The Seventh Miserable Bride

Yasmine Taylor knew very well the reason why Sebastian Simons asked her to go upstairs. It must be for the necklace on her neck. True enough, she guessed right. "Who gave you permission to wear this necklace?" he questioned with an impassive look.

"Isn't this for me?" she asked.

He sneered and said, "Your self-righteousness is really growing by the day. On what basis do you think this necklace is for you?"

"Just based on my feelings," she answered.

"Don't you know that your feelings are as bad as you yourself as a person?" he criticized.

"If that's not for me, then who are you going to give it to?" she challenged.

Sebastian replied coldly, "To whom I'm giving it is not your concern. Anyway, it's not for you. Put it back where it came from."

Yasmine took off the necklace sulkily, hooked it in her hand, walked to the trash can, and finally asked him, "Do you really want me to throw away this token of gratitude?"

"Don't think too highly of yourself. I would never show gratitude to someone who has no place in my heart," he said.

Sebastian grabbed the necklace, walked swiftly towards the window, then threw it out of the window.

After that, the two did not say a word. Sebastian angrily slammed the door and left while Yasmine stood in front of the window, watching his car disappear from her sight. She turned around, tore down the stairs, went out to the lawn, bent down, and began searching for it.

The lawn was so huge that she took a long time looking for it. Fortunately, she eventually found the necklace. However, this time, she dared not wear it on her neck. Instead, she kept it locked in her drawer. Sebastian did not come home even after dinner time. Since it was inevitable that businessmen had to attend social gatherings, Yasmine did not think much about it.

At about ten o'clock, when she just climbed onto the bed, she suddenly heard crashing sounds coming from the bedroom next door. She opened the door and looked out curiously, only to find that Sebastian had fallen to the ground.

She hurried over to help him up and noticed the strong smell of alcohol on him. She frowned and asked, "Why did you drink so much?"

Sebastian shook her hand off in disgust and said, "Don't touch me."

He staggered to his bedside and almost fell down again. Yasmine instinctively came forward to hold him but was refused by him again, "Get out of my way. Stay away from me!"

She was a little frustrated and said angrily, "I know you hate me, but as long as I am still your wife, I should do my duty as a wife."

"Your duty as a wife?"

Sebastian sneered and said, "Is a wife's duty to lie to her husband and go on a date with another man?"

"I've already explained to you. It's not what you think," she said defensively.

"Oh yes, you've explained. That man helped you so you invited him to dinner out of gratitude..." he said with sarcasm.

"Yes, that's it," she confirmed.

Yasmine thought that he finally understood, but unexpectedly, he did not understand at all. In actual fact, he did not want to understand. "If you need help, you could have asked me. I have plenty of money and contacts. If you had asked me for help, I would have been able to solve your problems. Why must you find other men?" he interrogated.

"You were on a business trip at that time..." she muttered.

"If I didn't go on a business trip, would you have asked me? I figure you would still have gone to find other men!" he accused.

Yasmine was a little distressed by his question but she continued to explain patiently, "I didn't ask him. He took the initiative to help me."

"Are you trying to say that men find you attractive? Well, there's some truth in that, since you were the one I picked out the first time we met. It can be seen how easily you twist men around your finger," he remarked. "Do you have to humiliate me like this just so you feel better?" she blurted.

"That's just what you think. I'm only speaking the truth. Although I have divorced six times, you're definitely the worst among my wives..." he hissed.

"Yes, I'm not up to your standards. Hate me as much as you want to, I don't care!" she said.

"Women like you with such bad behaviors, of course, don't care about anything. You don't even care if you tear people's hearts into pieces. Both of you are cast in the same mold," he commented rudely. Smack...

Yasmine could not help but slapped him in the face and said with red-rimmed eyes, "You can humiliate me however you want, but I will never tolerate you humiliating my mother. Yes, my mother is a stripper, but she's not the kind of person you're talking about!"

Sebastian looked at her in shock. "How dare you hit me?"

"You have lived for 30 years, but you had never been slapped in the face. That slap was reminded you that all humans are equal. Just because you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, does not mean that you're extraordinarily pure. In my opinion, people who have no respect for others are worse than male prostitutes in nightclubs."

After saying that, Yasmine strode to her secret chamber, but was stopped by Sebastian. "What did you say? Male prostitutes? Nightclubs?"

"You're just pretending that you don't understand. Sebastian, I'm really curious. Since you don't love me, why do you care about who I hang out with? Had you been betrayed by a woman?" she asked. Sebastian's face suddenly turned pale. He gritted his teeth and said, "Don't think that I won't hit you just because you're a woman. I'm warning you one the last time, don't cross the line."

"Was I right?" Yasmine asked that to deliberately annoy him. "If I was right that you had been betrayed by a woman, you deserved it!"

With a bang, Sebastian threw a punch; not on Yasmine, but on the wall behind her. Instantly, his knuckles turned red and blood started oozing out. Yasmine was shocked by his violent action. She reached out to look at his wound but was rudely pushed away by him. "Get lost, before I hurt you. Now," he commanded.

Yasmine had never seen this side of Sebastian before. His dark eyes glittered with an urge to kill, veins on his forehead bulged, and he clenched his fists tightly. He looked like a volcano that could erupt at any time.

She retreated back to her room in a panic and quickly closed the door, her heart pounding. She had mixed feelings; this man who seemed frightening was actually more pitiful than anyone else.

Leaning against the door and listening carefully to what was going on outside, she vaguely heard a painful groan. She pressed her ears closer to the door and quickly confirmed that it was not her illusion. With a whoosh, she opened the door and ran out. She was stopped in her tracks by what she saw in front of her. Sebastian was curled up in the corner with blank eyes and a pale face. Cold sweat was dripping from his forehead, and his hands were grabbing his own shoulders unconsciously. His white shirt was stained with blood.

"Sebastian, what's wrong with you?"

Yasmine squatted in front of him, trembling, and shook him hard. When her hand touched his skin, she was shocked to find that a living person could have a body as cold as this... "Don't come near me," he instructed.

Still, in pain, Sebastian pushed her aside and said in an uttered, "Go in! Go in right away!"

"I won't leave you just like that. I'll go and call for help."

Yasmine got up and was about to walk away, but was stopped by Sebastian. He yelled angrily, "It's none of your business. Get lost right away!"

"Don't ask me to disappear as you wish. I will disappear when I should. When I shouldn't, I won't, even if you threatened to kill me."

She ran out stubbornly and knocked hard on Sebastian's parents' room door. "Dad, Mom, get up, get up..."

Madam Simons came out with a coat and asked in a panic, "What's wrong?"

"Please go and have a look at Sebastian. He seems to be unwell," Yasmine explained.

As soon as she finished her sentence, there was a loud crackling sound. Madam became nervous and rushed into her son's room with her husband. It turned out that her son had smashed an antique vase and its pieces were scattered all over the ground.

"Get his medicine."

Yasmine panicked when Madam Simons anxiously gave her orders. "Medicine? What medicine?"

"In the middle drawer."

The old couple forcefully pressed their son onto the bed, took the medicine from Yasmine's hands, and shoved two pills into his mouth. Slowly, Sebastian's mood stabilized, and he stopped hurting himself and also stopped having the impulse to smash things.

Yasmine was scared out of her wits. She stared blankly at the man sleeping on the bed after taking his medicine. Different feelings welled up in her heart. She wanted to ask Madam Simons what was going on but she found that Madam Simons's face was covered with tears and her husband was in deep grief. No matter how confused she was, she could not be inconsiderate.

"Mom, don't be sad. He should be fine."

Yasmine carefully comforted her mother-in-law, fearing that she would trigger Madam Simons if she said anything inappropriate at that time.

After Madam Simons had cried for a long time, she stood up and said hoarsely to Yasmine, "Follow me."

Yasmine followed Madam Simons to the guest room next door. With the door closed, her mother-in-law, with tears in her eyes, held Yasmine's hands said apologetically, "I'm sorry. I hid something from you before both of you got married."

"What is it?" Yasmine asked quizzically.

"Give me a moment."

Yasmine was alone in the room after Madam went out. Her intuition told her that Madam Simons wanted to say something related to Sebastian's dislike for women.

After a while, Madam Simons came back with a photo in her hand. "Look."

Yasmine took it. It was a photo of a beautiful woman. The woman looked completely different from her. She was very cute and her smile was as bright as the sun.

"She is?" Yasmine asked.

"Her name is Abigail Tanner, the woman my son once loved deeply. My son loved her very much and they almost got married three years ago. However, on the day of the wedding, she bailed on the wedding and eloped with another man. Since then, there has been no news about her."

"She bailed on the wedding? Are you saying that this woman abandoned Sebastian?"

"Yes, and it was on the day of the wedding. That day, it was a shame to the Simons family, and it was also the beginning of my son's nightmare."

"Why did that happen? Did she not love him?"

"My poor son wants to know the reason more than you do. What's worse, the man who took Abigail away was my nephew, who is also Sebastian's younger cousin. His name is Ethan Zordon. Before he took Abigail away, he had a good relationship with Sebastian and Sebastian regarded him as his own brother. But on that day, everything beautiful was destroyed. His closest brother took away the woman he loved most. Can things be any worse than this? Two of his most trusted people betrayed him at the same time..."