“Listen,Clara—don’t push your luck!I was out working at sixteen,bussing tables,handing out flyers,pouring drinks in bars,doing whatever it took.I survived on my own.And you?Without Adrian,what are you?What can you even do?”
She paused with malice,then laughed.“Tsk.But your face is decent and your body’s passable.How about this?Out of old acquaintance,I’ll get you a job.There are a few clubs in the south of the city.They cater to rich men.They love women like you who look all high and mighty—pays better than the usual.Interested?Beats starving,right?Hahaha!”
Clara shook all over,her nails digging into her palms.
Vanessa only grew more gleeful,as if basking in her superiority.“Do you know why Adrian liked you?Because he’d never seen the world and you fooled him with that fake prim attitude.You don’t understand him at all.Aside from bossing him around,forbidding this and that,what else can you do?Do you know how stifled he felt with you?How bored?”
“But me?”Her voice swelled with self-satisfaction.“I’m his soulmate.I know what he craves—thrill,freedom.I take him street-racing,bungee jumping,to Macau casinos.I give him the life he’s never tasted.I’m his salvation,the only sun in his dark life.You’re nothing but a nagging housekeeper he’s long since grown sick of!”
Each word was a poisoned needle,piercing Clara’s heart.
She thought of Adrian’s ulcer from all those drinking bouts in his early years.Of the serious car crash he’d once survived,the doctor’s repeated warnings that his heart mustn’t be overstrained.No extreme sports.No pushing limits.
Her“rules”for him had been born of a wife’s worry and love.
And he?
To please this so-called soulmate,he had thrown every warning aside—and now used her care as proof she was“boring.”
He was gambling with his life.
Clara’s heart twisted with pain.
Before she could speak again,she heard Adrian’s voice over the line,the rush of water in the background.He sounded like he’d just stepped out of the shower.
“Vanessa,who are you talking to?”
“Who else?Your clingy ex-wife,”Vanessa sneered.“She’s whining about her card being frozen.Hmph.”
Clara clearly heard Adrian’s impatient reply:“Ignore her.Vanessa,you’re right.Only you understand me.Before I met you,those thirty years meant nothing.You’re the only light in my life.”
Clara hung up silently.Her body felt like ice.