Chapter 10 — Passionate About A Twisted Love

After Viet Dang came to the villa, the atmosphere between Nha Dan and Thien Lam became unusually tense. He began to apply a series of new rules, so strict that they made Nha Dan feel more suffocated than ever.

Every morning, she must report the whole day's schedule to Phan Dinh Long before seven o'clock. All calls to her phone number are required to be kept on the list for periodic checking, for the reason of "ensuring security". Even if she wanted to go out to meet Quynh Chi, she had to go through a much more complicated approval process than before.

"You're overdoing it." Nha Dan couldn't help but voice her objection during the rare dinner they both sat down to eat together. "I feel like I'm being watched every inch."

"It's for your safety." Thien Lam replied, without raising his head from the plate of food, his voice was decisive and without any mercy.

"Is it safe or is it because you don't trust me?" Nha Dan put down her chopsticks, her eyes looked straight at him. "I told Viet Dang very clearly, I won't go back to him. So why do you still have to make it so difficult for me?"

Thien Lam raised his head, his fingers lightly tapped on the table and then stopped. "You don't understand."

"Then explain it to me." She refused to let go, her voice was firmer than usual.

He was silent for a long time, seemingly arguing with himself about whether to tell the truth or not. Finally, he just shook his head, stood up and left the table. "Just follow the rules. I have no obligation to explain every decision I make."

Nha Dan looked at his back, her fingers tightened around her chopsticks until they almost broke in half. She didn't understand why a man who always showed no interest in her could overreact like that just because of the appearance of another man in her life.

In the days that followed, Thien Lam became even more unpredictable. There were nights when he came home very late, his eyes carrying a tired look and some kind of gloomy emotion that Nha Dan couldn't name. There were times when he quietly stood and watched her from afar while she was working in the drawing room, but when he was discovered, he quickly turned away as if nothing had ever happened.

One evening, Nha Dan accidentally heard Thien Lam's phone call while passing by the office, the door was not closed tightly.

"I told you to monitor Lam Viet Dang's every move. If he still tries to approach Nha Dan, notify me immediately." Thien Lam's voice rang out, stern but somewhat unusually tense.

Nha Dan was stunned at the door, not expecting Thien Lam to send someone to follow Viet Dang. She felt both angry at this excessive control and confused at the true motive behind that action. If it was simply because he was worried about the cover of the contract, why would he go to the extent of following someone who no longer had anything to do with their life?

She decided not to speak and quietly returned to her room, her mind filled with confused thoughts. Could it be that, behind all those harsh rules, behind that inherent coldness, Cao Thien Lam is really jealous, even though he himself probably doesn't dare admit that feeling to himself?

At the group office, Thien Lam sat in the meeting room, but his mind could not focus on the quarterly financial report being presented in front of him. The image of Viet Dang holding Nha Dan's hand through the gate kept repeating in his mind, accompanied by an uncomfortable feeling of frustration that he had never experienced before, even in the most fiercely competitive business deals.

"Mr. Lam, do you have any comments on the proposal to expand the West project?" A board member asked, bringing him back to reality.

"I'll check it out later." Thien Lam replied curtly, stood up and left the meeting room earlier than expected, causing several people in the room to look at each other in surprise at the unusual attitude of the chairman, who was always serious and absolutely focused in every meeting.

Returning to his private office, he sat down in the chair, rubbed his temples, trying to explain to himself the chaotic emotions swirling in his heart. He didn't understand why he overreacted like that to a man who had nothing to do with the engagement contract between him and Nha Dan. This was just a fake marriage, he reminded himself, so why did his heart skip a beat every time he thought of Nha Dan possibly leaving him to return to the person she truly loved?

Phan Dinh Long walked in, carrying a cup of hot coffee, and noticed the owner's unusually thoughtful expression. "Are you still thinking about yesterday?"

"Nothing." Thien Lam replied, but his voice lacked the usual certainty.

"Mr. Lam, I've been working for you for a long time. I've never seen you lose your temper over such a private matter." Phan Dinh Long put the cup of coffee on the table, his eyes searching. "If you really have feelings for Ms. Nha Dan, maybe you should reconsider the entire way you're treating her."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Thien Lam frowned, but did not deny it outright like usual.

"I'm just saying what I observed." Phan Dinh Long shrugged, then quietly left the room, leaving Thien Lam alone to face questions that he himself had not found answers to.

That afternoon, Cao Tuyet Mai suddenly called, her voice full of sarcasm. "Thien Lam, have you heard that the girl named Vu is still involved with her ex-lover? Standing right in front of her villa's gate holding hands, if this spreads out, where will our family's face be?"

"Who did you hear say that?" Thien Lam asked, his voice immediately became alert.

"Whatever passes through your ears will reach your ears." Cao Tuyet Mai replied, her voice full of meaning. "I'm telling the truth, you should reconsider this. That girl doesn't deserve you to worry so much."

Thien Lam hung up the phone without responding, making his heart even more confused. He knew clearly that Cao Tuyet Mai always sought to defame Nha Dan, but this time, he himself was not sure whether his violent reaction to Viet Dang's appearance was because of concern for the family's honor, or because of a much deeper, private feeling that he was not ready to face.

He opened the desk drawer, looked at the small wooden box that stored teenage memories, his hand gently touched the lid of the box but did not open it. Perhaps, he thought to himself, he was just projecting unfinished feelings from his first love a year ago onto a girl who happened to have strangely familiar features, rather than a real, developing feeling. But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, deep inside, he still couldn't deny that, every time he thought of Nha Dan, his chest tightened in a rhythm completely foreign to the cold, rational person he had worked so hard to build over the past twelve years - a feeling of warmth mixed with insecurity that no business deal or power game had ever made him experience.

A few days later, an opportunity for Nha Dan to learn more about Thien Lam suddenly appeared. She accidentally caught him sitting alone in the office at midnight, no lights turned on, only the faint light from the computer screen shining on his pensive face. On the table was a small wooden box she had seen briefly once.

"Aren't you sleeping yet?" She asked softly, standing in the doorway, not daring to enter.

Thien Lam was startled, quickly closed the lid of the wooden box, and put it in a drawer. "Why aren't you sleeping yet?"

"I'm thirsty, I'm going to the kitchen to get something to drink." Nha Dan replied, her eyes could not hide her curiosity about that mysterious wooden box. "Do you still stay up so late?"

"Sometimes." He replied curtly, not wanting to say more.

Nha Dan hesitated for a moment, then walked into the room, sat down in the chair opposite his desk, a rare bold action of hers since the day she moved here. "Do you ever feel tired of always having to act strong and cold in front of everyone?"

Thien Lam looked at her, his eyes slightly surprised by this unexpected question. He was silent for a long moment, then sighed softly, a rare answer escaping his inherent defensive shell.

"Yes. But I have no other choice. From the age of nineteen, I had to learn how to stand on my own, not rely on anyone, not reveal any weakness, because even a small flaw can be exploited and trampled on by others."

"What happened when you were nineteen?" Nha Dan asked softly, her heart beating faster when thinking about the coincidence with the age Kien left her in the past.

Thien Lam froze, his hands clasped together on the table, squeezing tighter, as if he was considering whether to reveal more or not. But in the end, he just shook his head and closed the door that had just opened. "It's over, there's no need to bring it up again. You should go to sleep, it's late."

Nha Dan felt disappointed at his sudden avoidance, but she did not force him, just nodded slightly and stood up. Before leaving the room, she looked back and saw Thien Lam looking at her with a look that, if it weren't for the dim light in the room, she could have sworn was the look of a person suffering from a dull pain that could not be shared with anyone.

Returning to her room, Nha Dan lay awake unable to sleep, her mind kept revolving around the image of Thien Lam sitting alone in the dark, her hand clutching that mysterious wooden box as if holding a part of her body that she did not want anyone to touch. She began to wonder if inside that cold, controlling person, there was hidden a painful past that had never been healed, a past that was probably closely related to her own life that neither of them realized.

She reached out to touch the sandalwood bracelet that she always wore on her wrist, suddenly remembering Thien Lam's briefly panicked eyes when he first saw it on her hand, a reaction too intense for a bland explanation like "it just looks familiar". There was something in this man's story that was not as simple as he wanted her to believe, and Nha Dan, even though she could not yet name that doubt, silently promised herself that one day soon, she would find out what that wooden box was hiding.