Claudia POV
"Just—shut up!" I yelled back at him out of frustration. My voice weakened imdiately after that, followed by a sniffle. "I know you’re right. I know he doesn’t love , so just let be, Ray."
"If you know that I’m right, then why are you still keeping those damned wedding rings?!" Ray asked furiously. "I forbid you to forgive that pathetic bastard for betraying you, you heard , Claudia? You’re free to think of as a devil or a monster, but you should never think of Miles as anything but a filthy, trash-eating rat!"
"I—"
I stopped mid-sentence. Not for lack of words, but because the truth would only fuel his rage.
So I kept my silence, and I could hear Ray’s frustrated grunt as he finally left my door.
The clock kept ticking. When silence finally settled in the air, I opened the door a crack and peeked through.
I looked around and didn’t find Ray anywhere. As I opened the door a bit more, I heard sothing breaking inside his ho office.
CRASH!
CRACK!
THUMP!
My heartbeat raced as the sounds of things breaking echoed from his office. He was unleashing his rage over my wedding rings.
I didn’t understand why he was reacting like this, but seeing him like that convinced of one thing—he had been a monster from the beginning, and that would never change.
He might have shown gentleness once or twice, but in the end it was nothing more than a mask the devil wore to lure his prey into a trap.
He was, and always would be, a devil who ruined everything he touched.
I quietly closed the door again and locked it, still clutching the wedding ring as if it were precious to .
I slid open the drawer next to my bed and took out my wedding ring with "MILES" engraved inside. My heart shattered into pieces as I sat next to the bed, playing with the wedding rings that tied Miles and together under a sacred vow that he broke.
Ray didn’t have to tell not to forgive Miles, because I would never forgive him for betraying my loyalty and harming our daughter.
I hated Miles to the point that I almost stabbed him to death when I was about to leave the house. I could vividly imagine blood sputtering as I pulled the knife out of his stomach, and how he scread in agony while calling my na.
Just the imagination was enough to give a cathartic feeling, let alone the real situation.
I also never wanted to get back with him. He cheated on with the woman I hated and feared the most in life. I told him everything about my past, including every story behind the scars I gained from my parents’ and Clarissa’s abuse.
Yet he still ended up cheating on with her.
Either he never listened to any of my stories, or he simply didn’t care.
So why should I care about him anymore?
I didn’t cry for him. I cried for the wedding rings.
I hated Miles to the bone, but I fell in love with these wedding rings, because they represented all the beautiful things I once had in life.
That wedding was like a fairy tale for . Even with minimal guests, a cheap rented dress, and barely any decoration, I still loved everything about it.
Because when we got married, I was finally able to move on from my past—forgetting all the abuse I endured and starting anew with my own family.
These wedding rings beca a beautiful past and also a painful reminder. So even if I hated Miles, I still wanted to keep the wedding rings as a pair.
I might have made a mistake by choosing Miles as my husband, but I refused to call my marriage a failure just like what Ray said.
Because that marriage gave Aurora, and she was never a mistake. She was the most wonderful daughter I ever had in life, and probably the only one too, since I doubted I’d want to marry anyone again after this.
Maybe I was destined to live alone, and I had accepted it after I left the house.
And that would be for the best, because my heart was too small and fragile to be hurt hundreds of tis by the people around .
I rested on the bed, still playing with the wedding rings while my tears wet the pillow.
I put them on my middle and ring finger a few tis, checking the engraving, and caressed the small detail that made the ring expensive—at least for us back then it was expensive. But maybe for soone like Ray, he could just buy a truckload of these rings and it wouldn’t even dent his wallet.
When I told Ray to leave alone, all I wanted was to reminisce about the good tis. Even with Miles’ face blurred out, I could still imagine myself in a wedding dress, holding a bouquet beside the man of my life.
In the end, I was just a simple woman who fantasized about a blissful wedding with a loving husband and healthy children. So Ray had no right to force to flush these wedding rings down the drain.
I spent the night clutching the wedding rings, digging them into my palm until it hurt, and I guessed Ray was still destroying things inside his office for no good reason. He was being overly dramatic over my marriage and my wedding rings.
We were strangers by now and would stay strangers even if he locked up here for another ten years.
"A monster like you will never understand how precious these wedding rings are to ," I muttered, silently cursing him in my heart. "To you, I am just a toy, and my marriage is just a funny shitshow. But to , every joy and heartbreak I felt are genuine. They are as genuine as my disgust for you, Ray Gatlin."
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