Chapter 190
Actually, Victoria hasn't recovered yet. When she was at Rainbow Town Hospital, the doctor warned her that she was already weak, and she had just had a miscarriage. She needed to take good care of herself, keep up with nutrition, and avoid sadness or distress.
But now that Hayden's medication had been cut off, whether she was sad or distressed didn't seem to matter anymore.
She couldn't escape anyway. She was going to die sooner or later.
Her body was too weak, and cancer cells could attack at any time, eating away at her body. Driving was extremely dangerous for her.
So Victoria took a taxi to Martin's apartment.
On the way, she kept urging the taxi driver to go faster, faster.
The driver pressed the gas pedal so hard it was practically smoking. What should have been a ten-minute drive took only five minutes.
Victoria paid double the fare, pushed open the car door, and got out.
A blast of cold air hit her instantly. The freezing wind felt like knives cutting her face, making it hard for her to breathe.
The snow had turned from flurries into heavy snowflakes, falling one by one onto her curled lashes, her bloodless cheeks, and her chapped lips.
Victoria pulled her coat tighter around herself, crossed the street, and walked to the apartment entrance.
She entered her fingerprint.
The machine beeped, telling her the fingerprint was incorrect.
Victoria understood immediately—Martin had changed the code!
Was he completely cutting off her way back?
Given her personality, she was usually tactful to the extreme, but thinking of Hayden waiting for her at the hospital, she could only swallow her hurt and pull out her phone with frozen fingers.
She found Martin's number and dialed.
"Hello, the number you have dialed is currently on another call. Please try again later."
She was still on Martin's blacklist!
After all this time, he still hadn't removed her?
Victoria blinked and called Brian instead. Brian answered quickly and was very respectful, "Mrs. Collins, is there something I can help you with?"
Brian's voice was gentle and refined. He always spoke to her softly and carefully.
Victoria felt bitter inside. Even though her marriage to Martin was already dead in name only, Brian still respected her like this. It was worth it that she had introduced his wife to him back then.
"Is Martin at the Gonzalez Group?" Victoria got straight to the point.
Brian said, "No, Mr. Collins just had too much to drink at a bar. I just dropped him off at his apartment."
"Is he still in the apartment now?" Victoria asked again.
He thought for a moment and said, "Let me check for you. Please hold on, Mrs. Collins."
The call was disconnected.
Victoria stood in the cold wind.
Her frail body kept shaking.
Soon, Brian called back, "Mrs. Collins, Mr. Collins is still in the apartment. Did something happen?"
Victoria thought telling him wouldn't help—he might even get blamed by Martin.
"No. You go ahead with your work." Victoria hung up.
Victoria reached out with her pale, frozen fingers and kept pressing the doorbell.
No one opened the door for her!
Victoria knew Martin was doing this on purpose.
He definitely knew it was her outside.
He was probably upstairs right now, watching her look so pathetic.
After pressing until her fingers went numb, Victoria went to buy a new SIM card.
This wasn't the first time she'd done this.
When Hayden had his car accident and needed money, she had bothered Martin the same way.
This was the second time.
Victoria installed the new card. Her phone screen had several deep cracks.
Martin had smashed her phone like that during one of their fights.
The staff member enthusiastically tried to sell her a new phone, saying there was a promotion going on and getting a new phone would be a good deal.
Victoria didn't have time to change phones. She was living day by day now—there was no need to waste money like that.
As soon as she said no, the staff member's expression changed completely, their eyes full of contempt. Victoria knew she was probably being seen as someone too poor to even afford a new phone.
Victoria didn't care.
She returned to the apartment entrance.
The thick snow blurred her vision.
Victoria dialed Martin's number again.
The cold wind kept howling loudly.
He probably didn't know it was her, so he answered at a normal pace.
As soon as the call connected.
Before Martin could speak.
Victoria gripped her phone, bit her lip, and spoke first, "Martin, I know you're in the apartment. I need to see you. I want to talk to you in person."
"What right do you have to talk to me?" Martin sneered, his contemptuous voice stabbing Victoria's eardrums, "Victoria, I don't want to see you. Get lost, as far away as possible!"
Sometimes words can really kill people.
Kill them without leaving a trace.
Like Martin's words right now.
Victoria pressed her lips together and blinked her dry eyes.
Of course she wanted to get lost, of course she wanted to go far away.
But she couldn't!
She couldn't leave!
She couldn't hide!
Victoria also wondered, why was death taking so long? Did it have to torture her like this?
Wasn't it enough that her body was being tortured by disease? Did her spirit have to be destroyed by Martin too?
Victoria kept her voice as calm as possible, afraid of making him angry, "Martin, I need to see you."
"Are you deaf? I said I don't want to see a vicious, dirty woman like you!"
Vicious?
Dirty?
Tears were about to burst out, but Victoria didn't want to cry. She kept blinking, "Then I'll kneel here until you agree to see me!"
With that, Victoria knelt down in the snow outside the apartment.
The snow was deep and thick, soaking through her thick leggings.
Victoria continued, "Martin, you cut off my dad's medication. I can't survive either. I'll kneel here, and whenever you're willing to save him, that's when I'll get up."
"Who gave you the nerve to negotiate with me? Victoria, if you want to kneel, go ahead and kneel. I'll just prepare an extra coffin and send you and your father to die together!"
The call was disconnected.
The phone slipped from Victoria's palm and fell into the snow.
Send her and Hayden to die together?
What Victoria used to care about most was her dignity, her pride.
Even when Martin came back to ask for a divorce and gave her the cold shoulder for a whole year, she never put aside her dignity and pride to beg him to come back.
No matter how much she couldn't let go.
But now? The dignity she cared about had long been trampled to pieces by Martin.
The first time she knelt in the snow was also because Hayden needed money. Back then, Hayden had been in a car accident and urgently needed medical expenses.
Martin made her kneel downstairs at the Gonzalez Group and even called a bunch of media to humiliate her!
If Aaron hadn't arrived in time, she would have been attacked by the entire internet.
The husband who once said he would treat her well for life was so heartless, turning his back on her without recognition. Even now, Victoria still couldn't accept such a huge change.
So it was possible to fake loving someone? Was Martin a natural-born actor? She remembered that when they first slept together, when he ate food she made with her own hands, when she tied his tie for him—there was light in his eyes, he clearly liked her.
How could he act so convincingly?
Pretend so realistically?
Thinking of this, Victoria felt as if a large hand was violently pulling and kneading her liver. The pain made her curl up in the snow.