Chapter 3 Cruel Woman

I sat on the flooded ground. The silhouettes on the window were entwined with each other, but soon that figure was also a blur.

I dazedly thought I saw Wendy again, the one from three years ago. I was all but dead after experiencing my first betrayal. I said nothing, shed no tears, gave no smiles, and only spent my days staring emptily into the ceiling.

Wendy did everything she could to cheer me up. She bought me flowers, but I didn't even look at them. She brought me to the beach to see the ocean, but I said nothing. She cooked for me, but I didn't even take a bite.

Then, she went missing for the whole afternoon. When she came back, her face was covered in the Joker's makeup, and a big red nose hung from her actual nose.

She tried to play some tricks to cheer me up. It was a clumsy performance. She scrambled to juggle the balls, only for them to fall off three times.

Wendy was the Haltons' only heir and always kept up airs wherever she went. She was serious and intimidating, but she humbled herself just to make me happy.

I laughed. For the first time after the betrayal, I laughed.

Then, she got into a row in a bar for me, all because someone told her in an offhand way that I was used goods. She threw out all her lessons on etiquette right there and then.

She had once cried in front of the whole company, all because I was throwing a tantrum and told her I didn't want her anymore. She grabbed my hand and pleaded for me to stay.

The pride Summer complained about was something Wendy took. She told me she'd love me no matter what I was.

I couldn't understand why the woman who had nothing but eyes for me could turn into… that.

I stood underneath the complex, staring at the building numbly. Only when the lights had gone out did I leave. The wound on my lower back was screaming now. I went to the hospital.

…

The nurse yelled out my name and said my card was frozen. "You should've checked before you came! It's the dead of the night, for God's sake!"

I scrambled off the operating theater. Not only was my body drenched, but my coat was clinging tightly to my skin and draining my warmth. The cold was almost freezing me.

I apologized profusely, only to gain looks of scorn in return.

"He must've cheated or something. He deserves to be dumped."

"God's watching, I always say."

No, no, that wasn't it. That was a lie. Alas, I couldn't say anything. My fingers were clenched tightly around the card, and my knuckles went white.

I had nowhere to go. Eventually, my legs brought me back to the den of treachery. The door swung open. Wendy was leaning on the wall, a glass of wine in her hand. Her eyes were gleaming with mockery, as if she knew I'd come home.

"Why did you marry me, Ashton? Love, or revenge on Summer?"

That question came out of nowhere. I couldn't come up with an answer on the spot. Her eyes went red, and she clamped down on my shoulders tightly.

Then, she started shaking me as if she could shake an answer out of me. "You don't feel anything even after all that, Ashton? Why didn't you make a scene? You made a huge fuss when you found out Summer was cheating!"

The shaking was making my nausea worse, so I retched. Wendy flung me away, and a cold, cruel smile hung on her lips. "Think I'm disgusting, do you?"

She pinched Joe's chin and kissed him right in front of me. Joe moaned, his voice sickeningly sweet.

Wendy raised her head. Her lipstick was smudged. "Hold it in as long as you can."