Chapter 25: I promise I won’t hurt you again

"Laila?"

Brandon smiled mockingly. "She’s just my arranged fiancée. If she dares to cause trouble, all I have to do is replace her with another woman."

Brandon immediately stood up and entered the room right beside the room where Hana would be staying that night.

The next morning, Hana woke up when the sun was already slightly higher in the sky. She immediately got out of bed and hurried out of Brandon’s residence. However, after only taking a few steps, Brandon’s voice stopped her.

"Where are you going?"

Hana turned around. She saw the man sitting calmly in the living room, dressed casually but neatly.

"I... have to meet up with my friends. This is an event you organized yourself. How can you ask me that?"

"Come here," Brandon ordered.

Hana frowned at his commanding tone. However, when she still didn’t move, Brandon rose from his chair, walked over to her, then pulled Hana over and forced her to sit in the chair beside him.

"Have breakfast first."

"I’m not hungry. I usually have breakfast later," Hana refused.

"Since when have you been skipping breakfast?" Brandon looked at her. "Didn’t you used to complain whenever you didn’t have breakfast?"

Brandon took a bowl of warm porridge and placed it in front of her.

Hana sighed before finally picking up the spoon and starting to eat the porridge Brandon had prepared.

"Aren’t you eating?"

Brandon shook his head.

"Why?"

"I don’t like porridge, Hana. You’re the one who likes porridge. Have you forgotten that?" Brandon asked while resting his head on the table and watching Hana.

Hana stopped moving her hand. She placed the spoon back into the bowl, then looked at the man beside her.

"Brandon, we really can’t continue this relationship. I’m already on a different path from you."

"You still love me, Hana," Brandon stated firmly.

Hana didn’t deny it.

She truly didn’t remember anything from the two years before she gave birth to her three children. Her memories only stopped at the moment Brandon broke up with her. So how could she simply fall for another man when the only memory of love she still had was Brandon?

For the past five years, Hana had also been busy working so that her three children could live decent lives. She had no time to get to know another man. The only man who still occupied her thoughts was Brandon, the man now sitting right beside her.

"Brandon, you’re getting married soon. I don’t want to get in your way. Besides, with my situation now... I could be killed by many people if I dared to openly stand by your side."

"Then stay in the shadows."

"Brandon?"

Brandon stood up and wrapped his arms around Hana from behind. "I’ll support you financially, take care of your life, and make you the only woman I love, Hana. I promise I won’t hurt you again."

"Brandon?"

Brandon took a slow breath, then exhaled near Hana’s ear.

"I can’t refuse my arranged marriage for the time being. That woman is the most suitable choice for now. She’s also easier to control than other women from the upper class."

Hana frowned at every word that came out of Brandon’s mouth. "You want me to be your mistress?" she asked to make sure.

"Exactly. The public won’t know. I’ll protect you with all my heart." Brandon knelt beside her. "Hana... be my woman. I promise I’ll provide everything you need. I swear. I won’t let anyone touch you."

Brandon raised two fingers as a sign of his oath. "I also won’t let my family touch you."

Hana gave a bitter smile at Brandon’s words. Was this still the man she loved? Was this the man she had once imagined as her husband?

Hana slowly shook her head. "Brandon... you’re crazy!"

Hana immediately stood up from her chair. However, Brandon moved faster and stopped her until Hana’s back hit the wall.

"Hana... I’ve been looking for you for seven years. And this is how you repay me?"

"Brandon, I already have children! We can’t go back to how things were! And even if I didn’t have children, I wouldn’t want to be your mistress!"

Brandon stared at Hana with an obsessive look in his eyes.

"Hana... this is only temporary. Once my family’s position is no longer being suppressed by the major families of the Melvin Continent, I promise I’ll divorce her."

"Brandon..."

"I promise," Brandon repeated in an even lower voice. "And as for your children, let them grow up somewhere else. I’ll have my people take care of them until they’re adults. As for you..." Brandon continued, "you no longer need to struggle to raise children whose fathers you don’t even know."

"Brandon!?"

"Sir." His subordinate came rushing in.

Brandon turned sharply. "Who gave you permission to come in?"

"S-Sir... Miss Laila. She’s outside the inn. She forced her way in with several of her subordinates."

Brandon frowned, then looked at Hana. "Stay here. We’ll return to Karua City in two days. Don’t go anywhere. Be a good girl like you used to be, Hana."

Brandon left Hana and hurried outside to meet Kaila. Meanwhile, Hana could only stare at him leaving with a stunned expression.

"Has Brandon changed?" she muttered to herself. "How could he?"

Meanwhile, in the three tallest buildings in the business center of the Melvin Continent...

"Boss, this is bad! Our stock price has dropped again. This time, it’s already down by more than two percent."

A neatly dressed man stood with a pale face. Cold sweat covered his temples.

In front of him, a stern-looking man in his forties wearing a black suit had just put out his cigarette.

Dion Sexa.

The leader of the Sexa Family, one of the major clans controlling the western region of the Melvin Continent.

Dion turned his chair, which had been facing the window, until he was looking at his secretary.

"You’re only reporting this to me now?" he asked in a low voice.

"Call the stock controllers. We’re holding an emergency meeting in one hour. Investigate the stock market movements over the past six hours."

"Yes, Boss."

The secretary immediately rushed out in a panic, both hands busy operating two phones at once.

"Prepare the meeting room right now!"

"Call the shareholders!"

"Continue monitoring the market movements from the past six hours!"

The secretary’s orders caused the workers on the busiest floor of the building to move even faster.

His hands never stopped preparing reports and arranging everything needed for the meeting that had to be held immediately.

Although the company’s stock had only fallen by two percent, the company belonged to the Sexa Family, the rulers of the western region of the Melvin Continent.

The company’s market value was so enormous that even a 0.1 percent drop could wipe millions of dollars off its market value.

Panic began spreading throughout Dion Sexa’s company offices.

Meanwhile,

A five-year-old boy with a face strikingly similar to Dion Sexa’s was sitting calmly.

He enjoyed the warm milk in his hand while calmly moving the cursor on his computer.

As if the panic shaking the Sexa Family had absolutely nothing to do with him.