Chapter 131
"Let's talk about it after dinner, back at home."
After finishing their meal, the two walked out of the restaurant. The biting wind hit Victoria's increasingly frail body, and Martin frowned slightly.
Without him noticing, how had she become so thin?
Her small face was deathly pale, without a trace of color.
It was as if her body and soul were slowly rotting away.
Martin took off his coat and draped it over Victoria's shoulders. Just as she was about to refuse, his frown deepened: "If you want to end our cooperation, try moving and see what happens."
Bitterness spread to Victoria's throat, and she forced her struggling arms to drop to her sides.
Neither of them spoke the whole way back—a rare moment of quiet.
They returned to the apartment.
Victoria had just finished changing her shoes when Martin suddenly grabbed her waist. He suddenly realized her waist was terrifyingly thin—he could wrap one hand around it.
Could she be sick?
No, she was so healthy, how could she be sick?
Martin's searching gaze circled around her pale face: "You can tell me now why you won't have the baby."
"Martin, do you really want to hear it?"
Victoria stared at him intently. Do you really care about your wife's health?
He sneered: "Forget it if you won't say."
"I'll tell you. Wait a moment, let me get you something. You'll understand once you see it." Victoria saw that Martin seemed somewhat interested in knowing about her physical condition.
She really wanted to know what his reaction would be when he found out.
After speaking, Victoria broke free from his embrace, turned and went back to the master bedroom, unlocked a drawer, took out a late-stage liver cancer diagnosis report, locked the drawer again, and returned to the living room.
By this time, Martin had somehow changed into black silk pajamas and was sitting on the sofa, a cigarette between his fingers, smoking leisurely.
He looked handsome smoking, his whole figure appearing noble and extraordinary in the white smoke.
Hearing footsteps, Martin didn't hesitate to stub out his cigarette in the ashtray, then looked up expressionlessly at Victoria walking over with a stack of documents in her hand.
"Take a look at this."
Victoria handed him the diagnosis report.
He took it and began reading.
Victoria felt inexplicably anxious, not knowing what his reaction would be, whether he would care about her as she hoped, tell her to abort the baby, and treat her a bit better in the time she had left.
To ease this panic, she went to get a glass of water.
As the water poured, Victoria thought about how her days were numbered, leaving only her parents alone in this world! Whether Hayden could even wake up was still a question!
She so desperately wanted to live, to happily and healthily stay by the side of the man she loved, but fate wouldn't give her that chance!
Victoria covered her mouth, sobbing, her shoulders trembling slightly.
After pouring the water into the glass, she wiped her tears, gripped the full glass, and walked out of the rest area back to the living room.
Martin was still in the same position as when she'd left, unchanged.
His hand gripped the diagnosis paper tightly, his face showing no emotion.
Only the wall clock was ticking.
The air grew increasingly oppressive.
Victoria sat on the edge of the sofa, gripping her glass tightly, looking at Martin sitting not far away.
She didn't know what he was thinking. A simple report really didn't have many words—three hundred at most.
Yet he'd been looking at it for so long.
"Martin, are you done reading?"
Victoria tried to break the silence, biting her lip.
Martin seemed to wake from a dream, placing the diagnosis report on the long black table.
Then he looked up at her, seeing her red-rimmed eyes, clearly having just cried.
His heart suddenly clenched.
Victoria's eyes met his—hers showing acceptance, his showing complexity.
"This is why I won't have the baby. Because my body won't allow it. If the baby stays in my belly, it will only speed up my death. The baby will die with me too."
"Martin, your wish came true. I'm really dying soon. The coffin you bought will finally be put to use." Victoria smiled at him.
A smile so piercing, so unsettling to Martin.
Martin picked up the diagnosis report from the table, and without even looking at it, tore it to shreds and threw it at her face.
Victoria sat amid the flying paper scraps, hearing his disdainful cold laugh: "This report is from the internet, right? Victoria, to avoid having this baby, you'd even make up a lie about having cancer!"
"You actually think this is fake?"
Victoria was shocked. She'd shown Martin a real diagnosis report, and he thought it was fabricated?
She couldn't help but laugh softly. If only it were fake, how wonderful that would be.
But it was all real!
"Victoria, stop pretending! You're having this baby whether you like it or not!" Just as Martin finished speaking, he got a call—it was Brian with a work call, so he went to the study for a video conference.
Victoria also returned to the master bedroom.
She lay on the bed, crying her heart out.
When she was tired from crying, she fell asleep.
In her dream, Victoria saw Hayden's coffin at her funeral.
Aria, crazy and disheveled, wearing asylum patient clothes, held her corpse and cried in despair, finally crashing her head against Victoria's coffin, using her last strength to climb into Hayden's coffin.
Their fingers intertwined.
Victoria also saw that her funeral was very quiet, very quiet.
Not a single friend came to see her off.
Only Martin was there. He bought lots and lots of fireworks, setting them off all night long. Countless fireworks bloomed in the sky, as if celebrating her death.
After her body was cremated.
Martin took a plastic bag, put in their ashes, then found an ocean and scattered her ashes in the wind!
"Victoria, I want you to suffer forever!"
"You think that just because you're dead, our hatred can be wiped clean? No, I won't even let you become a ghost!" Martin's lips curled in a sinister smile.
Victoria's spirit raged, collapsed, screamed, but he couldn't hear her at all!
In her dream, Victoria cried until her voice was hoarse. Martin didn't keep his promise at all. Not only did he drive her parents to death after she died, he also threw away her ashes and completely destroyed the Gonzalez family!
That bastard!
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her nerves.
Victoria felt her eyelids were as heavy as a thousand pounds. She opened her eyes to find the room pitch black, unable to see her hand in front of her face.
Her liver felt like it was being repeatedly punched by a fist. Victoria curled up in pain, her forehead covered in cold sweat.
She struggled to climb down from the bed. She wanted to find painkillers. She remembered the last time she'd put the painkillers in her handbag.
But her handbag was gone. Victoria frantically searched through the closet.
Everything in the closet fell to the floor.
Martin came at the sound, impatiently opening the door: "Victoria, haven't you made enough of a scene?"