Chapter 148: Chapter 146: What Overflows from the Chest Is Despair (Part 2)
She didn’t get a ride, walking back alone along the sidewalk. In this vast city, she suddenly felt that she had always been on her own.
After walking for two hours, she stood before a club called "Quivering Lips." Staring at it, her eyes quickly filled with tears. Nora Ainsworth turned and went into the residential complex next door. The elevator stopped on the eighth floor. She stepped out, took out her key, and let herself in.
She closed the door and leaned back against it, sliding down until she was squatting on the floor.
Just then, her phone rang. She picked it up. It was a call from Quentin Grant.
She hit the answer button, and his voice came through the receiver.
"Nora, did you buy anything?"
She answered softly, "I looked around, but there wasn’t anything worth buying. Aren’t you supposed to be at work? Why are you calling?"
"I missed you," he said, his voice low and laced with a smile.
On her end of the line, Nora Ainsworth could almost picture his handsome face, a cocky smile playing on his lips.
Tears welled in her eyes. "I miss you, too."
"How much do you miss me?" His melodious voice was like the most beautiful language in the world, melting the ice in Nora Ainsworth’s heart, little by little.
Something overflowed in her chest. She tried to grasp the feeling, only to find a single word for it: despair.
"I can’t talk now. I’ll be home soon." She quickly hung up. Clutching her phone, tears blurred her vision and sealed her heart away.
At noon, Quentin Grant came home for lunch and found Nora Ainsworth sleeping in bed.
He leaned over and nuzzled her ear. "Why are you so sleepy? Are you pregnant with our baby?"
Nora Ainsworth kept her eyes closed, her heart twisting in agony.
"How would you know being pregnant makes you sleepy?"
Quentin Grant handed her the book he was holding, *Ten Months of Pregnancy*. "The baby on the cover is cute, isn’t it? Nora, I’m starting to look forward to our child. I hope it’s a girl, because she’ll be as beautiful as you."
Nora Ainsworth sat up and tossed the book aside. "I don’t like kids at all. Quentin, if I never had children, would you mind?"
He looked at her, sensing something was wrong. "What’s the matter?"
Nora Ainsworth lay back down. She stared at the window, her gaze distant and bleak. Finally, she spoke. "Quentin, do you really think we’re suited for each other?"
The smile on Quentin Grant’s face slowly faded. He looked at her. "Nora, what do you mean?"
Nora Ainsworth took a deep breath, her hand gripping the bedsheet tightly. "My meaning is obvious. Quentin, I don’t think we’re a good match at all. The gap between us is too wide. Besides, your whole family is against it. I’ve thought about it for a long time. I can’t be like my mother—being Mr. Ainsworth’s woman for twenty years, only to grow old and lose her looks. Even if she did marry him one day, she still ended up with nothing."
"I told you I would marry you! We’ll get married very soon. Nora, I, Quentin Grant, swear to you right here, I will make you my wife in a grand ceremony within two months!"
Tears streamed from the corners of Nora Ainsworth’s eyes. She turned onto her side, the tears silently dampening the pillow. "But I don’t think I can tolerate a mother-in-law like yours. And I can’t bring myself to walk through your family’s front door."
"Then don’t. You can just stay here in our home. My mom... her bark is worse than her bite. She’s my mother, after all. It’s not like I had a choice." He tried to explain everything, but she refused to look at him.
"Weren’t we perfectly fine before you went out shopping? What on earth happened?"
Nora Ainsworth was silent for a long moment before she said, "I just realized... I don’t love you as much as I thought I did."
He clenched his fists, kicked off his shoes, and ripped the covers off, pinning her beneath him.
"We’ll see just how much you don’t love me!" he snarled, tearing at her clothes like a man possessed.
Nora Ainsworth struggled desperately. "Let me go!"
"I won’t!" He couldn’t accept her sudden desire to break up.
It was too cruel to him. Just as he was reveling in such a beautiful moment, she suddenly announced she was leaving.
Was the dream just too good to be true, or was reality simply a lie?
Nora Ainsworth felt a sense of detachment from her own body. A wave of heat washed over her, and her heart pounded in panic. It was as if she were standing on a sheet of unbreakable ice, waiting for it to crack.
In that moment, she couldn’t help but feel she was truly cursed.
’This bad luck doesn’t just infect others; it’s led me into a dead end, with no path forward.’
’Instead of both of us ending up in a living hell, it’s better for me to bear this alone. At least then, his future won’t be filled with agonizing turmoil. He’s the legal heir to the Grant Group. I don’t want him to spend his whole life in regret because of me.’
But Nora Ainsworth didn’t know: how could losing her not be a lifetime of regret for him?
SLAP! The crisp sound shattered his frenzied impulse, shocked him back to his senses, and sealed her fate.
Nora Ainsworth held up her trembling, numb hand, her eyes colder than he had ever seen them. "Quentin Grant, I am a person. I am not a woman you can toy with as you please anymore!"
His eyes instantly grew moist. She could clearly see the glistening liquid welling in them.
"Nora Ainsworth, are you really going to do this? Are you really breaking up with me? I, Quentin Grant, am a man of my word. If your mind is made up, don’t even think about coming back to me. I won’t give you another chance!"
It was as if it took all of Nora Ainsworth’s strength, but she slowly lifted her head to meet his gaze and said with chilling composure, "I will never come back to you in this lifetime. Quentin Grant, you must find a fiancée quickly. Find a woman who will love you deeply. Only then can I be at ease."
Quentin Grant got off the bed, put on his shoes, and walked out of the bedroom. As the door slammed shut with a BANG, Sharon Ainsworth also sank weakly back onto the bed.
Icy tears slid down to her jaw and then trailed onto her neck, the chill making her heart clench.
She closed her eyes. ’The happiness she had so bravely fought for had slipped away again. It was truly lamentable.’
Five minutes later, she slowly got out of bed, took out a bottle of mineral water, and swallowed a hemostatic pill.
She placed the million-dollar bank card in the drawer, took her own original bank card, and left everything else behind as she opened the bedroom door.
The hallway was silent. She walked slowly, making almost no sound.
The lights in the living room were still on, but it was also empty.
Outside, the courtyard was utterly silent. If not for the Men in Black standing guard, Nora Ainsworth would have thought she was the only one there.
She walked toward the main gate. Suddenly, a voice blared from a megaphone. "Nora Ainsworth!"
She flinched and turned around. Quentin Grant was standing on the third-floor balcony, holding a megaphone and yelling, "If you dare walk out that gate, I’ll get engaged to another woman tomorrow!"
The Men in Black, standing in the corners, were scared half to death. ’What are these two up to now?’
Nora Ainsworth turned back around. She clenched her fists and ran straight for the gate.
The gate closed behind her with a heavy thud.
Quentin Grant violently threw the megaphone in his hand. It smashed into pieces on the ground.
