Love Began with the First Meeting novel Chapter 970

The smile from Ximena's face disappeared just as soon as she heard that. Having noticed Ximena's shock, Hanson sighed and patiently explained,"I have to go back to talk to my master and account for the gambling game I played against Chester yesterday." After taking a brief pause, he added,"I don't want to see Mr. Brian Long for the time being. Actually, I don't intend to see him until I have settled everything. I will try to come here and see you as often as possible..." In a comforting manner, he walked towards Ximena and stroked her head softly. He said,"Now that we have been reunited again after so many years, I want you to know that you will always be my family, and I will always be yours.

Whenever you feel lonely or if there's anything you need, remember that I am just a phone call away. Okay?"

Although a faint feeling of loneliness had already begun to creep into her heart, Ximena gave him a smile that was genuinely sweet with just the right amount of warmth. In a modest and shy manner that was rarely seen in her, she folded her right hand into a fist and hit Hanson on the chest. "Take care of yourself. I have only one family member and that's you," she said.

"What do you mean?" Hanson asked, staring at her with a puzzled expression,"You still have Aaron, don't you ?" 
His words took the joy out of her smile again, like a candle that had been snuffed out. He heaved a deep sigh, with an apologetic look on his face and then smiled to ease her worries. "I don't know what's going on with your relationship right now, but after I went back to the hotel yesterday I tried to get some information…" As he spoke, he held Ximena's hand and led her to walk forward until they came to a place on the beach where the sand was comfortable enough to sit on. The wind never left, still relentlessly blowing, the sea breeze refreshing during the beautiful setting of the sun. "I don't really know a lot about Aaron, but I gathered information on Mr. Brian Long once and that could lead me to know a bit about Aaron to a certain extent." Turning his head to look at Ximena, he explained,"There are only a few people in the whole world who are qualified to be friends with Mr. Brian Long..."

What Hanson said about Brian, evoked Ximena's memories from yesterday's wine party where Brian had been behaving as though he were a king. Ximena found his imperious and domineering characteristic quite distasteful and unnecessary. In her opinion, Brian might have been one of the most handsome and richest men in the world, but he wasn't worthy of being compared to Aaron, as the latter was completely out of his league, considering how he had control over the economy of an entire island.

Having sensed a bit of confusion on Ximena's face, Hanson shook his head and explained further,"Not only is Mr. Brian Long the boss of the Grand Night Casino, he is also the one who controls Emp Stock Exchange behind the scenes…" Ximena sat there dumbstruck, wondering what to make of this information. Hanson continued,"That's not even the best part. The Grand Night Casino and Emp are front companies he uses as plausible cover to hide from public view!"

This revelation left Ximena in a stunned expression. In spite of its global popularity all around the world, Grand Night Casino was only one of the largest amongst the top five casinos in the world. However, Emp was much better known. In recent years, many of the world's most famous enterprises had collapsed because of their loss in the stock market overnight, creating a long-term domino effect all over the world. Most people, more or less, attributed the fiasco to Emp Stock Exchange's ethically questionable activities. However, what was more interesting was that many economic experts from different countries in the world had been commissioned to make an investigation, but none of them had been able to find any evidence that Emp had manipulated the stock market illegally. Suffice it to say, this incident is what gained Emp some notoriety around the world.

Ximena had come to learn of Emp's name about four years ago. At that time, the Chancellor Group from M Country had collapsed all of a sudden right after their CEO had been to QY Island.

"Ouch..." Ximena screamed and rubbed her forehead again. "It hurts!"

"All right. I'm going now!" Hanson smiled, finding Ximena's childish expression amusing, and said,"Think about what I've said just now carefully when you have time. Okay ?" When he realized that Ximena wasn't going to give him an answer, he raised his hand, gesturing as if he was going to flick her forehead again. "Do you understand?" he asked, giving her one more chance to answer.

"Yeah yeah yeah... I understand..." With one hand covering her forehead, Ximena took a few steps backward to ensure her safety first. However, as soon as she saw the snicker on Hanson's face, she knew that she had just been fooled by him. "Hanson, you're gonna pay for that..." she shouted, gritting her teeth and running to hit him.

Soaking up the sun from the beach, Ximena and Hanson moved towards the parking lot. It seemed as though the sunlight followed them wherever they went, leaving their joyful laughters at the end of the white sand beach.