The mountain club...

Wesley normally came here to see Brian, just like today.

He arrived early, sitting on the couch, relaxing. In front of him was an exquisite glass of wine.

The light shone brightly from the ceiling, covering the whole room, but it still couldn't illuminate his domineering quality, which was covered in darkness.

A few minutes later, the door was opened. Brian explained while he was walking into the room, "I went home and had dinner with Joanne."

"I knew it." Wesley showed no surprise. But... "Where is Gavin?"

Gavin always followed behind Brian. But today, Brian arrived and Gavin was absent. It didn't seem right.

"Something happened to Wendy, and Gavin went there to deal with it," Brian said, "so he is not coming today."

"You mean Joanne's cousin, Wendy?" Wesley was confused. "She works in a hospital. How big could her problem be? Big enough that Gavin needed to handle it himself?"

Brian smirked with special meaning. "He wants to be Joanne's cousin-in-law. How could I let go of this opportunity?"

Wesley understood immediately.

He originally thought that someone like Gavin, who was spontaneous and did not have a care in the world, could run away from his destiny of falling in love and be a libertine forever.

But it seemed that none of them could go against fate.

Brian sat on the couch next to Wesley. When the waiter was about to fill his glass, he was stopped by Brian.

The waiter comprehended his action right away. "Mr. Lambert, please wait, I will get some tea for you."

"I don't understand." Wesley lay on the couch comfortably, but with confusion in his eyes. "I know Joanne doesn't like the smell of cigarettes and wine, but she can't see you right now. Just gargle before you go home. Is it necessary to be this careful?"

Ever since Brian married Joanne, he barely drank. And especially now that Joanne was pregnant, he normally wouldn't drink, not even a sip, as if Joanne was monitoring him 24/7.

"I don't want to lie to her." Brian sounded plain, but spoke with complete seriousness.

Wesley couldn't understand, so he gave up discussing it. "Back to the real problem. I brought Yuna for the collapse incident of Fontine Gardens."

Brian took a sip of his tea and indicated for Wesley to go on.

"Last time, you asked me to investigate the collapse incident of Fontine Gardens, and I brought two people here: Kai and Yuna. But the only person who participated in the investigation was Yuna. I highly suspect her."

Brian was preparing his tea, unbothered. "What makes you suspect her?"

Wesley analyzed it in detail. "It is impossible to make a line of buildings collapse without using bombs. But nobody mentioned any sound of explosion in their testimony. So I think that Rowdy may have used a kind of newly innovated bomb that we've never seen before.

"However, no matter how new the bomb was, there must be traces of it if it exploded in Fontine Gardens. I looked for it twice that day, but couldn't find a thing. That led to one conclusion-Yuna had found something before I did and had hidden it."

Brian looked at Wesley. "There was only Yuna and you there. Did you notice anything about her?"

That night, he did a deep search twice in succession and found nothing. That's when he felt it odd, but he didn't suspect Yuna at that moment. Even though there was only Yuna and him, which was so obvious, he still dressed her wound after they went back to the mansion.

"She is the best undercover agent I have ever seen." Wesley chose not to answer Brian's question directly. "She used everything that was in her favor thoroughly. Like she always made her best effort to work for me, and she was very close with Kai and the others, as if they were biologically related. If I revealed her true identity to them, they would think that I was insane."

Brian was not going to let Wesley keep his words vague. "You knew that she was the insider but you didn't do anything. This is unlike you."

Wesley scoffed, "Because she still can be used. Maybe she can help us uncover the truth of the collapse incident of Fontine Gardens."

"If she really wanted to give us a hand, she could do it when you first took her to the scene." Brian asked, "What's your plan this time to make her help us?"

"I am gonna wait for her to turn the stuff in herself." After a pause, Wesley continued, "This is the last chance she will have."

"What if she refuses to do so?"

"This is what I was gonna tell you today," Wesley said sluggishly. "If she's still determined to work for Rowdy, I will 'take care of' her. But in this way, Joanne can no longer be kept in the dark."

Out of expectation, Brian didn't show much concern for Joanne. "Joanne would be devastated if she knew the truth. Still, she would move on eventually. But you, you are gonna be sorry for the rest of your life."

"What do you mean by that?" Wesley tried to be cool, but his tone became stifled.

People who knew Wesley well would recognize that that was how he reacted when his mind had been exposed.

"You know exactly what I mean." Brian met Wesley when he was 16. They were both clear-minded and had no need to be changed or advised by each other. But this time, Brian was nearly trying to persuade him. "Wesley, there are only two things that are irreparable-time and people. Make your choice with caution."

Wesley knew that there was no way he could hide his secret, so he grinned wryly. "Yeah, I have feelings for Yuna. But making me fall in love with her could be a part of her scheme. There are so many women in the pool. She is replaceable at any time, and she is just an insider. I wouldn't feel sorry for it for my entire life."

"Replace?" Brian threw a wet blanket on Wesley. "It's useless. Even if you can find someone who looks like her and has the same personality as her, deep down, you'll know that is not her."

True love can never be replaced in the whole world.

"What is this?" Wesley said half-jokingly, "Sharing your experiences?"

Brian didn't decline. He then talked about something else with Wesley and left the room afterward.

Wesley was anxious. He asked Brian to use the normal walkway with him. Walking down the hallway, they were heading to take the tourist elevator.

Whenever Wesley felt upset, he loved to hide in the crowd.

There was a lady shouting right before they took the elevator, "Steven!"

It was rare to hear somebody calling out Brian's English name after he had returned. That's why he hesitated a little before he was able to react. He turned around and saw a familiar face.

Wesley recognized her quickly. Miley Mitchell, Brian's college friend, was in the same team as Brian. She was a very hard-working person and was also the only girl who was able to be relatively close to Brian at college compared to others.

Back in the old days, Brian was an influential person at college. Plenty of girls secretly or openly fell for him. However, he was distant to everyone, except for Miley, with whom he would chit-chat a little bit sometime.

There was even a bet in college about whether they would get together or not.

Miley was like a heroine in college. The overseas students called her "Badass". She never failed to get what she wanted. And she liked Brian in a pretty obvious way. Most of the people believed that she could get him.

They never got together though. Miley later said "yes" to a loaded guy's proposal. They had their wedding after graduation. Miley got a green card and stayed in America, while Brian moved the headquarters back to Arlington. They never had any contact since then.

Some people thought that it was a shame. But Wesley knew why Brian didn't turn Miley down now. He wasn't surprised at all.

"Emily." Brian was used to calling Miley by her English name. He reached out his hand to her. "It's been a long time."

"That's it? After this long?" Miley beamed and gave Brian a hug out of courtesy. "Now we're talking."

Brian smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"I got transferred back to Arlington." Miley shrugged. "My company intended to cooperate with you, didn't they? My boss knew that I was your classmate and that I was from Arlington, so I got transferred back. I was gonna surprise you in your office as the representative. I didn't expect that I would run into you here. It's been a while really. Why don't we go for a drink and catch up?"

"Maybe next time." Brian checked the time. "It's a little bit late, and my wife is waiting for me at home."

"Okay, I guess." Miley didn't appear disappointed nor surprised. She waved at Brian. "See you."

"Bye."

The elevator door opened at that moment, and Brian got in and went down. Wesley laughed weirdly. "Are you gonna confess to Joanne?"

"It's not necessary," Brian said. "Miley and I are just old classmates who ran into each other unexpectedly. If I told Joanne all of a sudden, she would think too much into it."

Joanne was now pregnant. With her unstable condition, the last thing Brian wanted to see was her emotions becoming unstable as well.

Wesley didn't say anything. They separated in the parking lot.

It was nearly 11 when Brian got home, but the lights in the living room were still on. Additionally, it wasn't Joanne sitting there on the couch, it was Iris.

The little baby sweater for boys that Iris had been knitting was nearly done.

Brian was somewhat astonished. "Mom, what are you doing here?"

"After having dinner, I wanted to check on Joanne, so I came over." Iris didn't look up. "You hadn't even come back when I was about to leave. And also it was a bit late, so Joanne asked me to stay for the night."

Brian noticed the anger from her tone, and continued, "It's getting late. Why are you still up?"

"Joanne fell asleep while waiting for you. And I was afraid that you might feel lonely when you got back, seeing nothing but darkness, so I have been waiting for you here." Iris finally raised her head, looking steadily at Brian. "What took you so long to come back?"

"Just had some things to discuss with Wesley at the club on the mountain."

Iris knew that Brian had been busy, so she didn't have the heart to hold her anger any longer. "No matter what, you should come back earlier. Joanne is now pregnant, under this unstable condition. Should anything happen to her, what would you do? When I came over, she even tried to explain to me that you had had dinner with her before you left."

In the middle of the conversation, Iris suddenly smelled something abnormal. She pulled Brian over and sniffed. "It's Chanel No. 5. It seems that the girls who Gavin and Wesley have been dating are classy."

Wesley and Gavin took the bullet for him. Brian had nothing else to say but he explained, "Mom, it was just a friend I ran into."

Iris remained suspicious to some extent. "Don't be an ass at this moment. Stay away from women like Rosalyn."

Brian smiled helplessly. "I know."

After all, it was her son. Iris knew Brian well and trusted him anyway. She put down the sweater and said, "If you need to work overtime, do it at home if it's possible. Pregnant women can be emotionally unstable, let alone that Joanne has a special circumstance. You need to accompany her to make her feel secure."

Brian promised to do all the things she said. Finally, Iris let him off. "It's getting late, go have some rest."