“Better to deal with it now than marry him and spend a lifetime facing that coldness.”
Fay still wanted to marry me? I didn't want to marry her anymore.
Back then, because my work required absolute secrecy, I had no right to date or start a family like a normal person.
But Fay fell for me at first sight and launched an aggressive pursuit.
No matter how many times I turned her down, she kept coming back, undeterred.
It wasn't until she saved my mother twice and ended up hospitalized herself from a beating that I finally gave in.
She grabbed my hand and said：“You're on my ship now. Don't even think about escaping.”
The Harding princess, so moved she was crying, had melted something inside me that day.
Memories were beautiful. Reality was cruel.
Fay curled her lips into a cold smile：“Desmond, if you can't pay up, the owner of that antique and the manager will strip your mother naked and break your legs before throwing you out.”
The moment those words left her mouth, every pair of eyes in the room locked onto us, hungry for the spectacle.
“He's done for. There's no way he can afford that kind of money.”
“He's just some nobody. Honestly, someone like him was never good enough for Fay. At least she finally came to her senses.”
Victor's gaze crawled over my mother's body, and when he spoke, his voice was laced with menace.
“If you really can't pay, I'll tear the clothes off this old hag myself.”
“As for breaking legs, I'll leave that to the manager.”
My mother's face drained of all color.
The shock triggered her old heart condition. She clutched her chest with both hands and collapsed to the floor.
She knocked a glass of red wine off the table as she fell, and the wine splashed across Victor's shoes.
“You stupid woman!”
“Smashing my antique wasn't enough? Now you've ruined my shoes and my clothes too?”
“I have a flight to catch for a business trip, and you're out here begging for it.”
Before I could react, he raised his foot and stomped down hard on my mother's stomach.
“No! Stop!”
Fay shot to her feet, but Kerry grabbed her wrist：“Ow! Fay, my leg hurts so bad!”
Fay turned and saw Kerry's bandaged leg. The alarm on her face shifted to pity, and then, slowly, to something cold and hollow.
“Kerry, don't stand up. Sit down.”
“So you won't go rushing in to save them?”
Looking at the redness rimming Kerry's eyes, Fay answered without hesitation：“No.”
On the other side of the room, every staff member in the restaurant had closed ranks around me. I couldn't get anywhere near my mother.
She was curled around her stomach, a low, broken sound forcing itself through her teeth.
“Mom, are you okay?”
No answer. My chest tightened another notch.
“Move! Her condition is flaring up!”
“I already told you, I'll find a way to pay!”
They didn't budge. More bodies stepped in to fill the gaps.
“Pay? How exactly are you going to pay?”
“I'm leaving this city in two hours and I'm never coming back. Where am I supposed to collect from you?”
“Give me an address and a bank account number. Once I have the money I'll transfer……”
“Bullshit. Talk is cheap. There are plenty of deadbeats who skip out on what they owe. If I let a couple of strangers walk out of here, I'd be the idiot.”
The words barely left his mouth before he raised his foot and stomped on my mother's stomach a second time.
“Ahhh!”
Two full-force blows. She curled into a tight ball, trembling, and a mouthful of blood spilled from her lips.
Panic burned through me. I threw myself forward, fighting to break through the wall of bodies.
“Tighten up! He knows how to fight!”
