Darren looked up and saw nothing but an empty wall.
He pointed at the wall, his face darkening and the moonlight only deepened his suspicion. "Where's the painting?"
"I took it for repairs. It hadn't been taken down and cleaned in a long time and it had accumulated a layer of dust," Laura replied, not wanting to say much more. After all, whatever she said, it would always be her fault. Perhaps Darren had long been dissatisfied with her.
She just couldn’t understand why, despite his usual control over his alcohol, he had drunk so much tonight.
It must be because of Melanie. She was the woman he had once dated, the only woman he had ever been involved with.
Darren collapsed onto the sofa, one hand shielding his eyes as he muttered to himself.
"Laura, you must be upset after seeing me kiss Melanie today, right? So why don't you get angry? Are you following your mother’s second lesson: learn to tolerate?"
Laura’s steps faltered as she was about to go upstairs, a chill spreading through her heart.
"Laura, your methods are inherited well. Persistent confession, pretending to be pitiful and wronged, all to seduce men. After all, your mother succeeded in this way, didn’t she?"
With each word he spoke, Laura's heart grew colder.
Darren wanted to see anger or jealousy on her face. He didn’t want to see that expression of indifference, as if nothing mattered to her.
His tone grew sharper, his hand trembling slightly in the shadows as he spoke, each word cutting like a blade. "Back then, when your mother married into the Bill Family, we all saw her true intentions. It’s pathetic. She couldn’t just climb the ranks for herself. Now, she wants you to cling to me? Are you really that desperate to hold onto wealth and status?"
Tears slipped from her eyes in the darkness, falling one by one before fading into the night.
Everyone could blame her mother, everyone could curse her mother—but not her.
Her mother had schemed everything for the wealth and prosperity of the Bill Family.
But Laura? She had done it for herself for the chance to enter the prestigious family and enjoy a better life.
Her mother had once told her that her talent and abilities should not be confined by poverty, which was why she was willing to do anything, even sleep her way to the top.
"Darren... I will leave, no one is irreplaceable..."
Her voice trembled, every word feeling like an immense struggle. It was as if her heart was being torn apart from within.
"Really? Then why haven't you left? Laura... you think just by acting like your mother..."
"Enough!" Laura shouted, her face pale as she walked back to Darren's side.
"You can't stand me, so I'll leave. It has nothing to do with my mother! I'll do as you wish and never come back..."
Under the moonlight, Laura seemed so fragile, as if a gust of wind could shatter her into pieces. She stood there before Darren, tears glistening in her eyes.
"If you don't even cherish my own love, then so be it..."
Darren's tousled hair covered his eyes. He lifted his head slightly, staring at Laura, his voice growing even more somber.
"A person who said she wanted to be my wife at eighteen, what does she even understand about love? Or is it just about using me? Stop pretending. It’s been seven years, haven't you pretended enough?"
"Darren, the one who truly lacks courage is you!"
Laura's eyes turned red, her tears falling uncontrollably in large drops. All the accumulated grievances transformed into anger and hurt.
