And at this time, my heart started pounding very hard upon hearing his voice becoming loud and strong.
"I'm sorry-"
My appropriate apology hung in the air again when he rudely snapped my face using the back of his palm. Another bruise was awarded to my face because of the bravery I did.
I deserve it.
"How hard is this thing I’m asking you to do, huh?!" He strangled me and presented my innocent face to his demonic eyes. "Just drink that to get pregnant, Kris! What's so hard to do there?!"
"I-I don't want to." My shaking hands grabbed his hand that was strangling my neck, and using my remaining strength I tried to remove his hand from strangling me.
"You're just giving me more reason to hurt you!" He pushed me hard and just as my back hit the side table, the flower vase fell on my head. "I'm looking for a way, Kris, to get you pregnant. I'm doing everything so that at least one child from the two of us can be born. All I’m asking for you is just to cooperate! Is that too much to ask?!”
I felt blood dripping from my head where the vase broke. Even though it hurt with a little pain, I didn't mind it for this time. I think I need to explain my side to Liam.
"If you are not tired of hoping that we will have a child, I hope you will think of me as well. I don't want to hope for that to happen anymore because I have accepted for a long time that the only thing I can take care of is the child that did not come from my womb."
And maybe because I talked back to him, he immediately came to me and pulled me upright... and then using the back of his hand, he slapped me... falling back to the floor.
"Could you stop talking like that, Kris?! This doesn't make any sense! If you're so weak-minded to give up immediately that we could make a child, definitely not the same as me!" I could see his feet starting to walk towards me, and my whole body starting to shiver.
"Honey…" He sat in front of me and brushed my messy hair from my face. Even though I was shaking, I tried to get away from his sinful hand, but he still can reach me through his hands. "Don't force me to hurt you anymore. I love you so much-"
"You don't love me," I whispered. "A person who knows how to love doesn't know how to hurt. If what you are doing to me is still called love..." My eyes met his eyes with tears. "Why are you hurting me? You're choking me."
"I'm going to beg you, Liam. Stop insisting me to get pregnant. Sarah is enough-"
"No." What I thought was his gentle face turned into a scary one. "My dad will never accept that child, Kris! He will never accept the child we just picked up from the orphanage as a grandchild! So, whether you like it or not, you have to get pregnant!" He took my hand and forcibly took me to the kitchen.
He poured the contents of the new Chinese herbs he took from the fridge into the glass and forced me to drink it, but I insisted not to open my mouth despite his insistence.
"You won't drink?" He squeezed my cheek hard and forced my mouth to open. "Drink it--"
"Liam! What are you doing with Kris?!" Mother Minda suddenly came to the kitchen, so what Liam was planning to do with me was interrupted. "Dear! Do you still see what you are doing to your wife?!"
And Liam just stared at me the whole time processing his mind about what he has done to me. He was just stunned as he gradually moved away from me, and as if he's not aware that at this moment, he's starting to shed tears.
"Lock me in my study room, please."
Liam seemed to be out of his mind when Mother Minda led him to his study room. There, he sat on the long, black sofa as if he still wasn't coming back to his senses. And Mother Minda left the room, locking the door before she got back to me.
"Are you okay?" she asked me worriedly, but I seem to have adapted to my husband becoming stupor. "Wait a minute, I'll treat your wound."
"Mother Minda," I called her so she couldn't continue to leave. "Haven't he taken some treatments?"
"My kid doesn't have a mental illness, Kris. He doesn't need to take any medicine or undergo any treatments. He's fine," she answered with a smile before turning her back on me.
But, I'm not convinced. I've been married to him for almost a decade, and he's always like that. I guess it has become their routine that whenever Liam hurts me because he can't even control himself hurting me, Mother Minda will come to stop him. And then the next thing happened... she locked him in his study room just to make sure he couldn't get close to me and hurt me.
And then now... Nay Minda wanted me to believe that there's nothing wrong with my husband? That he is normal? No! He really needs to be treated. I need to know what his illness is... and this is the least I can do for him as his wife.
Because I'm tired of him hurting me almost every day every time he comes home from work. That whenever I did even a little mistake in his eyes, he would make it a big deal.
"Kris, don't think about anything else..." When Mother Minda returned with the first aid kit, she immediately sat in front of me to begin the treatment. "Don't think that your husband is not normal. You can't blame him if because he wants you to have a child, he suddenly becomes a different person in your eyes."
"And if you are thinking of leaving and breaking up with him just because you think he has a mental problem, you should always remember that God bound you to him with your love for each other."
I just laugh at the back of my mind. Earlier, she sounds like she's encouraging me to leave this house. And then... a sudden change of mind had happened. What kind of life did I really enter?
"The study room was locked again?" Sarah asked with a frown when she entered the house. She's back from school.
"It's not really a big matter, baby--"
"Daddy is locked inside again, isn't he?" she asked innocently, that even if I wanted to explain the events to her, she really wouldn't understand how serious the matters are. "Daddy's not a bad guy! Let him out, mommy! He promised to help me with my homework today," she said with a sneer.
"I'll do it then." I showed her my fake smile before I brought my daughter inside her room. In that way, her attention will be diverted to the study room where her daddy is imprisoned.
I hope he'll never come out there. My life could've been peaceful if he's not around, anyway. My life would have been better if I refused his proposal to me back when his love for me was still visible in his eyes.
Can't imagine my 'I do. I want you to be my husband' turns out to be 'I don't want this fvcking life anymore!'
With Liam's request with regards of drinking those Chinese herbs in hopes that I could get pregnant, I did it against my will. If I let my stubbornness prevail again, I'm only bringing myself closer to danger. I'm human too... I still feel pain by Liam's hand and leg blows every time he loses his temper."Your Mama Imelda will come later, Kris," said Mother Minda from the kitchen while I was in the living room watching TV. From here, her voice reached its peak, adding that the two of us were the only ones at home since Sarah went to school and Liam went to the hospital early. "Didn't you promise her that the next time she comes here you will cook her kare-kare?""Well, until now I still haven't gotten the mixture right. I often put too much peanut butter. She might criticize my cooking again just in case," I answered indifferently while still focusing on what I was watching.That happened last year. It was my birthday and when I promised my mother-in-law that I would cook her a delici
"So, the best thing I could advise you is to live with Liam separately. You will not be safe if you are always with your husband, Kris. He should've been brought to a healthcare facility, so we can help him treat his disorder."I clenched my trembling fist. Logan's suggestion was actually the one I should've done now. For Sarah and I's safety, the only thing that comes with my mind is to escape."Based on what I heard from you, one of the symptoms of DID is that he suddenly becomes a different person in front of you without any specific reason. It's because a person diagnosed with this kind of disorder tends to have over 100 alters in their personalities." Logan got his pen pointing to his temple, as if he's thinking something. "I need to see your husband by myself, Kris. It's not enough for me to know from you what he does or what happens to him day after day.""I can see his symptoms, yes. But as a professional, I shouldn't diagnose a person having this kind of illness without check
"Tell me why?" Liam's deep and terrifying voice enveloped my body as my body shivered so hard while sitting at the edge of the bed. "What's your reason for leaving the house without my consent? I didn't fail to remind you, didn't I? I told you not to go outside, Kris! Is that too much to ask?"I want to answer him yes. I want to voice out my feelings and I want to show him that he is exaggerating by locking me up here inside the hell he used to call a palace before. But I ended up saying, "I'm sorry."Even though I don't see any reason for me to apologize, to cut this conversation short, I apologized."I'm sorry for breaking your rules, Liam.""It's okay." Even though I was looking at the floor, I could clearly see from the floor the fall of the lab coat he had just taken off. "But, please..." And I don't really like what's about to happen tonight.Liam pushed my shoulder lightly just to lay my body down on the bed. "I don't want the same thing to happen again, hmm? You know what I do
A week of no good communication with Liam because of his tight schedule, and here he is... just freaking out to stop me from having coffee."No, Kirsten! Don't drink that!" Liam ran up to me to grab the coffee that Mother Minda just brought me here in the garden area."Are you also forbidding me to drink coffee?" I asked calmly. I don't want to fight with him now... I'm not ready to get my body hurt.He violently grabbed the coffee cup and threw it on the grass. At the same time, I saw behind Liam that his two bodyguards were holding Mother Minda.Liam was about to turn his back to me when I stopped him. "What's going on? Where are you taking Mother Minda?!""In the place where she belongs." To my surprise, he brought his face to me with a bad expression. "There is no problem with you, Kris. The doctor's diagnosis of your womb’s inability to get pregnant was not true.""H-How? H-How did you say that? You're a doctor, Liam! Doctors can't make mistakes in diagnosing--""That old woman c
I held back my own excitement to tell Liam about the success of our sex last time. I would like to find a good time to surprise him with this great news. One more thing, he's been very busy these past few days, so for the meantime, I’d rather like him to focus on his job. Maybe telling my surprise to him can wait.One of these days, I will be able to tell him about my pregnancy... but I think this time is not so good and so perfect to speak."Most of the time, you drink coffee in the morning partnered with ham and sausage," Liam remarked, pointing his finger to my plate currently having plain rice with veggies, and to my drink, I have hot milk. "You're not into healthy foods. What's your reason for making a change?""Do you have to always question all the changes you'll notice every time with me?""You're acting strange, Kris. That's why." My piercing gaze could not shake his preoccupation with food. "And some changes in your body and routines only result in only two things..." Now Li
"Are you busy?" I was inside our room folding clothes when Liam arrived. "Kris--""Use your eyes. You see I'm doing something, right?" Maybe my pregnancy caused me to be hot-headed, so my mood suddenly changed.My heart skipped a beat when the door slammed hard, and my body jerked up out of nowhere as Liam pulled my hair causing my scalp to ache."L-Liam, it hurts--""Do you think you didn't hurt me the way you answered me, Kris?! Don't you care about me anymore?!" He presented my innocent face to him, only to be surprised when I saw tears streaming down his cheeks. "Don't you want me anymore, Kris?""L-Liam…"Even though my hand was shaking, I tried to remove his hand from clinging to my hair. But it was not enough as I let myself be too stunned by just looking at my husband... now that he's acting as someone I don't know... again."A-Are y-you okay?""You're asking me if I'm okay after what you've said to me?! What do you think?!" His previously gentle voice became harsh and sharp.
"Fuck that psychiatrist, Kris!" And as predicted, he's gonna explode like a ticking bomb. "Why do you keep insisting that I'm having mental illness-"“I'm not saying you are-”"But you're actually making me feel like I'm one!" The newly hired maids aren't at our house yet, so Liam and I are the only two here, fighting in the home he once called a palace. "Am I not normal in your eyes? What is wrong with my character for you to think that I’m insane?!”"Stop calling yourself like that. I'm not saying you're crazy-”"But you think there's a problem with my thinking, what's the difference? I'm okay and I’m totally fine, so stop forcing me to go to those stupid psychiatrists because I'm not mentally retarded!” He left me here in the living room of the house with the clothes he bought for me scattered.“He's a health worker. How could he call psychiatrists as doctors of crazy people?”Liam made me heave a long sigh for acting like that. He just couldn't admit to himself that there was real
He even laughed at me just to tease me. "I'm close with Liam. I'm one of his colleagues way back 2016-18, but we just parted ways when I flew to Italy with Gwen.""Whoa. I have no idea about that.” And literally I got surprised upon knowing my brother-in-law has connections with my husband. "Anyway, how are you? How are you and Gwen? Does mom already know that you are back here in the Philippines?""Gwen and I got home here last week. Actually, you're the only one who had no idea we're back." Hen suddenly turned his back on me while taking a look at the venue of Liam and I's wedding anniversary. Because from here, there is a view of the garden area. "Liam loved you so much, didn't he?"As much as I wanted to tell him the truth, I couldn't. Especially now that I found out that Hen is connected to my husband, I think this is not the perfect time to let the bomb explode."He truly is." Even inside, I want to divorce my husband. "He's a loving husband to me... indeed."I took advantage of