Prosperous Marriage: Married to My Brother-in-law

She always managed to make him feel the most genuine, purest happiness with her normal, ordinary heart.

There were no tempestuous storms between them like others experienced, nor was their love as dramatic and boisterous. Theirs was an everlasting, gentle stream—plain, yet warm enough to make others envious.

Obediently, like a child, he closed his deep eyes. Under her tender caress and soft, gentle whispers, he began to drift into a deep sleep, dreaming only of her.

Only when his breathing became even did Julia Bluen rest her head on his chest, slowly sinking into dreamland herself.

In the Courtyard, however, someone stood silently, letting the dark sky weigh down upon him. His gaze remained fixed on a particular room in the Main House—the room where Glades Horne and Julia Bluen stayed in this villa.

A red Audi stopped in front of the villa's main gate but did not drive in.

James Horne rarely spent the night at the Horne family's grand villa, but he returned every day. He yearned to see his dear elder brother and was now even more eager to see Julia Bluen, who had become his sister-in-law.

He knew the afternoon's events would stir ripples in Julia Bluen's heart.

He also knew his elder brother would definitely learn about it.

Would his elder brother be very angry?

Would he want to ignore him even more because of this?

Would Julia Bluen think he was just like his father, always shielding his own?

Emotionally, Pheobe Rogers had broken up his father's marriage to his first wife, which was wrong. But Pheobe Rogers was still his mother, and he couldn't blame her for anything.

The light in that room gradually softened. He knew the two people he loved most had begun to dream.

His heart, however, ached with waves of pain, one after another.

He continuously told himself to let go, that he must learn to let go. But how could a secret love nurtured for so many years be abandoned overnight?

In the Courtyard, the wide expanse of the Flower Sea, like fresh blood, sharply pierced his heart. It made him feel as though his whole body was bleeding profusely, as if that vast stretch of bright red flowers was forged from his own blood.

Julia Bluen, I love you too!

But these words, he could never utter.

The vast Flower Sea showed him the depth of his elder brother's love for Julia Bluen, a love etched in his very soul. He would not let his elder brother be saddened; he would bury the bitterness of his unrequited love deep within his own heart. He would rather suffer his entire life than let his elder brother experience a single moment of pain. This was his way of atoning to his elder brother on behalf of his mother.

Turning, he slowly began to walk away.

He desperately wanted to stay the night, but he feared that if he did, he would lie awake all night.

He walked step by step, his feet heavy with reluctance, a reluctance as weighty as lead.

In the Courtyard, the pale yellow light from a lonely streetlamp spilled over his handsome figure, reflecting his inner solitude and unspoken agony.

The walk of a few short minutes felt like a year before he finally exited the villa.

After he left the villa, a servant gently closed the Courtyard door behind him and said instinctively, "Fourth Young Master, please drive carefully."

He turned a deaf ear, silently slipped into the car, and gazed silently, deeply at the Main House through the front windscreen.

A moment later, he finally started the car. It sped away from the villa's front gate and disappeared, heading towards his home.

After James's car vanished into the night, Glades Horne, who should have been asleep, suddenly appeared on the balcony. His hawk-like eyes, inscrutable, stared in the direction of the villa's gate.

After a myriad of thoughts, he sighed softly to himself, "James, let it go. Go find your own happiness. Your brother wishes you happiness!"

「A surge of cold air swept strongly south, causing the temperature in T City to drop drastically overnight. The wind was biting, the clouds were dense, and a hazy Violet began to fall from the sky.」

The winter in T City was like the heavens' moods—always changing. It wasn't consistently cold, only becoming so when cold air moved south. Once the cold snap passed, temperatures would revert to autumnal levels.

「In the manager's office of the Planning Department at Cosmos Group, the heating was on, and one couldn't feel the chill at all while working inside.」

Nicholas Coldwell was, as usual, dressed in a sharp suit with a light blue shirt beneath and a red tie under the collar. He sat at his desk, busily writing and sketching something.

The office phone suddenly rang. Pen still in hand, he picked up the receiver and said in a deep voice, "Hello, Nicholas Coldwell speaking."

"Manager Coldwell, I'm not sure what's happening. We need to hire a transport fleet for our shipment, but the Hanley Family's fleet says they're all booked, and other transportation companies are saying the same. What should we do? We have to ship out five containers of goods today. If we can't deliver on time, the client will demand compensation." The call was from someone in another department. Nowadays, many of Cosmos Group's affairs were managed by Nicholas Coldwell. Even though he was still just the manager of the Planning Department, everyone knew he would eventually become Vice President.

For such matters, they would consult Nicholas Coldwell first. It was best if he could resolve them without alarming the CEO. If he couldn't, they would have no choice but to involve the CEO. This was a major issue, after all. For this particular batch of goods, they had already pleaded with the client for a few extra days, and the workers had put in overtime to rush the shipment. Who would have thought that now, at the very last minute, they couldn't secure any container trucks? If they couldn't ship the goods, the client, furious, would undoubtedly demand compensation.

Compensating for five containers of goods, even if it was only one percent, would still be a significant sum of money.

In that case, this entire batch would be a loss, with no profit.

Nicholas Coldwell's handsome brow furrowed. He asked coldly, "How could this be? Weren't the container trucks arranged well in advance? The delivery deadline is in two days, and the journey also takes exactly two days. We can't afford even half a day's delay. The Hanley Family's fleet operates across several major nearby cities; how could all their trucks possibly be unavailable? Fine, even if they are booked, are you saying every single transportation company in the entire city is also fully booked? This is too much of a coincidence, isn't it?"

Edo Hanley and Glades Horne were renowned as arch-rivals in the business world; many knew this. Privately, however, they were the closest of friends—a fact few were privy to. Nicholas Coldwell, naturally, was unaware of this. In this instance, it didn't occur to him to connect the situation to Glades Horne.