Yanny soaked in the bathtub filled with hot water. She had no idea how long she soaked in there. Her skin had almost lost all feelings of pain. She stared into space in a daze.
The scenes of entangled limbs in her mind made her feel shameful, terrible, and disgusted.
With the title of Mrs. Jinn, she had committed adultery with her body.
Yanny wanted to die.
If she did not drive over to the police station to fetch Samuel that night, would that have denied the peace breaker the opportunity?
If she did not agree to the meeting after receiving Samuel’s call, all that would not have happened.
Samuel and her were long caught in the sights of that evil dragon hiding in the dark. Someone was stalking them all this while. Otherwise, the timing would not have been so impeccable, ensnaring Samuel and her in the same abyss.
What a coincidence that it was Samuel and her.
If it was someone else, the relationship between her and Shayne would not have completely ended.
However, with Samuel, he had always been a thorn in Shayne’s heart.
All those years, as long as Samuel was involved between them, Shayne would burn with jealousy. Yanny knew that deep down in Shayne’s heart, Samuel was her first crush that she met in her younger days, and later on came between them for several years. For Shayne, Samuel’s identity was too sensitive and special.
However, a crush was not love. The one that she loved all the while had always been Shayne.
Nevertheless, at that point, how could she face him with her dirty and damaged body?
Regardless of who the evil dragon behind the scenes was, it has already happened. The scenes of her adultery with Samuel would playback in her mind with absolute clarity, like a nightmare. They were all real and inescapable.
She once told Shayne that she especially hated adulterers. However, at that moment, she was just like Winson. What difference was there?
“Hehehe…”
Yanny started laughing pitifully with self ridicule. Huge droplets of tears streamed down her cheeks.
She slowly lowered her head and looked at her reddened body that was bleeding from the scrubbing. That body seemed to be crawling with disgusting maggots, slowly eating away at the hopes of her life.
Yanny’s body sank deeper into the bathtub. The hot water slowly went over her head. That suffocating feeling surprisingly managed to give her a sense of comfort in such a time of great humiliation.
She closed her eyes, hoping to commune with the grim reaper.
However, deep in her mind, scenes of her time spent with Shayne in the past seven years started playing back.
On Grape Island, they enjoyed the sunshine together, basking in the sea breeze, along the road by the lagoon kissing under the sun and moonlight, walking together along the long golden coast. He said, “Yanny, you’re my wife. Your body and mind can only be mine.”
In the cold winter season, they held each other’s hand and walked down the desolate street, then at the end of the street, brazenly kissed each other intimately.
Under the snow covered acacia tree, they sat on the swing, swinging along, as though swinging into eternity.
By the beach of Oz City, he once lit a sky full of fireworks for her, walking out of that momentary blaze of the fireworks, appearing even more magnificent and eye catching than the fireworks. He asked if she liked him or the fireworks more. She laughed and said that she loved both.
Fireworks… He said that after he returned home, he would light her a round of fireworks.
She had yet to see that round of fireworks. How can she die before that?
Yanny quickly struggled to the surface of the water, splashing all over the floor. Yanny opened her mouth like a suffocating fish, taking in big gulps of air.
The edge of her eyes were red.
She still wanted to live. She was still yearning for the days spent with him.
When she retired from filming, she had said that she would make her way toward him in the future.
Her retirement was a wedding gift to him. She planned to give up her fame to be his housewife.
She too, had the qualities of a gentle and caring wife.
Yanny’s tears would not stop flowing, as though trying to drain all the water from her.
It was a nightmare. When would she wake up from it?
Yanny lifted her hands and turned off the tap.
The world returned to silence.
The water in the bathtub cooled down slowly.
Yanny could vaguely make out the sound of a car’s engine coming from the yard.
Shayne was back.
He was finally willing to come back to see her?
Yanny got out of the bathtub, her body covered in bloody marks, looking slightly terrifying.
She dried her body and put on a set of conservative pajamas. The shirt and pants were long, fully covering every part of her body.
Yanny did not know how to muster up the courage and be mentally prepared to face Shayne.
He stumbled onto the genuine leather sofa with his body reeking of alcohol, ignoring her. From the cigarette box on the coffee table, he took one out, lit it and placed it in his mouth. He puffed one after another, throwing the cigarette butt randomly into the ashtray. Some were even outside of the ashtray. The person smoking the cigarette had lost all his patience and calm.
Very soon, the entire house was filled with the smell of cigarette smoke.
Yanny finally spoke up dryly, “If… if you’ve calmed down, let’s talk, okay?”
Calm?
What did she mean by calm?
Him not killing Samuel was calm. Him not strangling her to death at the scene itself was calm. How else did she expect him to be calm?
Shayne raised his head to look at Yanny, standing far away from him. His gaze was chilling and filled with a sense of alienation. The edge of his eyes were red with anger. He stared at her with that chilling and terrible gaze, causing Yanny to feel diffident.
She betrayed him, and was thus unable to bear such a stern interrogating gaze from him. Feeling guilty was a natural reaction.
“Shayne, I was being set up. Someone kidnapped me. I—”
The tears on Yanny’s cheeks were also illuminated by that flame.
In the glowing flames, Shayne threw the match away and stared straight at her, saying, “Right now, my feelings are just like this wedding gown. Gone, all gone. Yanny, you not only ruined yourself, but you’ve also completely ruined me.”
The emotions displayed on his face were terribly cold. His gaze was without a hint of warmth, just like a devil. In fact, Yanny could even see two black wings growing out of his back.
Shayne in that mode looked as though he came from the abyss.
“Shayne…”
Shayne calmly made a cruel announcement, “Stop calling me. You don’t deserve to do that. You’re also undeserving of this wedding gown.”
Extremely undeserving.
Yanny seemed to have shrunk to the size of a dust particle, as meek as a grain of sand that was stuck to the bottom of his shoes, letting him step all over her.
Yanny’s dry lips parted, wanting to call out to him, but she could not do it. At that moment, even calling out his name would make him feel extremely dirty.
What could she do to soothe their rage filled relationship?
Yanny moved her lips and said in a hoarse voice, “If… If you don’t want to see me, I can move away.”
Until his anger passed.
Move away.
Those words set Shayne off completely.
He strode right up to her. Yanny subconsciously took a step back, but Shayne had already grabbed hold of her wrist and threw her against the sofa.
Yanny fell onto the sofa.
Shayne clamped her around her neck, asking her in a frenzy, “Move away? Tell me, where are you moving to? To run away with Samuel? Yanny, why are you such a slut?”
Tears streamed down silently from the edge of her eyes. Yanny cried and shook her head. “I didn’t… Shayne, I really didn’t… I didn’t plan to look for Samuel.”
Shayne’s fingers closed in even tighter around her neck, wanting to just end her with his own hands. If he strangled her, that would be the end of the nightmare. He really did not mind carrying the burden of Yanny’s life.
He had never felt so contradicted before. He felt like strangling that woman right there, yet could not bear doing so.
The strength around her neck slowly increased. Yanny was about to lose her ability to breathe. The feeling of suffocation was excruciating, but Yanny did not struggle.
If Shayne strangled her right then, she would accept it. Perhaps in death would she find some relief.
She slowly closed her eyes as her tears continued to flow from the edge of her eyes.
Finally, Shayne sighed and lowered his head around her neck. He said in a hoarse and threatening voice, “Yanny, I really just want to strangle you and be done with it.”
Just a little more and he would have strangled her to death. However, he could not bear to do it in the end.
What was love? What was hate? Shayne was unable to tell them apart.
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