Chapter 7
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“How long have we even been apart and you’re already out having fun?”
Declan tilted his head back and downed the liquor in his hand in one go. The strong alcohol made him grimace uncomfortably.
When I reached for another glass on the table, he reached out and stopped me as he said, “You’re pregnant, you shouldn’t be drinking.”
The serious way he mentioned the baby and the solemn expression on his face made me feel like an unfit mother.
I slammed the glass hard onto the table, grabbed his hand and pressed it against my stomach. My flat abdomen showed no sign of life there.
“Can you feel it?” I whispered into his ear. “The baby is gone.”
Declan pushed me away as if burned by those words.
“No….”
His eyes were hidden behind his lowered bangs. “The baby’s still there. You’re just lying to
me.”
Then he continued, “You’re lying because you want to escape me.”
I didn’t want his stubbornness to ruin my mood. “Think whatever you want,” I said coldly, getting up from the booth.
What I didn’t expect was that he was glued to me throughout the whole show. Yet, he
would not let me drink or let others offer me a drink.
Finally, after the fifth person who tried to chat hit on me was scared away, I pinned him to the sofa and asked, “What exactly do you want? If I remember correctly, you should be happily married to Miss Rockwood, right?”
“No…” Perhaps due to the bar’s lighting, Declan’s eyes glistened with tears. “I didn’t marry her. The person I’ve always wanted to marry has never changed. It’s always been you. Only you.”
This sentence overlapped with the words I had overheard in the corridor. “Alice is smart. She supports my career and takes care of the family. It’d be hard to find someone better.”
The irritation in my gaze turned to disgust. I grabbed the wine bottle on the table and Declan instinctively tried to stop me, but he panicked when I held his chin and said, “Relax
It’s not for me.”
I shoved the bottle into his mouth and poured the cold wine into his mouth. He flinched slightly, but quickly adjusted. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in rhythm with the flowing wine.
Just as he was about to get used to the rhythm, I pulled the bottle out of his mouth. Drops of liquid trickled down Declan’s chin. He gasped for breath, his moist eyes rimmed with
red.
Five minutes later, he spoke, his voice hoarse from the alcohol, “Are you happy now? Can
Seven Years Shrouded in Shadows. Only to Wake from The Dream in an Instant
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12:17 Fri, 20 Jun M in in
you come back to me?”
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The light from behind cast a glow around me and all Declan could see was the faint curve of my lips.
A second later, a loud slap landed on his cheek and before long, a red, swollen mark appeared.
“In your dreams.”
Once, he would’ve exploded in anger. Now he simply pressed my palm against his face, his expression tinged with shameful pleading, “What would it take for you to come back?” Declan nuzzled twice into my palm in an affectionate manner. My calloused skin scraped against the tender swelling on his face.
Hearing his sharp breath of pain, I grabbed a fistful of his hair, forcing him to look up at me and asked, “Hurts, doesn’t it? On the day of the miscarriage, the hurt I felt was a thousand times more than you’re feeling now!”
“You treated me like a commodity suitable for marriage, thinking you could bind me with a child. Who taught you such an outdated tactic?”
I slapped the other side of his face and got up to leave the bar.
Beneath the blaring music, I vaguely heard the sound of Declan getting up and then collapsing to his knees. However, I didn’t look back and kept walking forward.
When I got home, I stood on the balcony, enjoying the sea breeze.
