Chapter 27
The two people in the car finally finished their long kiss.
Norton seemed to sense something and looked over at me, his face suddenly panicked as he hurriedly got out of the car and walked toward me. “Doreen, listen to me…”
Under my increasingly cold gaze, he struggled to find the words. After a moment, his face grew ashen, and he resignedly said, “You’ve remembered everything, haven’t you?”
I stared at him for a few seconds, saying nothing, and shifted my gaze to Regina, who was just stepping out of the car.
“Doreen?” she asked tentatively, “Do you remember who I am?”
I knew I was on the brink of a breakdown, but I forced myself to keep trembling at bay and asked her, “I just want to know if you were involved in the kidnapping that day.”
Regina’s brows furrowed in disbelief. “You suspect I was in on it?”
“What are you thinking, Doreen? Are you letting your trauma make you paranoid?”
“Regina!!!” Norton shouted.
Fury turned to bitter laughter as I moved closer to her. Before she could react, I grabbed her hair and slammed her head against the hood of the nearby car.
The car was covered in a thick layer of dust from disuse.
“Ah–❞ Regina cried out.
“If you ever run your mouth again, I’ll sew it shut for you.”
Norton pulled me away, and I turned and slapped him.
He wasn’t angry, only pressing his lips together as he defended Regina. “I know Regina. She’s not that kind of person. Doreen, you must have misunderstood her.”
Look at him–this was the man I had been in a relationship with for four years. Last night, he was holding me and kissing me, and today he’s speaking up for another woman.
Half an hour later.
I stood by the living room window, staring at Norton in silence.
The shock of my sudden return of memory was overwhelming. I was on the edge of losing my sanity.
But at least, I didn’t want to show that side of myself to Norton.
After Regina was driven away, Norton had been sitting silently on the sofa, smoking.
Finally, he crushed out his cigarette and looked up at me. “Doreen, let’s get married,” he said with sincere tones.
“Let’s forget all of that, okay? I will restrain myself, stop thinking about the past, and slowly accept you.”
I gripped the windowsill so hard it hurt.
I forced a smile. “Norton, why don’t you just go to hell?”
He thought he was making a huge concession, but I remained ungrateful.
His patience wore thin, and his frustration showed through.
“What more do you want from me, Doreen? I’m forcing myself to ignore what happened that day. I’m willing to spend the rest of my life making up for your pain. Isn’t that enough? Do you have other choices? If other men knew you had been gang-… they would only shun you.”
I waited patiently for him to finish his last sentence before grabbing a nearby flower pot and hurling it at him.
“Norton, I you had been gang- what? Say it!”
Unable to hold back my rage any longer, I turned into a mindless, furious wreck, throwing everything I could find at Norton.
“Scum!”
He started by frantically apologizing, but soon fell silent, just watching.
4 smashed the coffee table, the TV, and the glass.
Then I grabbed a golf club and swung it at everything around me.
The place was a wreck.
With nothing left to break, I threw the club aside with indifference.
Norton, with reddened eyes, moved toward me as if to embrace me.
“Try touching me again, and see what happens.”
He had no choice but to lower his hands, his voice hoarse. “I’m sorry, Doreen. I ignored your feelings. I didn’t realize you would react this way. I shouldn’t have said those things…”
Seeing that I remained unresponsive, Norton suddenly slapped himself and looked down. “I will never bring this up again. Will you forgive me?”
No, Norton.
I was kidnapped because I was your girlfriend.
I suffered all of this because of you.
You have to pay the price for that, don’t you think?