Chapter 34: Obligations of a Wife
Alicia knew exactly the reason why Carlos told her to go upstairs, which was nothing but the necklace around her neck. It turned out that she was right. "Who allowed you to wear this necklace?" He questioned with a cold countenance.
"Isn't this for me?"
Huh, he sneered, "You're so much better at being self-righteous than before. What makes you so confident that this necklace is for you?"
"My intuition."
"Don't you know that you intuition is as bad as you?"
"If it was not for me. Who were you going to give it to?"
Carlos replied in a cold voice, "None of your business, and it's not for you anyway. Please put it back where it was, now."
Alicia took off the necklace resentfully, holding it in her hand, walked to the trash can, and asked him, "Do you really want me to throw away your gift with my own hands?"
"Don't be self-righteous, I'll never give a gift to someone I don't love."
Carlos grabbed her necklace, trotted to the window and threw it out of the window.
After that, they stopped saying a word. Carlos slammed the door angrily and left. Alicia stood by the window and watched his car disappear into the distance. She turned running downstairs to the shady lawn outside, bending over to look for it carefully.
The lawn was large, and she searched for it for a long time. Fortunately, the necklace was finally found. But this time, she didn't dare to wear it around her neck, but locked it in the drawer.
In the evening, Carlos didn't go home, and even didn't come back for dinner. It was inevitable that business people would have dinner parties, and Alicia had got used to it.
At ten o'clock at night, hardly had she just gone to bed did she hear a crash noise next door. She opened the door in confusion, only to find Carlos fall to the ground. She hurriedly walked over to help him up, and smelled the strong smell of wine on him. Her delicate eyebrows frowned as she asked, "Why do you drink so much?" Carlos shook off her hands in disgust. "Don't touch me."
Then he stumbled towards the bed, and almost fell down again for not walking steadily. Alicia stepped forward to hold Carlos again by instinct, but was refused by Carlos ungratefully. Carlos said, "Get away from me!"
Alicia said angrily, "I know you hate me. But as long as I am your wife, I should fulfill my duty."
"Your duty?"
Carlos smiled sarcastically, "Is the wife's duty to deceive her husband and date other men?"
"I have explained that to you. What you saw before is not the truth."
"Oh, yes, you have explained that you just invited that Noah to dinner out of gratitude for his favor."
"Yes, that's how it is."
Alicia thought he finally understood her. But quite the opposite, he didn't understand it at all. To be more precise, he didn't intend to understand this matter. Carlos claimed, "If you need any sort of help, you can come to me. I have money and some contacts. If you ask for my help, I will solve it for you. Why do you have to find another man?"
"At that time, you were on a business trip."
"So would you come to me if I didn't go on a business trip? I'm afraid you'll still seek another man!"
Alicia was somewhat depressed by his question but still continued to patiently explain, "I didn't look for him. He took the initiative to help me."
"Are you saying that you are popular with men? Maybe it's quite so since I chose you when I meet you for the first time, which shows how amazing you are, and you can easily twist any men around your little finger."
"Do you feel comfortable after humiliating me like this?"
"That's just what you think. I'm just judging the matter on its own merits. Although I've been divorced six times, you are definitely the worst of my wives."
"Yes, I am the worst wife. Just hate me as you like. I don't care!"
"A woman of easy virtue like you, of course, couldn't care less. Even if you make a cut on others' hearts, it means nothing to you. I am really shocked to find out you are just the same kind of women."
Alicia couldn't bear such humiliation and raised her hand to slap Carlos in the face. She said, "It doesn't matter how you speak of me, but I will never tolerate you humiliating my mother. It's true that my mother is a club dancer, but she's not what you said!"
Carlos looked at Alicia in shock. "How dare you?"
"I assume that you have never been slapped in the past thirty years. And today this slap is to tell you that all men are created equal. Do not think that you are born noble and you soul is pure. In my opinion, people who don't know how to respect others are not as good as pimps in the nightclub."
After finished speaking, Alicia hurried to her secret room. However, Carlos got in her way, "What do you mean the nightclub and pimps?"
"You understand this but you just pretend not to. Carlos, I wonder, since you don't love me, why do you care about whom I am be with? Have you ever been betrayed by a woman?" Carlos's face suddenly turned pale. He gnashed his teeth and said, "Do you think that I won't do anything to a woman. I warn you for the last time. Don't challenge my patience."
"Do I say it right?" Alicia admitted that she deliberately irritated him, "If you have been betrayed by a woman, then you deserve it!"
With a bang, Carlos punched out with one hand, and the target was not Alicia, but the wall behind her. Suddenly, his joints were broken and the blood seeped out. Alicia was shocked by his excessive behavior. Then she reached out to check on his wound, but Carlos pushed her away rudely and said, "Now I don't intend to hurt you, so you'd better disappear from my sight immediately."
Alicia had never seen such a furious Carlos before. His deep dark eyes shone with the impulse to kill people. The veins on his forehead were exposed and his fists clenched. Currently, this man was like a volcano that was going to erupt at any time.
Alicia retreated in panic, and went back to her room. She closed the door, and her heart pounded wildly. She always felt that the seemingly terrible man was actually more pitiful than anyone else.
Listening carefully to the outside with her back against the door, Alicia vaguely seemed to hear a groan of pain. But she was not sure whether it was just an optical illusion, so she put her ears closer to the door more clearly. Soon Alicia knew it was not her illusion.
Alicia opened the door and ran out. Then she was stunned by the scene in front of her. Carlos curled up in the corner, his eyes absent and his face pale. His forehead was covered by cold sweat dripping. Unconscious, Carlos was pinching his arms, and his white shirt had been dotted with bloodshot spots.
"Carlos, what's wrong with you?"
Alicia squatted in front of him in trembling, shaking him hard. She touched him, only to be dismayed to find that a living person can also be so dead-like.
"Don't come near me."
Carlos pushed her to one side in pain and said with forbearance, "Go in, go in there immediately!"
"I won't leave you alone. I'll call someone for help."
Alicia was about to go out, but Carlos stopped her. He growled angrily, "Mind your own business! Get out of my sight right now!"
"You can't just ask me to disappear as you wish. I will disappear naturally when I should. Otherwise, even if you kill me now, I won't disappear."
Alicia stubbornly ran out and knocked firmly on the door of her in-laws. "Dad, mom, get up now."
Her mother-in-law, Sara, put on a clothes and asked in a panic, "What's going on?"
"Go to check on Carlos. He seems very uncomfortable now."
Just as Alicia finished talking, Mrs. Sara heard a crackling sound. She ran into her son's room with her husband. And they saw a pile of porcelain pieces on the ground, which belonged to an antique vase smashed by their son just now.
"Quick, go get the medicine."
Mrs. Sara anxiously ordered Alicia, but Alicia had already panicked, "Medicine? What medicine?"
"It's in the middle drawer."
The old couple forced their son down on the bed. Then they took the medicine from Alicia's hand and poured out two pills and stuffed them into Carlos' mouth. Slowly, Carlos' mood was stabilized, and he no longer hurt himself or had the urge to smash things.
Alicia has been frightened. She stared at the man who slept sound in the bed after taking the medicine. She had mixed feelings in her heart now. She wanted to ask Sara what was going on, but only to find that Sara was in tears. And meanwhile, Edward also had a painful expression. No matter how confused she was, she couldn't ignore their feelings.
"Mom, don't be sad. He should be fine."
Alicia comforted them carefully, for fear that anything inappropriate coming from her mouth would make Sara more grieved.
Mrs. Sara shed tears for a long time before she got up and said to Alicia hoarsely, "Come with me."
Alicia followed Sara to the guest room next door. After closing the door, Sara held Alicia's hand with tears and said apologetically, "I'm sorry because I hid something from you before you got married." "what's up?"
"Wait for me here."
When Sara went out, Alicia was left alone in the room. Her intuition told her that what Sara wanted to say must have something to do with Carlos' misogyny.
After a while, Mrs. Sara came back with a photo in her hand, "Look at this."
Alicia took it over and looked at the pretty woman in the photo. The woman was a completely different type from her, very cute and wearing a sunny smile.
"Who is she?"
"Her name is Dulcie Farley, the girl Carlos has loved the most. My son loved her very much. They almost got married three years ago, but on the wedding day, Dulcie abandoned Carlos who was waiting for her in the auditorium and eloped with another man. There has been no news of her since then."
"Abandon? You mean this woman abandoned Carlos?"
"Yes, and it was on the day of the wedding. That day is the shame of the Noel-Baker family and the beginning of my son's nightmare."
"Why is this? Didn't she love him?"
"My son wants to know the answer of this question more than you do. What's more serious is that the man who eloped with Dulcie is my nephew and Carlos' cousin. His name is Evan Morris. Before leaving with Dulcie, Evan had a good relationship with Carlos. Carlos regarded Evan as his brother, but on that day, all the beautiful things were destroyed. Carlos' closest brother took away his favorite woman. What could be crueler than that?"☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐