Upon coming in contact with my ice-cold hand, she gasped in shock. “Look at how cold your hands are! Quick! Let’s go back inside. You’ll get a frostbite if you stay here.”
I remained motionless. The only way I could numb myself and have some semblance of relief was if I stayed in this kind of harsh environment. Molly tugged on my hand a few times, but for someone who was up in the years, she couldn’t make me budge an inch. Hence, she had no choice but to relent. “Don’t fall asleep. I’ll go get Mr. Anthony. You’re putting your life in danger, child!”
After Anthony brought me home, he immediately went into his study. Probably having heard Molly’s voice, he came downstairs right then.
He strode out of the villa with pursed lips. When he saw me standing rigidly in the snow, his face darkened and he looked at Molly. “What’s going on?”
Molly shook her head and sighed. “Madam is acting strange.”
I raised my eyes to see Anthony who was clad in all-black. As I looked at him, a sense of detachment and unfamiliarity rose in me. I shook my head weakly and said, “I’m fine!”
Wriggling my stiff toes, I began walking toward the villa, making sure to skirt around Anthony. Just like my heart, my face had gone slightly numb from the cold.
Not knowing what happened, Molly asked with concern, “Mr. Anthony, Madam seems…”
Anthony replied in a low voice, “It’s fine. Go in and rest first.”
With that, he followed me into the living room and reached out to pull me. When he touched my frozen hands, his eyes turned terrifyingly cold. “Are you punishing yourself because of him, Sienna?”
I shook his hand off. For some reason, the sight of him filled me with loath and animosity. “Let go of me!”
The sides of Anthony’s mouth tightened and his expression hardened.
He blocked my path while staring at me with a frightening glint in his eyes. Suddenly, he scooped me into his arms and went directly to the bedroom on the second floor before placing me down in the bathroom.
The heater was turned on in the bathroom. Swaddled in warmth, my thoughts became slightly jumbled and hazy.
Seeing me staring blankly into space, Anthony stretched out his hands to undress me.
“Sienna, everyone has their own lives to live. Don’t torture yourself, okay?” he advised in a dispassionate tone.
Indignation swelled in my heart. What does he mean everyone has their own lives to live? I slapped his hands away and uttered in an eerily cold voice, “Get out.”
My abrupt manifestation of anger took Anthony by surprise. After a brief moment, he narrowed his eyes dangerously at me and growled, “You are my wife, Sienna!”
“So what if I am?” I yelled. “Yes, I’m your wife, but you failed to protect your own child; you failed to protect me. Marcus was the one who did all of this. Without him, do you think I’d be able to stand here in front of you, alive and breathing? To put it bluntly, I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him.”
My chest heaved rapidly. “I shouldn’t have come back with you. You Featherstones are cold and heartless creatures. Sally killed the White family, while you killed your own child and broke your own wife’s heart. You’re all beasts in human skin who are capable of cruelty beyond comprehension. In fact, all of you are even worse than Cameron. Despicable and revolting!”
Anthony pressed his lips together as his gaze sharpened and a horrifying chill flashed in his eyes. Even with the heater switched on, a shiver still traveled through my body.
He clasped my wrist and gritted out, “So the Featherstones are so worthless in your eyes, huh? Why? Are you feeling sorry for the White family and their tragic ending? You’ve turned me into your punching bag because of Marcus’ death. I have to admit, I’m impressed. He left this world with a bang, seeing as he’s still influencing our lives beyond his death!”
I looked at him, but no longer had the strength to argue with him. Suppressing the pain in my heart, I said emotionlessly, “I don’t want to see you.”
When I recalled how Sally had been using me as her shield the days before Marcus’ death, my guilt intensified all the more. She knew from the very start that Marcus hated her. Fearing that he might do something to her, she made sure I stayed in the White residence as an assurance for her own life.
She knew that she’d be safe with me around because Marcus would never hurt me, be it emotionally or physically. Hence, she kept me by her side. Even at the very last second, Marcus had swerved the car to protect me.
I never wanted to hurt anyone, but that seemed like the only thing I was good at.
Anthony peered at me with an unfathomable gaze. After a long time, he let out a soft sigh and said, “I know you feel guilty about Marcus’ death, but Sienna, no one killed him. He was the one who crashed the car.”
Anger sparked in me. I removed my high heels and threw them at him. “Get out, Anthony! I don’t want to see you!”
How can he say that no one killed him? It was obviously Sally! She forced Sharon to her death, then targeted Marcus next. It was clearly all her doing! She killed so many people without even batting an eyelid. How dare she pretend to be innocent in the end?
Surprisingly, Anthony had built up his patience. Even though I had just hurled my heels at him, besides his gaze darkening subtly, he showed no other reaction as he took me into his arms and soothed, “Are you done? Take a bath now before you fall sick.”
I felt as if I was punching at cotton. Nothing I said or did manage to elicit a response out of him.
I, on the other hand, was filled with more anguish.
When his hand reached out to remove my clothes, I flinched and shoved him aside. “Leave!”
His expression turned sullen. “How long are you going to keep this up?” Everyone’s patience had a limit.
But, so what?
Clenching my jaw, I stared fixedly at him and repeated, “Leave!”
With a glum expression, he extended his hand to press me against his chest, using his other to grasp my chin before forcibly kissing me.
His kiss was fierce, as though he wanted to swallow me whole.
Just when I thought he was going to take me right then and there, he released me and mumbled, “Are you done kicking up a fuss now? Hmm?”
I was already an emotional train wreck to begin with. Another wave of anger rose from deep inside me. “I told you to leave, Anthony. Leave! Can’t you hear me? Are you deaf or dumb?”
Without waiting for a response, I climbed out of the bathtub and started throwing everything and anything I could at him.
He stared at me with knitted brows but didn’t dodge the onslaught of flying objects. I grew tired after a while and seeing that there was nothing left for me to throw, he finally spoke, “Are you done?”
A sense of hopelessness washed over me as I gazed at him.
After I collapsed in a heap on the ground, he crouched down to peel off my soaked clothes, his temper as mellow as ever.
He carried me and placed me in the bathtub again. Heaving a sigh, he coaxed, “No more tantrums, okay?”
Seeing that I no longer had any emotional outbursts, he filled the tub with warm water, then searched through the mess on the floor. After finding the shower gel and bath towel, he placed them beside me.
Thereafter, he went out wordlessly.
As I lay in the bathtub, my mind whirred; everything was a blur. Marcus’ death had pushed me into a bottomless abyss that I couldn’t seem to climb out of, and the guilt that came with his death would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Anthony did nothing wrong. He was only protecting his family and guarding me, his wife.
The one in the wrong was me. I was cowardly and spineless. Anthony didn’t know why Sharon died, so he couldn’t understand why Marcus hated Sally, let alone why he wanted to kill her and chose to end his own life in the end.
I was wrong for not being there for Marcus during his darkest days; during the time he needed me the most. I didn’t give him a reason to live, so he chose to leave.
After a long time, I emerged from the bathroom to see cigarette butts littering the balcony floor. It was obviously Anthony’s doing.
I glanced around but didn’t see him. Not bothering to wonder where he was, I put on some clothes and tied up my blow-dried hair before trudging downstairs.
Molly was slightly taken aback upon seeing me. “Madam, are you going out?”
I nodded and hummed a response, then searched for a pair of shoes from the shoe rack.
Molly peered at me with hesitation stark in her eyes. “Madam, it’s late now and it’s still snowing outside. Why don’t you wait for Mr. Anthony to finish his shower and go with him?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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