Seeing that I refused to apologize and even dared to bring up divorce, my mother-in-law exploded with anger. She grabbed a vase from the coffee table and smashed it against my head.
“Your parents must’ve been useless to raise such a rude brat. Today, I’ll teach you a lesson.”
She grabbed an ashtray and smashed it against my head with a loud crack. Her glare was full of hatred as she spat in my face.
“Look at you, pathetic and poor. Raline must’ve been blind to fall for you.”
I held my head, staring coldly at my mother-in-law. Since the Leighton Group bounced back from its crisis, she’d looked at me with more coldness than kindness.
She always believed I wasn’t worthy of marrying Raline; if not for me, her second daughter could have married into another wealthy family, just like her eldest.
But she forgot that she was the one who once held my hand and said I had worked hard, the one who called me the Leighton Family’s savior, the one who said my courage had pulled them out of crisis.
I once knelt in a bank manager’s office, begging for a loan; I stayed in the hospital caring for my business partner’s sick father, fighting to save a lost deal…
That’s when I finally realized some people only care about profit, not feelings. Maybe selfishness really did run in the blood.
My heart suddenly grew calm, the sadness fading away.
Ignoring my mother-in-law’s shouting, I grabbed my car keys and hurried to the hospital.
As soon as I reached the second floor, I saw Raline walking toward me, arm in arm with Hudson, looking shy.
When our eyes met, a quick panic and embarrassment showed on Raline’s face, then she turned aside and coughed.
“What happened to your head?” she asked coldly.
“Just look at you! A grown man and you still manage to get your head bleeding. If you had even a bit of your brother-in-law’s ability, I wouldn’t have to work this hard.”
My stare settled on Hudson beside her, my face cold, my eyes dark and heavy. That was when I knew I was no match for him; he was truly hard to read.
“Alright, go check on yourself. Don’t cause any more trouble.” Saying that, she quickly took Hudson’s arm, as if afraid of being tainted and walked away without turning back.
Just as they disappeared around the stairwell, a message from Raline appeared. [I’m pregnant. Hudson is hosting a celebration banquet for me this Wednesday. You have to be there.]