Chapter 16
I turned my head to look at the blurred lights and shadows flying past the window.
My heart felt like it was soaked in ice water, numb and cold.
The dull pain in my abdomen persisted, reminding me of the trauma and loss I'd experienced not long ago.
"Divorce." I spoke those words in a flat, emotionless voice.
No resentment, no grievance, just a dead, resolute finality.
The sharp screech of brakes suddenly rang out.
The huge momentum made my whole body lurch forward uncontrollably, then the seatbelt yanked me violently back into the seat. The impact made my vision go black, and the dull pain in my lower abdomen suddenly intensified.
He pulled the car over to the side of the road.
This place was far from the noise of the main road. Only dim yellow streetlights filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting mottled patterns inside.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned his whole body toward me, his movements carrying a terrifying sense of oppression.
Then, under my cold gaze, he raised his hand and unbuttoned the collar of his white shirt.
It revealed his sharply defined collarbone and the vague outline of his firm chest. Very tempting.
"Haven't you always wanted to have sex with me?" He spoke, his voice low and hoarse, his words full of mockery.
"You've tried everything to sleep with me, and now you're playing hard to get."
"Sophia, I'm tired of your tricks."
He leaned in close, his powerful presence instantly enveloping me.
"Please me." He commanded, his eyes openly showing desire mixed with the intent to punish. "Maybe then I'll consider your ridiculous divorce agreement."
His cool fingertips slipped inside my exposed skin at the neckline. I immediately shivered.
My heart felt like it was being squeezed hard by an invisible hand, aching and convulsing.
Humiliation, anger, and a deep sorrow were about to drown me.
In his eyes, I was always that woman who would stop at nothing to sleep with him.
All my resistance and determination had become a laughable game of playing hard to get.
I used all my strength to suppress my body's trembling and said, "Disgusting."
My coldness and rejection were like gasoline, completely igniting the anger he'd been suppressing for so long.
"Disgusting?" He sneered, reached out and grabbed my shoulder, his grip so strong it felt like he'd crush my bones. He forcibly turned my body to face him.
"Look at me!" He growled, his other hand clamping my chin like an iron vice, forcing me to meet the terrifying anger in his eyes.
I stared at him defiantly, my eyes showing stubborn refusal to submit.
The next second, he bent down and seized my lips roughly.
This wasn't a kiss.
It was punishment, it was biting.
It was a conquest with the taste of blood.
His lips and tongue brutally pried open my teeth, plundering, tangling, and sucking inside my mouth.
I struggled desperately, my hands pushing against his hard chest. His burning body temperature and taut muscle lines felt like a branding iron, making my palms ache.
My strength was pitifully small compared to his.
A metallic, rusty taste of blood spread through my mouth. I didn't know if his lip was bleeding or mine.
Wave after wave of suffocation hit me. My lungs hurt from lack of oxygen, my vision began to darken, and my consciousness gradually blurred.
Just when I thought I would pass out like this, he finally released me.
Like a dying fish, I collapsed limply in the seat, gasping for air in big gulps, my chest heaving violently, my lips swollen and stinging.
Tears slid uncontrollably down from the corners of my eyes, not from arousal, but from extreme humiliation and physical pain.
He propped himself up slightly, desire not yet completely faded from his eyes. "Isn't this what you've always wanted?"
He raised his hand, roughly wiping his possibly damaged lip with his fingertip, looking at that streak of bright red blood, then at my disheveled state. His Adam's apple bobbed as he sneered coldly.
I could clearly feel the change in his genitals.
Even through the fabric, it made me feel like I'd fallen into an icy pit.
No!
I couldn't!
My body instinctively reacted. Almost like a spring, I used my last bit of strength to shrink backward, my spine pressed tightly against the car door, curling myself into the smallest shadow in the corner.
I hugged myself, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
"Don't touch me..." I heard the fear in my own voice, that rejection from deep in my soul that couldn't be faked. "Please, James, don't touch me!"
The face of my unborn child, the cold hospital, the emptied-out pain...
Scene after scene flashed before my eyes.
"I just lost our baby."
"My body still hurts, there's blood everywhere, you can't do this."
I spoke incoherently, but each word was like a needle, stabbing at him.
I clearly saw that when he heard the words "baby," "lost," and "blood," the heavy desire in his eyes seemed to be doused with ice water, suddenly freezing for a moment.
His advancing movement stopped. In his deep eyes flashed a very quick, complex emotion.
There was shock, there was confusion.
And something hard to catch, like pain.
He was still propped above me, but the atmosphere in the car suddenly changed from my one-sided resistance to something strange and frozen.
I looked at his fleeting emotion, but no warmth rose in my heart, only endless desolation.
Just as the heart-stopping silence was about to swallow everything, my phone rang in my pocket, breaking the deadlock.
I fumbled to pull out my phone, almost clumsily. The hospital number was flashing on the screen.
An ominous premonition instantly gripped my heart, making even my breathing stop for half a moment.
"Hello?" I answered the phone, my voice carrying a tremor I hadn't even noticed.
The nurse's tone was urgent: "Is this the family of Mrs. Indigo Smith? The patient just experienced ventricular fibrillation. The situation is critical, and she's being resuscitated. Please come immediately!"
The nurse's words hit my heart like a heavy hammer.
My vision went black, and I almost couldn't hold the phone.
"Go to the hospital, quick! Grandma's in trouble!" I quickly turned to look at James's expressionless face, my voice distorted by extreme fear.
At this moment, I couldn't care about the previous humiliation anymore.
Hearing this, James's expression also changed.
Without any hesitation, he sat back in the driver's seat and sped toward the hospital.
We didn't speak the whole way.
The ambiguity and conflict from a moment ago seemed so insignificant in the face of Indigo's critical condition.
My hands were tightly clasped together, my nails digging deep into my palms, but I felt no pain.
I had only one thought, 'Grandma, you must hold on, please...'
As soon as the car stopped at the hospital entrance, I pushed open the door and rushed out.
James quickly followed, his steps equally urgent.
As soon as we reached the floor where the operating room was, I saw Amelia's figure waiting outside from a distance.
As soon as she saw James, like she'd found her anchor, her eyes red-rimmed and tears streaming, she rushed over and threw her arms around James's waist, burying her face in his chest, her voice choked and broken.
"James, you're finally here! I'm so scared. Grandma... how could this happen so suddenly? If anything happens to Grandma, I'll never forgive myself!" She cried pitifully, completely ignoring me following behind.