Chapter 21: "Fucked-Out Trash Has the Right to Laugh?"
The entire restaurant instantly fell silent, and all eyes focused on their table.
Sienna's face instantly turned pale. The facade of fragility she had constructed was utterly shattered by the word "mistress." She trembled all over, her lips quivering, unable to utter a single word.
Damian’s fury was finally ignited completely. He was not angry because of Evelyn’s pain, but because his reputation had been thoroughly trampled by her.
He grabbed Evelyn’s wrist, his grip so tight it felt like he might crush her bones. “Come home with me.”
Evelyn struggled fiercely. “Let go of me, Damian! I do not want to see your disgusting face ever again!”
“You do not have a choice.” He roughly dragged her toward the restaurant exit, completely ignoring her stumbling steps and the astonished glances around them.
As they passed the trembling Sienna, Damian even slowed his pace and spoke to Evelyn in a near commanding tone, “Behave yourself when we get home. Sienna is pregnant and needs someone to look after her. I think you are perfectly suited for the job.”
He wanted her to be a nanny, to wait on his mistress?
This statement was like a bucket of ice water poured over Evelyn’s head, extinguishing the last bit of strength she had to fight back.
She was shoved into the car, and they drove in silence.
Back in the luxurious and cold mansion, Damian released her wrist. A glaring red mark already encircled Evelyn’s wrist.
He suddenly put on a tired and gentle expression, as if the furious man in the restaurant was merely an illusion. He pulled a velvet box from his pocket, opened it, and revealed a diamond necklace from her favorite brand. “Evelyn, we have been together for so many years. Do not let such a small matter cause such a fuss. Look, you like this necklace, do you not?”
He moved closer to her, carrying that familiar yet strange scent, his fingers stroking the back of her neck as he attempted to kiss her. “We should just...”
“Do not touch me!” Evelyn abruptly pushed him away.
Damian’s disguise instantly crumbled. The tenderness vanished from his face, replaced by offended rage.
“How dare you spit on my generosity!” he snarled, violently throwing the jewelry box onto the floor. “Do you think you are still the princess I adored? Look at the state of you now!”
As if needing to vent, he began pacing the living room. “I told you Sienna is younger, more sensible, and better at pleasing me! I just ordered her the latest sports car. And you? Are you worthy?”
He stopped, stood before her, and looked down condescendingly. “If she were not pregnant now and unable to travel, I would not bother coming back to touch you! At least she loves me, unlike you, who is like a cold, hard piece of wood!”
Wood.
The word struck Evelyn’s nerves like a blunt knife, repeatedly cutting but bringing none of the expected sharp pain, only a numb, icy detachment. She watched the raging man before her, his face contorted with anger, his handsome features becoming ugly and repulsive.
Was this really the man she had loved for eight years?
The corner of Evelyn’s mouth actually twitched upwards slightly. It was not a smile, but more like a muscular spasm, an expression solidified by an extreme sense of absurdity.
This subtle movement, however, became silent provocation in Damian’s eyes. He wanted her breakdown, her tears, her begging. Not this damned, calm gaze, as if she were watching a clumsy clown.
“What are you laughing at?” He lunged forward, gripping her chin, forcing her head up. “Do you find it amusing? A worthless wreck I am tired of using, you still dare to laugh?”
Sharp pain shot through her jaw, but Evelyn’s eyes did not waver. “You are right, Damian.”
Her voice was unusually calm, without a tremble or a hint of tears. “I am a piece of wood. But the one who carved me into this shape... was not that you?”
Over eight years, he had taken her from a piece of raw wood full of vitality, gradually shaved off her edges, chiseled away her passion, ground down her dreams, and finally turned her into an exquisite, lifeless decoration, perfectly suited to his taste and placed in his mansion.
Now, the sculptor despised his own creation for being too dull.
Damian’s pupils abruptly constricted. He looked as if he had been violently slapped. His fingers suddenly released her chin and instead shoved her backward with force.
Evelyn was caught off guard, stumbling backward and collapsing onto the soft sofa. The immense impact made her vision go momentarily black.
“Irrational!” he spat. “I am not wasting any more goddamn time on you!” He snatched his coat from the sofa. “You stay here, guarding this empty house like a living corpse! I am going to Sienna. At least she is a living person, who cries and laughs, and enthusiastically welcomes me with open legs!”
He walked toward the door without looking back, every step crushing Evelyn’s heart.
“Oh, right,” he paused at the entrance. “Remember to clean the house tomorrow. Sienna is pregnant and needs a clean environment to rest. You, as the lady of the house, should show some hospitality, should you not?”
Bang!
The heavy solid wood door was violently slammed shut. The massive sound echoed through the empty living room, making the pendants on the crystal chandelier clash with a sharp ringing sound.
The world was finally quiet.
Evelyn was sunken into the sofa, motionless, like a soulless statue.
A few seconds later, she slowly, almost cautiously, placed a hand on her still flat abdomen. A new life was being nurtured there. And the father of this life had just called her a "worthless wreck."
Her gaze slowly moved to the broken velvet box on the floor. A few shattered diamonds sparkled with a cold, cheap light beneath the lamp, like the most vicious mockery of her eight years of youth.
The tears did not fall in the end. The hole in her heart was too large, too cold. All the sorrow and pain that fell into it were frozen into ice before they could even echo.
She slowly sat up straight, her eyes scanning the luxurious yet cold living room. Every piece of furniture, every decoration, was something she had once meticulously chosen.
And now, it was nothing more than a cage.