Chapter 38 Chapter 38. Zoria in Darkness
Zoria curled up in the corner, her arms wrapped tightly around her own shoulders, her body folded into a small ball. The moment she opened her eyes, she had thought she was dead. Everything around her was pitch black and terrifyingly silent. She thought she had finally been freed. Yet Zephyr’s voice suddenly rang in her ears.
It felt like being yanked violently out of heaven and thrown straight back onto the ground. Pain shot through her entire body, as if her bones were shattering. That pain told her one thing clearly. She was not dead. She was still trapped in this horrifying reality.
But… why could she not see?
Before her eyes was nothing but darkness, a darkness so deep it drove her to despair.
The question "you cannot see anything, can you?" pierced her ears like a sharp arrow, drilling straight into her bones. So she had not died. She had not been freed at all. She had simply fallen into another abyss.
Tears welled at the corners of Zoria’s eyes, the sockets burning painfully. If she could not see… was that not the same as death? No. It was even worse than death.
Zoria’s silence and reaction were as good as confirmation. Zephyr narrowed his eyes and reached out again, wanting to pull that panicked little rabbit into his arms.
"Do not touch me!" Zoria screamed, her empty eyes shimmering with tears.
"You are already grown up. Why are you still crying like a cub?"
Zoria could not see Zephyr, but just from his voice she knew how terrible his expression must be. She raised her hands to cover her face. The area around her eyes burned as if two flames were scorching her palms. She did not want to cry, yet the tears kept flowing on their own, soaking through her fingers.
Zephyr lifted Zoria and placed her back onto the bed, pulling the blanket over her and covering her completely. He sat at the edge of the bed, as if he could see her body silently curled up beneath the covers.
As for Zoria’s blindness, aside from a faint stab of pain in his chest, he felt nothing else. Thinking about it carefully… was it not easier for her to stay by his side if she could not see?
"Zephyr… how long do you plan to torment me?" Zoria asked softly, her voice thick with tears.
Her question pulled Zephyr back to reality. He looked at her coldly. "For a lifetime."
Zoria shuddered. A bitter smile hung on her face. "Zephyr, I still do not understand. What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Was it not you who approached me in the beginning just to make me donate my marrow to Faye?"
"Who told you I approached you only because of the marrow donation?" If it were really that simple, he would not have been torn apart every single day.
"Your father killed my father, and you are the cub of a murderer. You have to pay for him. That is only natural!"
Hearing this, Zoria did not look overly surprised. Back in court, when she heard Zephyr say those words, from the moment she learned her father had killed someone, she had vaguely guessed as much.
"So my father really did kill your father?" Otherwise, he would not hate her this deeply.
"Yes!" Just recalling his dark cubhood filled Zephyr with hatred so intense he wanted nothing more than to tear apart the old male rotting away in prison.
"He sent my father to jail. He even hired inmates inside the prison to beat my father to death right there! Zoria, I have not touched your father yet. Should you not be grateful that I am still being merciful?"
The truth finally surfaced. This was what Zoria had never been able to understand. Why Zephyr hated her, despised her, tortured her. Now she finally knew.
But mercy? That was probably the biggest joke Zoria had heard in all these years. She was afraid of the coldness on Zephyr’s face. Now that she could not see, it felt as if a blade of icy light were shooting straight at her from very close by, making her shrink and tremble.
"If I die… will you let my father go?" Zoria suddenly asked in a low voice.
Her father killed his father. So if he killed her… could everything finally end?
The hand hidden beneath the blanket slowly pressed against her abdomen, searching for the spot where the wound had been stitched. Her fingertips hardened like blades as she pierced straight through. A sticky, wet sensation immediately filled her palm.
Zephyr looked at her pale face, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Zephyr, just take it out on me. I am willing to use this worthless life to repay you…"
Her tears seemed endless. Even though she was blind, even though she was in pain, they kept falling without stopping. Zoria tilted her head as if trying to locate Zephyr’s direction, then forced a smile toward him.
Zephyr suddenly saw her face twist in pain. He swung his arm and ripped the blanket away, his gaze instantly landing on her abdomen, soaked in blood.
Her hand was still pressing down. Blood spread from her pale skin onto the sheets, blooming into a glaring red patch.
"Zoria, are you trying to put on some pathetic act for me?"
"It is not that…" Zoria opened her empty eyes wide, staring blankly into nothing. "I cannot undo the mistake my father made. I also cannot go back to the past and never meet you. The only thing I can do… is pay with my life for him and disappear from your sight. Zephyr, if I die, can you let go of your hatred… and spare everyone else?"
This was the only way Zoria could think of. For her, it was also a kind of release.
Zephyr said she was acting, but to her, this did not hurt at all. Compared to watching her own baby being ripped out of her womb with her own eyes, this pain was so light it was almost negligible.
Zephyr looked at her bloodstained fingers and smiled without really smiling. "Do you think this is enough?"
Zoria felt she was already miserable enough. Again and again she had been trampled into filthy mud by him, yet Zephyr still thought it was not enough.
Her nerves were on the verge of snapping, her mind in chaos. Zoria panicked, her empty eyes sweeping around helplessly, but the entire world was nothing but darkness.
She seemed to stop feeling pain altogether. Gathering all her strength, she pushed her fingers in deeper, nearly burying half a finger inside her abdomen. Zoria tried to shove her entire hand into her stomach. If she could, she would even tear out her heart right in front of Zephyr and crush it, just to let him see clearly whether her sincerity was finally enough.