I was disgusted by Kay's act, so I turned over the table.
Jeff's expression changed drastically as he clutched my hand and said, "Ella, what the hell? Apologize!"
"Stop it, Jeff. I'm sure Ella just got us wrong. We can explain to her."
"I can never explain anything to her!"
Jeff suddenly let go of my hand. The sudden force made me bump into Kay, and I fell down in a sorry state.
My hand was pierced by the broken dishes.
The excruciating pain made my face pale.
Jeff held the stumbling Kay and angrily said, "Ella, that's enough! It's just a meal. Do you really have to make a fuss?"
"You can't even distinguish right from wrong. You don't get to be with Mr. Burke at all!" Ava Cobb glanced at my blood-stained palm, and I saw a smile flash across her eyes.
She dares to talk to me like this.
I sneered inwardly.
Kay had just come back, and Jeff had already become so close with her and Ava, her daughter.
"Ava!" Kay said sternly. "Go back to your room! Stop saying nonsense!"
Instead of Ava, I figured I was the one who should leave.
I endured the pain and propped myself up, smiling weakly, "Jeff, if you wanna fulfill your wish when you were young, just tell me. It's just a divorce. I can handle it."
During the five days abroad, I constantly wondered why I had taken on such a self-torturing emotion.
It was five days, 120 hours. He never texted or called me.
But I picked up my phone thousands of times.
It was always an unequal relationship.
And things only got worse after Kay came back.
The flight was delayed again and again due to the heavy rain.
I changed my phone number and finally got to reach Jeff.
"Jeff, Spike is my younger brother."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, and then he said, his voice indifferent, "Ella, think before you lie."
"I'm not lying." I tried to steady my breath. "A week ago, I made a reservation at a restaurant just to tell you that I had found my brother. I wanna talk to you about holding a..."
"You really have to go all out just to deal with Kay?" he interrupted me coldly. "Ella, be kind, OK? You're a mom, too, and you have a daughter. Don't you know how unfortunate it is for a girl to experience such a thing?
"The abuser should be punished by law, no matter how old he is, how good he is in school, and how bright the future is, still, it cannot hide the fact of his crime."
I listened to his increasingly angry tone, pinching my palm.