Chapter 63: Chapter 63: A Woman Who Takes Risk (II)
Claudia POV
A whole night of crying left me feeling strangely empty. Back then, even after my husband and I drifted apart, I still had my daughter to lean on.
Whenever I got depressed over my failing marriage, I clung to her and treated her as my only emotional crutch.
Just looking at how Aurora grew up to be an energetic, honest girl was enough to bring a smile to my face and soothe my cold, dead heart.
All this time, the only reason I could still function normally was because of my daughter. The hope for her to grow up normally became my source of strength.
But the phone call between Miles and Ray was just too much for my fragile heart that I desperately needed my emotional crutch right now.
Now that Aurora was comatose in the hospital, I wanted to meet my daughter in the flesh, caress her cheek to make sure there was warmth under her thin skin, and make sure that she was still alive.
All that would be enough to calm me down, because I could feel myself on the verge of breaking down at this point.
"It—it needs to be me meeting her personally, Ray," I said before getting up and picking up an elephant doll that I made yesterday. "This is the brand-new elephant doll that I knitted for her. Aurora needs this to sleep well every night, and I believe she also needs this in her hospital bed!"
Ray stared at the knitted elephant doll in my hand with a flat expression, unimpressed by what I made for my daughter.
"If you need this to be delivered, then just give it to me. I’ll hand it to Troy, my driver, and he’ll put it next to Aurora in her bed," Ray said. "There’s no need for you to go out over an elephant doll."
Of course he’d say that. Why did I think that he’d actually help me this time? He was literally dancing over my misery yesterday.
But I didn’t want to give up. I had to meet my daughter today at all costs, or else I might actually go insane!
"It’s different. I have to be the one who gives this doll to her!" I begged for the second time. I felt that I had already lowered myself enough, hoping that my humbleness would soften his monstrous heart somehow. "Please, Ray, just... just this time. I really, really need to see Aurora..."
"Then you can wait for a week," Ray said decisively. "Besides, Aurora is still unconscious. It matters not whether there’s a doll or not by her side."
What Ray said was logical. There was no reason to be so stressed over an elephant doll since Aurora was still in a coma. She wouldn’t notice it anyway.
But his reply stung me so deeply that my eyes began to pool with tears as I tried to endure the resentment in my heart.
I didn’t expect myself to be a crier, but I couldn’t control myself from crying while thinking of my daughter, the only family I had in this world, and the one I relied on when my heart couldn’t take it anymore.
However, the moment Ray saw my tears, he got up and walked away from me.
He spoke while walking toward his room, "Just put that doll on the table. I’ll take it with me when I’m leaving. You don’t have to fix my tie today unless you can stop crying. There’s no pleasure in tormenting you when you’re shedding tears so easily."
SLAM!
My heart jumped when Ray suddenly slammed the door. I stared at his bedroom door while clenching the elephant doll in my hand.
This man... how many times did he need to anger me? Did he want to kill me with so much heartache?
Of course I didn’t want to hand him this elephant doll. It had to be me, no matter what!
Thus, I returned to my room and locked the door, ignoring him as he said that he was going to work.
I waited for a while until the door opened again. Since Ray had left not long ago, I guessed this was Jane Jiang.
So I went out of my room, hoping that I could sway her instead to let me out.
But I gasped when I caught Jane at the dining table.
"Jane, you—"
I was at a loss for words as I saw her eating the leftover pancake from Ray’s plate. She even used the same knife and fork.
We stared at each other for a while. I was speechless at her antics, and she was speechless at being caught shamelessly eating her boss’s leftovers.
She dropped the knife and fork immediately and swallowed the food in her mouth before snarling at me, "W-w-what? What are you looking at? I’m just a little hungry!"
"..."
I had never seen her so flustered before. I knew that she was in love with Ray.
Her reaction yesterday made it clear, and her admiration for him was more than enough to show that she was similar to me back when I was in love with Ray—a foolish girl who got obsessed with a ’perfect and ideal’ man.
But there was one difference between us:
Back then, when I realized that Ray was a sociopath who couldn’t love properly, I quickly cut ties with him and tried to forget about my first love by moving on with Miles.
Jane had seen Ray’s strangeness more than I did, yet she still insisted on loving him.
However, seeing her nervousness also gave me an idea—a devious one, of course—because I hadn’t done this before.
But I was truly desperate to meet Aurora right now.
I sighed while giving her a pitiful look. "Were you that hungry? I can make you a pancake if you want to."
"N-no need! Why would I eat a pancake from a bitch like you!?"
"Really? Well, I’m just worried that you might be too hungry to watch over me today. So I’m just being a kind host," I grinned at her. "Or perhaps you just want to eat his leftovers? I wonder what he’d think of you if I reported this to him."
