Chapter 43: The Argument

Brielle POV

The tour in and within the palace had been so exciting. We had just finished touring, and we were heading back to Tao's house to pick up the Aston Martin. With Jace and I seated in the backseat, we listened to Tao explains some laws in China.

Jace prided himself to have known all these laws. He even made contributions, corrections, and arguments wherever applicable. He would argue that a specific law had been extinct or that the law did not make sense. He agreed with a few. As for me, my job was to listen.

"Hey Brielle, did you know that there is this rule in China that says one should not bind their daughter's feet?"

"What?" I asked, sounding surprised, then added, "but why would they have to make such a law in the first place?"

"I'll tell you why," Jace said. "Up until the founding of the People's Republic, it was customary for little girls to have their feet bound to secure a husband. Their feet were bound, so they would not have sex before marriage. What happened was that years of pain and deformity followed... so this law is a good one even though it counteracted the good intentions of foot binding."

"Wrong! Wrong," Tao countered. "Girls who had their feet bound did not lead a life of idle beauty but rather served a crucial economic purpose, especially in the countryside, where girls as young as seven weaved, spun, and did work by hand. Although, the girls were never told that it was for that reason. They were made to think it would be a passport to a better marriage and a better way of life. They were told that it existed to please men. They were convinced that men would be attracted to tiny feet."

"Foot-binding persisted for so long because it had a clear economic rationale: It was a way to make sure young girls sat still and helped make goods like yarn, cloth, mats, shoes, and fishing nets that families depended upon for income... even if the girls themselves were told it would make them more marriageable. Get your facts right, Mr. Leon."

"It's not true! That's not what I heard," Jace continued to argue.

"Okay, fine! Brielle, will you please search it on Baidu for us to see who is right then?" Tao said.

"Uh, excuse me, what's a Baidu?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Tao said. "Unlike most other countries, China's Great Firewall means that engines like Google and Bing are rarely used. Instead, China has a few major companies that seem to dominate this market, and one key search engine that is widely used is Baidu. Here, use my phone."

I searched it with Baidu's search engine, and it turned out that Tao had been right. I giggled and snickered at the ferociousness with which Jace got reprimanded for misinterpreting the Chinese law. Jace hated it when he was proven wrong, even back in school, but in life, you got to admit it; you can fall victim to being wrong once in a while.

'Yeah, serve you right, Jace. You act like you know it all!' I thought to myself.

All through the while, Jace was quiet. His countenance had changed all because of a bit of discrepancy. We had gotten to Tao's house, and we picked up the Aston Martin to drive us back to our hotel.

"Jace!" I said, finally unable to bear the silence any longer. "Are you going to keep up with the silent treatment all because you had the wrong facts about a silly law that's not even applicable to where you live?"

"Hmm, well, the thing is that I'm angry about you giggling when you found out that I was wrong and he was right."

"What? What the fuck Jace?!" I asked, my voice sounding incredulous. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Maybe you could try not giggling or snickering at your husband even if he's wrong!"

"Wait, are you being serious right now?" I asked, becoming mildly irritated.

"I don't know, you tell me. Do I look like I'm joking to you?"

I felt the air or calmness exiting from my lungs as I breathed in a wave of fresh anger. I wanted to speak harshly back at him, but instead, I bit down on my lower lips and exhaled sharply. There were other more ingenious ways to make him pay. I could starve him from having sex with me give him the silent treatment when he was calm. I let him take me back to the hotel without a word.

When we arrived at the hotel, I decided to call Hera and check on her since Jace was not giving me any form of apology. He stubbornly put on his headset and went through whatever was on his phone.

"Hey Hera," I said, making an effort to sound cheerful.

"Brielle, what's up?" she said. "You guys just disappeared after the wedding. What the hell?"

"I'm sorry I should have called right before we left for China," I said, pausing to let the information take its effect.

"You're in China?" Hera asked, sounding a bit surprised.

"Yes, I'm in China for the honeymoon," I said dryly. I could no longer hide my disgust as I watched Jace bop his head to whatever music he was listening to.

"You don't sound too excited about it," Hera remarked.

"Yes, I don't."

"Why? Don't you like China?"

Usually, I love keeping my relationship issues private, but with Hera, it was impossible not to tell. I always felt better after speaking to her. It was like she absorbed part of whatever issue I was going through, and besides, she already knew the one most important secret of my relationship, so I figured what the hell? I could just as well tell her this.

"China is a beautiful place. It's just Jace that's making everything unpleasant for me," I said reluctantly. I knew he could not hear me over the headset.

"How is he making it unpleasant?"

"Well, he had a minor discrepancy with our tour guide about a certain law in China, and when it was proven that he was wrong and the tour guide was right I snickered at him."

"And then what else happened?" Hera asked.

'See! Even Hera realizes that's not enough to cause an issue,' I noted in my mind.

"Nothing else happened!" I said, my tone rising, but even at that, Jace heard nothing. "He just went into giving me a silent treatment, and he said it's because I snickered at his incorrectness."

"Damn Brielle, I have to admit, though, that's a little childish especially coming from Jace," Hera said. I shook my head and did a facepalm.

"My thoughts exactly!" I growled.

"Relax, Brielle, so where are the both of you now?"

"At the hotel, in our suite... on the bed. He's still giving me the silent treatment."

"That's just plain wrong," Hera declared forcefully. "Have you tried speaking to him again?"

"Why would I even want to do that?"

"I don't know... because you love him or maybe because two wrongs don't make a right. Just talk to him and be sweet about it."

"Hell no, Hera! I'm not doing that!" I said vehemently. "If I do so now, then next time, he will do worse than this. I'm not giving him that much control over my life. Jeez!"

Hera was silent for a while.

"Brielle, I get that you're angry but think of it this way. We all have our little triggers, and sometimes it's not within our right to define those triggers for anyone... not even our partners... scratch that! Especially our partners. Brielle, maybe it hurts him that you laughed at him. It's not up to you to choose what hurts him and what doesn't. If he's angry and he tells you that you're the cause, then you should apologize."

I exhaled, biting my lips. It was my way of holding down words that I felt, if spoken, would not sit well with who it was being said to. I processed everything Hera had said and tried to go with her logic.

"Apologize, Brielle," my good conscience whispered to me. Easy peasy, right. It had to be just three words, Jace, I'm sorry.

"Alright, fine, I will apologize to him," I said at last.

"Good!"

"How are you?" I asked, trying to stall the apology for as long as possible.

"I'm great," Hera said. "I'm not fine! I'm alone and lonely, but I'll be fine."

"Yeah, I'm sure you will be able to handle one lonely night. You've handled several!" I said, teasing her.

"Brielle, I have these mixed feelings. Sometimes I want to be alone, and other times I wish I was married."

I got that a lot. Mixed feelings! I would have preferred being alone at the moment rather than being sucked with a husband who turned dumb over me snickering at him. I didn't even laugh! I also tried to imagine what would have happened if I had laughed aloud. Such a grown-up baby!

"I think it's best to just go with whatever current the ship sails in," I said. "Best to be able to adapt. Single, dating, marriage, whoring... it's all good! Just be comfortable with any and try not to let it drive you insane."

Hera made a purring sound. "You're doing that thing again, Brielle."

I saw Jace lie down properly as if he was about to sleep. The headset was still on, but he had kept the phone in the bedside drawer.

"Uh, what thing?" I asked, sounding confused.

"You know the one where you're trying to give yourself a piece of advice, but you act like you're offering it to someone else!" Hera said, groaning.

What? Is that even a thing? Though, the pep talk related to how I was feeling at the moment. I wished I was single right now rather than being entrapped in a marriage where I would be treated with a lack of attention. However, I also felt that I should go with the flow.

"I don't do that," I said, lying through my teeth. "What about Ona?"

"Where do you think she'll be by this time?"

I tried to guess. I got a whiff of the news that Enrique had left Milan, so that meant one thing... Ona was out with the other guy, Javier!

"Ona is such a whore! She hasn't learned her lesson, right?" I said.

"Yeah, she hasn't."

My gaze fell instinctively at Jace, wondering if he heard us because he would have understood what I meant. His eyes were closed, and even I could listen to the music coming from the headset. How annoying! How did people listen to music that loud? I could never attempt it. I wanted to speak with Jace before he fell asleep.

"Um, Hera, we'll talk later," I said impatiently.

"Sure, yeah," she said. "Just give me a call whenever and keep me posted."

I wanted to touch him, but my hands froze midway in fear, so instead, I just retracted my hands and opted to get his attention by speaking.

"Jace," I said in a strangled whisper. I could not even hear myself.

"Jace!" I called out louder.

"Jace!" I called for the umpteenth time, and this time, I yanked the headphone away from his head. Jeez, I could not believe how fragile the thing was; it was broken.

He glared at me.

"Brielle, what is your problem?" he said. I could not believe that he was yelling at me. I grabbed him by the arm of his shirt and looked into his eyes to prove that I was not scared of him.

"Oh my god, are you fucking yelling at me right now? I don't get your behavior!" I yelled back. "What the actual fuck, Jace? What did I do wrong?"

"I told you to leave me alone," he said, pushing me away. "Can't you just adhere to simple instructions?"

He grabbed his car key and stormed off the bedroom. I was pretty sure he slammed the door, but due to the kind of door it was, it made no sound no matter how hard you closed it. I honestly did not know when the tears started streaming down my face. And don't you dare think I was weak. I was crying because I was angry.

I resisted the urge to pick up one of the ropes used for bondage, go after him and strangle him. So instead, I grabbed the headset noticing that it was only dislodged at the joining, not broken and I smashed it to bits by throwing it forcefully to the wall.

I waited for some thirty minutes thinking he had just gone to get a breather, but he did not show up. I got out of bed to go and search for him. I searched the restaurant, and he was not in the lobby either.

"Great!"

The space where the Aston Martin was earlier parked was empty. That was when I recalled him picking up the car key. I went back inside our suite. I called Hera once more.

"Isn't it a little-"

I think she stopped her sentence because I was sobbing.

"He's gone, Hera!" I said, hiccuping. "Jace left angrily, and he didn't even allow me to apologize."

I explained everything that happened to her, and she comforted me by saying it was time for me to switch up my game. I agreed. I knew he was going to come back, oh eventually but when he did, I was prepared to give him twice the emotional hurt he served me tonight. I ended the call with Hera and checked the time. It was just a few minutes past nine in the evening.

I was hungry and feeling weak. I rang room service and was confused about placing the order. The person on the phone made a few suggestions, and I settled for fried rice.

The meal looked all shades of appealing with the rice, shrimp, ham sausage, and scrambled with eggs, carrots, and green beans but talk about a lack of appetite. I had to force myself to put a few spoons into my mouth. The tastiness kicked in, and after a moment, I was eating like a starved dog.

I fell asleep a few hours later, unable to wait any longer for Jace. He decided to leave. Why should I be sleep-deprived for another person? I could not precisely get the sleep that I wanted, to be honest. Every sound-triggered me awake. His scent still filled the room. The empty bed made it impossible to sleep.

The opening of the room door woke me up instantly with fright but as soon as I saw it was Jace, I threw the blanket on my face!