"Annie, nice to meet you. I hope we can keep in touch in the future." Belinda glanced around, but Daisy was nowhere to be seen. She was disappointed and wondered whether the wound on Daisy's arm had healed.

  "I will, Belinda." Annie sounded tender. At this moment, she was elegant and quiet. She was more mature than her age might indicate, and she was as graceful in body and manner alike.

  "Edward, where's Daisy?" Belinda asked after she had chatted with Annie. She had thought that Daisy would be here.

  All the eyes were on Edward now, because everyone else was also curious why Daisy didn't come. Rain knew that Jessica had kissed Edward and not the other way around —— Daisy should have been willing to hear Edward's explanation. Rain considered Daisy to be a rational woman, who wouldn't take accidents as deliberate mistakes. Hence, Rain didn't understand why Edward kept drinking like a fish.

  "She has gone to attend the war games." Edward replied indifferently in a vexed tone, ignoring other people's gaze. His mood was unfathomable.

  "War games? How come I have never heard of it? This one must be being conducted in secret. A closed one again?" As Belinda could recall, Daisy had attended a training recently. How was it that war games had come so soon? Belinda was worried about Daisy when she couldn't reach her.

  "I don't know either, because she told me nothing." Edward was sipping wine, with a melancholy look in his deep eyes.

  "Is Daisy still mad about what happened between you and Jessica? Did you explain it to her?" Rain asked, doubting if that was the reason for all this. Edward never kissed women on the lips, because he was a compulsive germ freak. Everyone in his social class knew that. If Daisy knew about it too, it wouldn't be hard for her to believe Edward.

  "I think so. Since I didn't get to see her before she left, how could I explain anything to her?" Edward said in a resentful tone and drained another glass.

  "What? Does Daisy know that Jessica is pregnant?" Duke cut in, unawa

  gain her achievements.

  "Yes, I do." Edward answered. It was acceptable to say no if he had known nothing about the newspapers. But if he still couldn't feel her love after having seen the stack of newspapers in her study, he didn't deserve her love.

  "You know? Edward, are you sure you really know? Just because you said that you didn't love weak women, she chose to go to a foreign military school, which she loathed most, and for which the Ouyangs threw her out of the house. No, you don't know how much time she has wasted on you. She has loved you since the minute you two met. She was forced to get married at first, but when she heard that you were the groom, she was so happy to marry you. But God! You treated her like trash!

  Tears welled up in Belinda's eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Her accusations shocked everyone present, because the woman Belinda was talking about didn't sound like the Daisy they knew at all, who was successful and heroic. They had never imagined that she had had a hard life.

  "I'm sorry, " Edward said, uncertain whether it was to Belinda or to Daisy. He had never known Daisy went to a military school because of him. The documents Luke had given him mentioned no reason. Maybe Luke had failed to find one. However, when did Edward say that he didn't like weak women? He didn't recall saying that at all.