Chapter 18
A few days later, Darlene passed away.
Estelle didn’t shed a single tear at her funeral. However, on the way back home, Estelle suddenly asked Ruben and Asher to stop the car by the roadside. Then, she got down and cried long and hard by the road.
Asher got out of the car as well. Just as he was about to cover her back with his coat, Ruben stopped him. Ruben thought that Asher was being overly protective of his wife.
It would make sense for Ruben to accompany Estelle back home to see her dying mother as he was her lawfully wedded husband. However, it just didn’t make sense for someone as unrelated as Asher to follow them back and even give up on a few business deals for Estelle.
Ruben couldn’t help but think that Asher must have certain thoughts about Estelle. This time, he glared at Asher like he was the enemy and said, “She’s my wife, and I will take care of her myself. You don’t have to do anything, Uncle Asher.”
He then turned around, wanting to hug Estelle, but she immediately pushed him away.
“Get the hell away from me!” Estelle screamed as tears continued streaming down her face. “Have some pity on me and stop making me have to look at you all day because you only make me want to puke! Go away!”
Ruben’s hand froze mid–air. He felt a sharp, piercing pain in his chest where his heart was. Did he really disgust Estelle that must now? Did he really no longer have a chance to redeem himself?
He turned around and left with heavy footsteps.
Over the next few days, Estelle still refused to see him, and he never appeared in her line of sight again. However, he sent his men to surround Estelle’s home and keep her inside. In other words, he was basically putting her under home arrest.
Half a month later, sometime at midnight, Ruben finally appeared again. He sat by the bed and reached up to gently stroke Estelle’s face. “You’ve lost a lot of weight in the past half a month.”
Estelle shoved his hand away coldly. “How long are you planning to cage me up like this? For the rest of my life?”
“Yeah,” Ruben replied, chuckling softly. He then bent down and hugged her. “I’ve already made all the necessary arrangements. I won’t go anywhere anymore. I’ll just spend the rest of my days with you here. And you will have to be with me. I know that you’re loyal to your friends, so if you dare to leave me, I will make life hell for all the people you care about.”
Estelle chuckled coldly. “You’re out of your mind.”
“I’m not,” Ruben said, hugging her even more tightly than before. “But if you leave me again, I definitely will.”
The next day, he got a few hundred sets of wedding gowns delivered to the mansion. He wanted to retake their three–year anniversary wedding anniversary photos.
The mood, lighting, and set were all prepared. However, just as the photographer was about to snap their photos, Estelle suddenly grabbed the cake on the table and flung it all over Ruben.
“Go to hell! I don’t want to take any photos with you!”
Ruben calmly wiped off the cream from his outfit. “I have plenty of backup suits, and there are more cakes waiting as well. If it makes you happy, you can continue trashing them all.”
Estelle took him up on his offer and trashed Ruben at least a dozen times.
Finally, Ruben frowned lightly and pulled her into his arms. “Estelle, can we just take the photos first? You can hit me however many times you want
after that.”
Estelle smiled widely and smashed the cake in Ruben’s face. “I refuse.”
They never managed to take any photos that day.
One of the cakes contained blueberry jam, and since Ruben was deathly allergic to this, he passed out almost at once.
As soon as he woke up at night, however, he hurried back into the kitchen to make dinner for Estelle, but she never pitied him at all.
She listed at least a dozen dishes off the top of her head, and Ruben spent more than two hours slaving away in the kitchen to make them for her. However, Estelle just took one look at the food and said, “I don’t want them anymore.”
She then listed another dozen different dishes instead.
Ruben said nothing. He just slinked back into the kitchen and continued to work until late at night.
After taking a shower, he climbed into bed next to her, but Estelle immediately kicked him down. “You’re not allowed to sleep next to me. You’re filthy.” Ruben chuckled. “But I just took a shower.”
Estelle chuckled as well. “I didn’t mean that kind of filthy. I meant that you’d had sex with Louisa so many times that you’re just disgustingly tilthy.” Ruben inhaled deeply, feeling his lungs squeezed tightly in pain. He didn’t bother going back onto the bed anymore. Instead, he just pulled out a sleeping bag and slept on the floor.
The next day, Ruben was woken up by his butler’s phone call Worried that he’d wake Estelle up, Ruben cautiously make his way out of the room and
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“Mr. Ruben, Mr. Asner is at the door, a ne su
