I knew that the woman was determined to force me into cutting ties with Michael and would not easily give up. Her threatening tone had caused another wave of fury to engulf me.
When I was back at home, there was still no sign of Michael. I was disappointed, as I was thinking of telling him about what happened earlier.
Unable to restrain the growing exasperation in my heart, I needed to vent my anger at once. Why are there endless hiccups in my life?
I took out Michael’s red wine from the wine cabinet and slumped onto the couch. People claim that they tend to forget about their frustrations when they get drunk. Let me give it a try! I poured the red wine into a glass and started to drink.
I did not know the way to judge the quality of red wine and just finished glass by glass spontaneously. Due to my low alcohol tolerance, I started to feel giddy after gulping down a few glasses of red wine. Apart from that, my vision became blurry gradually.
Not long after that, I had finished almost half a bottle of Michael’s red wine. I sensed that I had started to get drunk, yet those disgruntling moments I intended to put out of my mind appeared to be even more vivid in my mind. What’s the matter? Why do I tend to remember everything better even after I’m drunk?
Drink my sorrows away? I really doubted if it was effective. I was almost drunk, yet I could not put the despair out of my mind. My heart flinched whenever I recalled how my beloved family members would readily betray me just to obtain one million.
By the time Michael reached home, I was completely drunk. Upon hearing the sound of the door opened, I turned to look in the direction of the door. The moment his figure came into view, I was overcome by a wave of indignance.
“You’re back?” I forced a smile and burped. After struggling frantically to get up, I wobbled toward him.
Michael froze in his steps and knitted his brows. “Have you been drinking?” He was displeased when he caught a glimpse of the bottle of red wine which was almost empty.
As I was advancing toward him, my legs gave out abruptly, and I fell onto the floor. However, a drunken me could not feel the slightest bit of pain as I struggled to get up.
“Anna Garcia, how much did you drink? Look at how disheveled you are now!” As he raised his voice, his frown deepened into a scowl. There were flickers of fury in his eyes.
The next moment, he strode toward me and lifted me up effortlessly to the couch. Sensing the intimidating gazes of his blazing eyes, my heart started to throb again.
“Why are you shouting at me? I only drank a little,” I refuted and looked at him indignantly. Right that instant, tears started to well up in my eyes. I yearned to seek solace and comfort from him even more.
“Are you sure it’s just a little bit? Anna, look at the wine bottle. You’ve almost finished the whole bottle! What’s the matter with you? Have you gone nuts?” Michael lambasted as he pointed at it, causing me to be down in the dumps.
“I just feel like drinking some wine. What’s wrong with that? Can’t I have the right to even do this? Why can’t I decide for my own life? Why do I need to give in to all of you all the time? Why?” Unable to restrain the growing indignance within me, I imagined that he was my parents and unleashed my wrath at him.
Those were the words stifled within me for a long time. Nonetheless, I was unable to blurt out the words whenever I was face-to-face with my parents. After all, they were the ones who nurtured me throughout these years, so I did not have the heart to be on bad terms with them.
In an instant, Michael stiffened at the sight of my agitation. When he came to his senses, there was anger simmering in his eyes as he snorted, “Anna Garcia, have you lost your mind?”
“I have put a lot of effort all this while. But, why can’t all of you try to be concerned about me a bit more? I really yearn for your love and care. Since young, I have been working hard to fulfill your requests. I always think that it’s because I’m not conscientious and diligent enough. Thus, after completing my studies, I work really hard to earn money. Even so, you never treat me any different, no matter how hard I try. Why? Tell me why!” I gazed at Michael with my teary eyes as I mumbled sorrowfully over and over.
For so many years, I had always wondered why my parents were treating me indifferently all the time. I had tried by all means, yet they never changed their demeanor toward me. It did not make sense if it was just because of their patriarchal mindset.
Miraculously, Michael’s expression softened, and the flares in his eyes vanished speedily. He was an intelligent man and was surely able to guess what I had encountered a while ago. Thus, he strode toward me with inexplicable mixed emotions in his eyes. I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist at once and pressed my face hard against his chest.
“What happened? What did your parents do this time?” There was unmissable concern in his low, charismatic voice. Sensing my distress and helplessness, he did not shove me away from him.
“Emma bribed my parents to talk me into leaving you. She promised to give them one million for that. When I went back to my parents’ house today, they even forced me to leave this city.” I sniffled and sobbed as I told him what had happened.
Despite that, I did not intend to tell on Emma and request Michael to stand up for me. I just wanted to pour out my heart to him. Compared to my parents, he was someone a lot closer to me at the moment.
As snippets of my family members forcing me to leave flashed across my mind, my tears started flowing like a river. I wiped my tears and snot instinctively with Michael’s shirt. At that very moment, I had forgotten that the man was germophobic!
Another wave of anger flared in his eyes again. At the peak of his fury, he almost lashed out at me once more. Yet, sensing my indignance, he somehow suppressed his anger and held himself back.
After quite a while, he asked indifferently, “So Emma did that?” Even though he had seemingly softened, he was still giving off an intimidating vibe.
“Yeah, she had threatened me numerous times, yet I never gave in to her. I’ve never expected her to use my parents against me.”
My lips curved into a self-deprecating smile as I squinted tipsily at Michael. Once again, my money-minded parents could not resist the charm of money and would rather let me be the sacrificial lamb.
As I embraced Michael tightly, his unique scent seemed to calm me down gradually. Whenever I was alongside him, I could at least sense a little warmth. At least there’s still someone who cares about me.
