's lives. They were still alive yesterday, carrying hopes of a whole family; people who were still on the phone with their families, were lying stiffly there, no longer breathing, their hearts no longer beating, they would no longer be able to open their eyes...

Right before death, no matter how sincere the words of comfort and apology were, they would come off as colder than usual.

A plainly dressed lady took over the tissue paper, and lifted her head up. "Thank-" the rest of the phrase was gutted in her throat.

Her eyes dilated as she looked at Joanne; her voice was almost trembling, "You're the wife of that... developer?"

Joanne said very faintly, "Yes. I'm sorry, we are..."

"Return my husband's life to me!" The woman went out of control, she grabbed her bag beside her and repeatedly smashed Joanne with it-

"Hey! Stop!" The officer shouted.

Shawn reacted in time, and held on to Joanne, pulling her backwards. But the bag still scraped across Joanne's forehead; the metal piece had struck her forehead heavily. It was a blunt pain, but she did not flinch at all.

Shawn heard a noise, and knew that Joanne was hit. He shielded her insistently, and grabbed that woman's hand, "Do you know that this is police assault!?"

The woman obviously did not infer from Shawn's words that Joanne worked at the police station, and cried even harder, "Ask her to return my husband to me!"

"Madam, your husband's death has nothing to do with her!" Shawn said. "The law and the people responsible for the accident will give you an explanation."

"Nothing to do with her?" The woman yelled with all her might. "Isn't the unscrupulous businessman of that developer company her husband? How could the wife of an unscrupulous businessman be a good person?"

While crying, the woman was about to charge at Joanne again, but the police stations managed to stop her. Shawn took Joanne back to the office.

Shawn wanted to take a look at Joanne's injury, but her hair was covering her forehead. He was ultimately only her friend, he could not do anything as intimate as brushing her hair. He could only ask, in pent up rage, "Didn't you get hit just now?"

Joanne pressed onto her hurting forehead, "I was just hit by the metal piece. It's nothing much."

It was uncertain whether Shawn was angry or he was joking, "I just found out that you are really unsuitable for meeting any families of those deceased."

From Ava's older sister's death to Mia's death, until that day's deceased members of the incident, all of the family members had wanted to hit her.

Joanne sat down, pondered deeply for a moment and said, "Ava's mother was being unreasonable, but this madam today..."

"You can sympathize with her but who is sympathizing with you?" Shawn cut Joanne's words. "Alright, it has nothing to do with you. Brian wouldn't want to involve you in this either. Just stay here properly, don't go meet family members anymore."

Time passed by in a blur, and when Joanne realized, it was already time to get off work.

She left by the back entrance; Winston was already waiting for her with the door opened.

She got in. Winston was starting the car as he said, "Young Madam, Young Master asked me to send you back home. He is probably still busy at the company."

Joanne nodded. She did not have the mood to cook after she got home. She turned on her computer, and browsed various websites for news, especially gossip news sites. Their homepages were almost flooded with news of the collapse incident.

Such a fervent enthusiasm for gossip, it was as odd as the collapse itself. Joanne recalled Brian's words-Rowdy knew how to manipulate online discussions, causing the blame to be directed at Lambert Group.

If it were so, those posts had become meaningless.

Joanne shut her computer down, and kept herself occupied non-stop. Until 11p.m., she went to bed intending to sleep, but she ended up tossing and turning, unable to do so.

When she was in a daze, unknowing whether she had fallen asleep or not, she sensed a familiar presence. She opened her eyes. It was Brian.

He had probably just returned home, showered and was about to go to bed. Noticing that she had woken up, he was stunned for a split second, "Did I wake you?"

Joanne shook her head, "What time is it?"

Brian's hand stretch over Joanne to reach the phone by the bedside, checking the time, "1 a.m."

When he moved his hand back, his elbow accidentally touched Joanne's forehead. "Ow," Joanne made a noise in pain; he furrowed his brows, brushing her hair apart, revealing a frightening bruise on her fair forehead.

His expression turned sullen, "What happened?"

If it were not for him touching it, Joanne was almost going to forget about this minor injury through her whole day of feeling lost. She didn't know what to say, stuttering, and saw Brian's gaze grow colder. She could only confess honestly, "A family member from one of the deceased was at the morgue to identify the body this afternoon."

Brian had already guessed what had happened, his finger caressed her injury, "Is it very painful?"

"It's ok." Joanne touched the corner of her forehead. "Shawn managed to pull me away at that moment. Her bag had only brushed across and accidentally hit my forehead. It didn't even bleed."

Brian went downstairs to fetch the medical kit, and found a spray which helped to relieve bruises. He covered Joanne's eyes and applied the medicine on her injury.

Even though there was no bleeding, the metal piece still managed to break her skin. When the medicine was sprayed, both a comfortable cooling sensation and a stinging pain overwhelmed her; Joanne bit her teeth, not making a noise, and held onto her injury.

Brian put the medical kit back and returned to bed. Seeing Joanne holding onto her injury like a child, he removed her hand, and coaxed her as anyone would coax a child-blowing on her injury.

Joanne felt her heart warm; the stingy sensation miraculously disappeared. She dived into his embrace, "It's not painful anymore!"

"Joanne," Brian's voice sounded particularly deep in the silent atmosphere, "I'm sorry."

Joanne blinked in confusion, "Why are you apologizing to me?" Touching her injury, "It was me who decided to meet the family members, it's not your fault."

Brian wanted to say something, but Joanne changed the topic, asking, "How are things?"

"The police are still investigating the cause of the accident," Brian paused for a while, hugging onto Joanne tightly. "It's late, let's sleep."

Joanne considered that Brian would still have many things to deal with the following day, so she agreed, "Ok." She wrapped her arms around his waist, her eyes shut, and it did not take long for her to fall asleep.

Just as Shawn had said, the only thing she could do at the moment, was to stay by Brian's side.

No matter what, she would stay by his side forever.

Brian seemed to know what Joanne was thinking, he hugged her even tighter, but did not close his eyes for a long while.

In the night sky, his deep eyes were cold and sharp, like a deep lake, full of unknown dangers.

First a secretive tip-off, then a manipulated accident. Rowdy had given him so many "surprises". If he did not give a gift in return, how could he reciprocate Rowdy's enthusiasm?

A certain nightclub in the downtown area-

"Move!"

With a single command from Captain Turner, a huge "bang" went off; the door of a certain private room was kicked open. A group of plainclothes police stations who were wearing bulletproof vests underneath had orderly surrounded the room. The guns were aimed at the people inside, "Don't move!"

Everyone in the room were stunned. The two people who were in the midst of a transaction were still holding the "goods" in their hands. Captain Turner's gun aimed directly at their heads, so they could only remain stiffly in position.

All evidence was present. The timing was just right.

A satisfied Captain Turner signaled for his subordinates to handcuff the people. A group of operational employees, regardless of their countries of origin, were all aprehended and taken from the nightclub. The police cars very quickly drove away from that place of debauchery and vice.

A car which was stopped opposite the nightclub was done watching the show, slowly started the engine again, and drove towards a residential area of mansions in the east of the city.

"Brother Wesley," Kai drove as he asked, "If Rowdy knew we disrupted such of a major business deal of his, wouldn't he take revenge?"

Wesley sneered very arrogantly, "If you are scared of Rowdy then you wouldn't have the guts to take revenge."

Kai was speechless. Brother Wesley, you are underestimating the enemy! Blatantly!

Back at the mansion, Yuna was watching television in the living room with her legs crossed. Once she saw that Wesley had returned, she rushed forward, "Where did you go? Why didn't you take me along?"

Wesley coldly glared at Yuna, removed his outerwear and dumped it to her, "Girls better stay away from such things."

"Then, must girls act as your servants?!"

Yuna was about to throw the outerwear back to Wesley, but as Wesley's cold glare shot over, she trembled a little. Her throwing stance softened, and turned to tidy the outerwear instead, then obediently placing the outerwear on his arm.

Kai said shyly with his head hung low, "Brother Wesley, if there's nothing else, then I'll be leaving."

Wesley agreed, then Kai vanished from the mansion in an instant.

Yuna knew she would not be able to get an answer from him. She turned to walk upstairs, "I'm going to bed. Good night, Brother Wesley."

Before she could take another step, someone suddenly pulled her collar from behind. She turned to see Wesley, "It's late in the night, and we're a man and a woman alone together! What do you want to do!?"