Chapter 3 Tricked Again

This marriage was something I was proud of. I married the woman I loved, after all. And now, it was the worst kind of torture I could ever imagine.

I could not help wondering whether the woman who once cried because I caught a cold after running through the rain to pick her up was truly the same person as my wife.

If that really was the same woman, I wondered why she would be so eager to shove me into hell. And now I was once again running in the rain with all the might my legs could carry.

I tried to convince myself I had misunderstood everything, but I could not.

I could not accept the truth.

…

By the time I somehow made it home, Yvonne was lying on the couch, scrolling through her phone. The sight of me made her eyes flicker with disgust and impatience, but she held it down quickly.

There was a slight curve to her belly. How ironic. If I had not witnessed that scene earlier in the afternoon and heard what she had done, I might have actually believed it.

"Where have you been? Honestly, you never think before you do anything. You're going to be a father! And how'd you get those wounds? Come here, I'll handle them."

She had a frown on her forehead as she waved at me. The old me would have been overjoyed.

If she was willing to speak to me, willing to show even the smallest trace of concern, I would have rushed to her side without hesitation. If she had offered to treat my wounds, I might have been happy enough to lose my mind.

The old me would have convinced himself that this was her version of love. Now, every single word only sickened me to my stomach.

"No, thank you." I did not wait for her response. Instead, I locked myself in the study to process my feelings.

Something even more ironic met my eyes. Hundreds of names were spread out on my desk. I wrote them one by one a few days ago. A few days ago, I was wracking my brain to figure out my baby's name.

And now my world was turned into something twisted and unrecognizable. I was teetering on the edge of pain and hysteria.

Then, Yvonne did something I never expected again. She came in with medicine.

She handed the medicine to me, still frowning. Her voice was as cold and proud as ever. "I'm not going to ask you how you hurt yourself. Just finish the meds. Don't make me worry. And don't make the baby worry either."

I put on a bitter smile and was about to say no, but when I saw her blowing gently on the medicine to cool it down, my eyes suddenly burned. What a pathetic fool I was.

When she fed me the medicine, I failed to push her away in time. Once the liquid hit my stomach, it started to burn, and my consciousness began to fade.

…

Before everything went to black, I saw that woman spraying disinfecting alcohol on herself, her face covered in disgust.

"Get him to Southeast Aldoria and tell them to just keep him barely breathing. They can break him."

Once again, I was thrown into a nightmare like a piece of discarded meat.

I woke up finding myself tied to a ship's mast. Below the platform, a group of burly men were throwing cash around, bidding over my fate as if I were nothing more than entertainment.

"Ten million! That lad is mine! He looks delicious. It'll be worth training him."

"I double that offer. They only gave us three days. We have to move fast."

"One by one is too boring. That'll take too long. Maybe we should go for it together."

"True. Not like we can do anything real gory. Maybe some sadism, but that's all. Group play sounds exciting."

…

Once again, I escaped from that place of nightmares. Those animals left me alive. But only barely.