"How about next time? I’ll take you to your favorite restaurant then." Despite his words, Jonas's tone
sounded noncommittal, and it irked Emily.
She pasted a smile on her face and tried to temper her simmering anger. "I’m sorry. I realize I must
have taken too much of your time lately. Please go ahead and deal with whatever you need to deal
with. I can handle myself."
Jonas could see that her smile was a little forced, and he felt a small pang of guilt. It soon disappeared
in a flash, however, and he hurried out of the room.
Emily walked to the window and watched as his car zoomed out of the garage and disappeared in the
hot sun.
"Miss Bai, are we continuing with your practice?" It was the coach, who had been in the room for a few
moments now. When he first entered, he had found Miss Bai all by herself. He had looked around,
confused and unsure what to do, and finally broke the silence when it seemed like his client had no
plans to play any more billiards that day.
"No, I’m feeling rather unwell. Maybe next time." Emily had a hard, cold expression on her face, and
she didn’t bother to look at the coach as she addressed him.
The poor man briefly wondered at the stark contrast between the image of this actress onscreen and
the way she was acting in person. Oh well, she did say she wasn’t feeling well; perhaps that was all
there was to it.
"Understood, Miss Bai. Next time you come here, please look for me." With that, the coach left the
room, and thought nothing more of his encounter with Emily.
Jonas drove home at full speed, and his tires screeched on the mansion’s driveway as he stepped on
the brakes. He got out of the car in a hurry and stalked into his wife’s villa.
Melinda was lounging on the couch watching a show, and she glanced at him only briefly as he entered
the living room. He paused in the act of taking off his coat. ‘That’s it? Not even a greeting?’
He rushed back home eager to see his wife; it never occurred to him that she might not share his
excitement at finally being together. A heavy lump of disappointment lodged at his throat, but he
swallowed it down.
"What are you watching?" he asked casually as he plopped beside her on the couch. The moment he
came close, though, Melinda’s face wrinkled into a frown.
She turned to give him a look, sniffed once, and then pushed him away with force. "Get away from me."
He could only gape at her in confusion. He could see the anger flashing in her eyes, but could find no
explanation to it. He had done nothing but sit next to her, and he was sure there was nothing wrong
with that.
Seeing his puzzled face, Melinda correctly assumed that her husband thought himself without fault
whatsoever. It only served to fuel her anger even further.
She knew that scent. It was so overpowering that it made a mark in her memory. Besides, it was
associated with one of the top candidates as the bane of her existence, so of course she would know
that scent anywhere.
It was Emily’s perfume.
Even after pushing her husband away, with several feet separating them, the cloying scent of the other
woman permeated the space.
"You were with Emily today," Melinda stated with conviction. She wasn’t asking him anything; she was
citing facts out loud. "And you have been with her these past few days."
A flicker of surprise rose in Jonas's eyes, but he didn’t seem much bothered by what she said. In his
mind, he remained innocent—he had done nothing wrong with Emily after all.
And if anything, his wife’s words only showed that she cared enough about him to know such things.
He felt a ridiculous tingle of excitement at the prospect. He would consider this a victory of sorts, no
matter how little it seemed.
He hoped his face wouldn’t break out in a sudden, smug smile as he replied to her in a calm manner.
"Yes, I have been talking to Emily a lot lately. Don’t think too much about it."
'Don’t think too much?!' The warmth in his voice did not escape Melinda, and she immediately
assumed it was because he was talking about his childhood friend. 'This idiot must think the people
around him are either blind or stupid.'
She took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to lash out at Jonas, she was very tired. These
scenarios were becoming frequent, and they were taking a toll on her.
Her dilemma, however, all flew over Jonas's head. He was enjoying being the sudden object of all her
attention. But then her face changed, and while he could not tell for certain what her expression meant,
he was sure it wasn’t out of pleasure.
"Did you—once again—forget the things you promised?" She rose from the sofa as she asked him, and
in spite of her soft, homey clothes, she looked every bit as ruthless as a goddess of war. She crossed
her arms across her chest and sneered at her husband.
This was a Melinda that was foreign to him, and Jonas could not muster a word. After a beat of silence,
she flashed him a mocking smirk. "Well it seems that you really have forgotten, Mr. Jonas Gu."
She was seething with rage now. She couldn’t believe the gall of this man, to declare such professions
and make promises that he would easily throw out the window without any regard.
She knew he didn’t forget of course. How could he forget anything when he obviously remembered
much from his sweet, joyful childhood with Emily?
"Emily and I would just chat, nothing more. I’m not doing her any favors either." He sounded a little
helpless and unsure, but Melinda was beyond angry now, and she was done excusing him for all the
pain he continued to cause her.
Jonas was at a loss. He always found himself caught between countless contradicting opinions when it
came to Emily. He could see that his wife was visibly mad now, but it wasn’t like he could do anything
about it, he thought.
"Emily is a scheming woman, Jonas. You know that! She might only be chatting merrily with you now,
but are you sure she’s going to stop at that? Besides, you said you would cut all ties between you, and
yet you still keep seeing her. You made a promise, Jonas! Or maybe it’s just me misunderstanding what
'cutting off all ties' means?"
Melinda spat out her words without pause, not caring if she was saying too much or speaking too
loudly. Her mouth felt dry after her tirade, and she swallowed a couple of times to ease the rough
feeling in her throat.
Seeing this, Jonas walked over to a small side table and poured her a glass of water. He handed it to
her and she accepted it without a word, downing the whole drink in three gulps.
She felt a little better after that, but as she looked at her empty glass, she realized she accepted
something her husband offered even though she was still angry at him.
She had a mind to recall her rage full force, but she really was tired of it all. She said nothing, and kept
staring at the glass in her hands. Mary had noticed the raised voices, and immediately approached the
living room to stop the couple from fighting. When she arrived at the doorway, however, it didn’t seem
like Jonas and Melinda were at each other’s throats like before. Instead, a heavy, pregnant silence
hung in the room. She felt like she shouldn’t intrude, and hurried back to her bedroom.
"Mellie," Jonas finally said after taking a deep breath. "I think what you’re misunderstanding is how you
perceive Emily."
He was hesitant to breach this talk with his wife, but in recent days, as he met with Emily, he found her
to be simple and positive. There were no signs at all of her being the cunning woman that Melinda
claimed her to be.
Although if he were being truthful, he would have admitted that there was a part of him that refused to
accept that his childhood playmate had a calculating and manipulative side to her.
At her husband’s question, Melinda felt utterly defeated. That was the last straw. She felt her hands
growing cold as the color left her face.
For a fleeting moment, she felt an urge to bash the glass in her hands against Jonas's head in hopes
that he might wake up from the delusions that Emily spun around him. She was misunderstanding
Emily, he said? What an absolute joke.
"I’m not misunderstanding anything, Jonas," she said in a mocking tone. "In fact, what I have in
abundance at the moment is clarity. And one thing has become very starkly clear to me: you trust
Emily, your childhood friend, more than you trust me, your wife."
He couldn’t say anything to that. He might have doubted Emily in the past, but the past few days
proved to him that his previous judgment about her was wrong.
Whenever they talked about his wife, Emily would often apologize for the scandal, over and over, and
would praise Melinda. On the other hand, when Emily was brought up between husband and wife,
everything that came out of Melinda’s mouth was accusations and slander.
He could not deny that the scales in his heart were tipped against his wife. He could not let her know
that, of course.
He tried to pacify the situation. "She really isn’t as bad as you think. It’s true that she had done you
wrong before, but she’s not that person anymore. She’s changed. Besides, the company was in
trouble, and this time around she was the one who helped me."
Melinda struggled very hard not to flinch at his every word. If they dragged this conversation out any
further, things were bound to get ugly.
And yet, she couldn’t help herself. "Are you saying that it’s my fault I wasn’t there to help you with your
business problems? Am I being a burden to you?"
She could hear her voice rising towards the end of her last question, and her rage was bubbling on the
surface once again. If he managed to push the right buttons, she knew she would lose control.
"That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying that she’s been of help to me. If I just cast her aside in spite of
that, wouldn’t that be in poor taste?"
He realized as soon as he said the words that he had just acknowledged Emily’s insignificance in the
big picture. But it was true that Emily somehow saved him from a pinch, and he knew he had to repay
that favor one way or another.
"You’re right," Melinda shot back. "Of course you can’t look bad in front of other people. Right now, I
must be the one acting in extremely bad form. It must have always been me acting irrationally,
especially when I tried to make you cut your ties with each other."
There was another beat of silence after that, with Melinda glaring at him and breathing heavily. Jonas,
on the other hand, looked frustrated and perhaps a little lost.
A breeze drifted in from the yard, rustling the curtains. Melinda sighed and walked over to the side table
to put down the glass she was holding.
She had her back to her husband, and she closed her eyes shut and let all the fight in her go. She was
so, so tired of this. She turned back to Jonas and asked in a calm, soft voice, "Do you regret cutting her
off?"
And he knew that despite its simplicity, that one question was loaded with heavy and complex
emotions. Emotions he couldn’t, at the moment, grasp.
He stared at Melinda stupidly. What was he supposed to say? Was it even worth answering that
question? There was nothing to regret because there had never been anything worth regretting
between him and Emily.
"Melinda, there is nothing between me and Emily." He had lost count of the number of times he said
those words. He was beginning to get tired of this matter as well.
Melinda took a moment to just look at him, her eyes devoid of any of the tumult that previously clouded
them. She really looked at him, and Jonas felt an inexplicable restlessness that made him want to run
to her.
After a few moments, she spoke at last, "That’s it then."
And she left the room without another word, nor a backward glance. The silence that followed was
suffocating, and Jonas slumped back on the sofa and brought his hands to his face.
Melinda went straight to her bedroom. As soon as the door shut behind her, she started heaving. She
found it difficult to breathe, and her chest ached. She went over to the bed and tried to calm herself.
Her thoughts drifted back to how faithfully her husband defended Emily. Her hand unconsciously
clutched at her chest. Tears started to fall.
She couldn’t understand why it still hurt so bad even after everything she had gone through. It angered
her that she only kept on hurting. The tears came faster; it seemed that the weeping wouldn’t stop
anytime soon.
The weekend was supposed to be a time for relaxation. But it had barely begun and already one of
them had locked herself in the bedroom, while the other brooded in the living room. They had
exchanged angry words they could never take back, and now neither one made a move to approach
the other.
At lunch time, Mary prepared the couple’s favorite dishes. Even so, Melinda did not emerge from her
room, and Jonas ate by himself.
When evening came, Jonas found himself alone yet again at the dining table. His wife still hadn’t gone
down for a meal that day, and it made him anxious.
Just as he was about to go upstairs and break her door down, Melinda walked into the room. There
was an air of nonchalance about her, as if the arguments from the morning did not happen. She also
acted like he did not exist.
Mary came up to her as soon as she seated herself, and Melinda gave the maid a bright smile. "Mary,
I’m a little hungry. Can you prepare some noodles for me?"
Mary shot a careful glance at Jonas. "How about I heat the food I prepared earlier? I made your
favorite dishes, you and Mr. Gu can have some of those."
She made sure to imply that Jonas had not eaten yet, for which he was thankful, but his wife paid no
mind to what the maid said. "No, thank you. I want to have noodles for dinner."
The poor maid had no choice but to do as she was asked. Nevertheless, she prepared more than one
helping. The young couple may have had a quarrel, but she wouldn’t stand for it if they neglected their
own health over their differences. Dinner was eaten in silence that night.
In the days that followed, Melinda remained quiet and reserved. She would speak to the servants
occasionally, and smile at them, but would always be cold towards Jonas.
Only Mary, being the one in charge of Melinda’s villa, knew the truth of the situation: the young madam
had neither laughed nor smiled genuinely since she fought with her husband.
In the few times that Jonas attempted to talk to her, all he got was either unrelenting silence, or short
replies. A couple of times they came into argument, which led to raised voices, and then confrontations
that were more volatile than last weekend.
Yulia took note of it all, pleased with the results of her connivance with Emily. She knew the actress
was at the bottom of the couple’s conflict, and although she sometimes got the chills when she
happened to be around the quarreling couple, she couldn’t help her excitement and anticipation.
It wouldn’t take long for her brother’s marriage to completely crumble. 'Emily must have done really
good driving a wedge between these two. They’re fighting almost every day.’
She wasn’t fooled by Melinda’s tough act. She could see that her brother’s wife was distressed by the
whole situation, and it brought Yulia a great amount of satisfaction.
Perhaps it was because of her satisfaction that something slipped her mind—their grandfather was still
unaware of the state of his grandson’s marriage. If Nelson found out, there would surely be uproar in
the Gu's mansion, one that would rival all the fights between Jonas and Melinda combined.
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