Chapter 16
1/2
Pearl turned to look and was met with Jonah’s scorching gaze.
His drunken eyes were half–mast with bloodshot veins streaking across the whites. Under the dim yellow glow of the bulb, there even seemed to be a faint shimmer of tears in his eyes.
Pearl had to admit that the usually proud and aloof Jonah displaying such a pitiful look on his face was definitely a sight that could melt any woman’s heart.
Sadly, the heart she had given away so freely to him had died long ago. It had died before she had left the country for Nyora.
Jonah’s eyes might hold a well of unspeakable agony, but the pain he was feeling now wasn’t even a tenth of what she had had to endure back then.
She would never forget the day she was sprawled in the middle of the road, feeling her baby slipping away from her body. Her baby had flowed away from her with every drop of blood she had lost that day. That was a pain that was etched on her very soul, something she would never forget.
Pearl knew very well that Jonah’s current persistence in winning her back was merely the by–product of his temporary guilt.
They had been married for four years. If he had truly loved her, all the things that had happened ever since Cecelia returned to Ethria wouldn’t even have taken place in the first place.
Pearl’s eyes turned flinty as she tried to tug her wrist free from Jonah’s grasp.
Yet, for some reason, a drunk Jonah was even clingier than the deadliest quicksand. He clung to Pearl desperately, as if afraid that she would disappear the moment he let her go.
“Jonah, let me go!”
Pearl’s wrist was turning pale from how tightly he was holding on to her. She swept a glance over the room and saw the water jug by the bed. She was still debating whether or not she should just knock Jonah out when Sean’s voice sounded behind her, “Dr. Hamilton?”
Pearl was finally able to break free from Jonah with Sean’s help.
“I’m so sorry, Dr. Hamilton. It isn’t safe here. I was worried something bad might happen to you, so I followed you here,” Sean explained, his tone cautious.
“It’s fine. He’s settled in now, so let’s go,” she replied.
Then, she took one final glance at Jonah before turning to leave.
Unfortunately for her, Jonah’s pleading voice rang out once more, “Pearl, I feel awful. Can you stay with me, please?”
“Mr. Lawrence, please stop this. You and Dr. Hamilton are now strangers at best,” Sean said sternly as he shielded Pearl away from Jonah.
He might be younger than Pearl by a few years, but he wasn’t any less mature than Jonah.
He looked down at Jonah on the bed and continued in a forbidding yet clear tone, “Mr. Lawrence, you think Dr. Hamilton should stay by your side because you’re unwell, don’t you? Well, then let’s turn the tables.
“Where were you, her legal husband, when she was hemorrhaging and fighting for her life? Were you there for her?”
The cramped room fell into silence after Sean’s sharp questions. Only Jonah’s trembling hands at the edge of the bed showed that he was listening to every word.
“Stop kidding yourself, Mr. Lawrence.”
With that, Sean took Pearl’s hand and led her out of the room.
When they got downstairs, Sean softened his tone and asked tentatively, “Dr. Hamilton, I didn’t overstep, did I?”
Pearl shook her head as she thought to herself, “Sometimes, being too close to the situation can make people blind. Maybe this is what Jonah needed. Perhaps he will finally listen and give up for good.”
That night was anything but a cakewalk for Jonah.
He had a pounding headache from the alcohol, and the foul smell in the air definitely didn’t make things better. Coupled with the wrenching pain in his chest, it was a ripe recipe for amnesia.
Yet, he couldn’t move a muscle due to the alcohol. So, he could only endure the suffering blearily as the night dragged on inch by miserable inch. His thoughts were a mess of tangled yarn as he dwelt on his misery.
His life had been smooth sailing, so he had never truly faced any setbacks.
He had fallen in love with Cecelia when they were in college, but she loved her freedom and flew abroad. Back then, he had assumed that was the greatest hardship he would ever face.
He then drowned his sorrows in drink and accidentally slept with Pearl. One thing led to another, and he ended up marrying her.
Jonah had thought he would never love anyone but Cecelia in his life. He closed his heart off to the world and deliberately ignored Pearl entirely
It took Pearl leaving and her walking away without looking back for him to come to an epiphany. The wall he had built around his heart had crumbled long ago.
Chapter 16
But now, Pearl had set her sights somewhere else. She would never return to his side ever again. When Jonah sobered up, he called his assistant to buy him a plane ticket back to Ethria.
