“Sylvie?” Marley’s hands even tightened.
“Let go of me. Marley, I am uncomfortable when you grab me this way!” Sylvie muttered softly.
He was still stunned and could not react for some time.
“It’s late now and you need to go to rest. Aren’t you going to get your father for the discharge tomorrow? Do you want to show your exhausted look to him? Since he loves you so much, he must want to see you to be energetic. So, don’t let him worry about you, alright?” She reminded him gently and moved her body in order to get rid of him.
Her calm voice was fidgeting him and made him pull his arm forcefully to hug her tightly. Then suddenly, he released his arms, “It’s easy to look energetic and I will appear in that way too!”
Sylvie panicked because she saw Marley who showed an evil face. Seemingly, there were flames under his eyes which were deep and unpredictable. He often showed these kinds of eyes whenever he was together with her!
“Marley, pull me up quickly!” She shouted instinctively because she was worried.
“Alright!” Marley said with a hoarse voice then truly released her.
Sylvie who felt shocked and unsettling sat on the sofa. She took the first aid box herself but he outstretched his hand to open the bottle containing alcohol cotton balls. He used a forceps to get one of them and removed the soaked band-aid from the back of her leg.
He lowered his head to look at her wound which was wet. Perhaps it was soaked when she was taking shower. “The wound isn’t recovered yet, you need to keep it dry!”
“Ah!” She nodded and she took a deep breath at that moment when the alcohol cotton ball touched the back of her foot. Unexpectedly, she felt pain because the wound was so deep and it had not recovered yet!
His action was extremely gentle and one of his hands was grabbing her white leg.
Her face was blushed, and her heart was beating hard incessantly. It was so strange that they had experienced all that intimidating stuff but her heart beat so rapidly just because he helped her to put on the medicine. It seemed like her heart was about to jump out as if her heart did not belong to her anymore!
She raised her head to look at him secretly. He was wiping her wound seriously with his eyes lowered down. His eyelashes were so long or even longer than those of a girl. Not only long, his eyelashes were also thick.
However, he was not hers ultimately. It was already a destiny where they ended up finally!
When she thought of this, she could not bear from becoming upset, so she immediately moved her face away. At that moment, Marley raised his head and saw her turning her face to look at another place. He still remained calm and helped her to put on the band-aid.
Then, when she was slightly stunned, he hugged her.
“Ah…” Sylvie moaned softly.
After the lights went off, the bedroom was completely pitch dark. He hugged her and walked towards the big bed.
Suddenly, she panicked and that photo appeared in her mind, “No! Marley, I am exhausted!”
At that moment when he put her onto the bed, he raised both of her hands above her head with one of his hands. In an instant, his sturdy body pressed at her strongly onto the bed.
In a panic, his kiss was so hurried and forceful. She was rejecting but she was not able to produce any sound since her lips were kissed by him.
“No… Umm…” He had swallowed all her refusals.
“No… Marley… Don’t do this…”
“Please don’t! Don’t!”
“Please…”
He was biting her neck and when he heard her moaning, he abruptly stopped his crazy kissing.
Marley stopped his action and lowered his head to look at her. He could still feel her trembling in the dark, “You said that you won’t reject. So, what are you doing now?”
“Look for other women!” She suddenly said, “I don’t want to!”
He was being hit by her words and was stunned for some time. Suddenly, he got down the bed and stood up then walked towards the door rapidly.
When the door was opened, the light came in from the corridor. Sylvie saw that his figure was so tall and he stood at the door while saying, “It’s not just me who needs to be sincere, and you too! Where’s your heart?”
After saying that, the door was directly closed by him and the light was being blocked. Then, he walked outwards!
She was the only one being left in the bedroom.
The quiet room was fully filled with sadness.
Did her refusals make sense? Suddenly, she felt that she was hypocritical for being dramatic today. She was really dramatic. But, at that moment, she rejected due to her instinct. Besides following her heart, what could she do? She was not a saint instead. Where was her heart?
Marley did not sleep in the bedroom that night.
Marley, who thought that he could sleep well, had insomnia.
When she woke up in the morning, Marley was not there.
Actually, she could not ensure that Marley was not in the villa since it was so big. Anyway, there was complete silence at the hall downstairs.
She poured a cup of water then drank it.
Then, she saw a tall figure walking in from the door of the hall.
Marley wore a casual long-sleeved T-shirt without buttoning up the two buttons on the collar. He also wore casual long pants and he put both of his hands in the pocket. He walked steadily and his body ratio was almost perfect. From a distance, he expressed a sense of indifference from his whole body.
While waiting for him to walk into the hall, she lowered her head and said softly, “Do you want to eat? I immediately go and cook!”
Marley stood still in front of her and looked at her with a pair of uncertain eyes. He just slightly tilted his head to look at her and he did not seem to speak. Marley had the ability to make her feel threatened just by looking at her with his sharp eyes.
Sylvie noticed that he was not speaking so she said again, “What time are we pick up your father?”
He did not answer and just narrowed his eyes. He looked at her with his unpredictable and sharp eyes.
Sylvie braced herself to look at him and showed an embarrassed smile on her face, “I am going upstairs!”
Marley still did not react and even there were not any expressions on his face.
Sylvie took a deep breath and turned around to go upstairs.
But, he started to speak this time, “After eating, we go to pick up my parents!”
She was slightly stunned.
“Let’s cook”, he said.
“Ah!” She was truly speechless because he was mystic at first, then…
She could not figure out what Marley was thinking about.
Sylvie went to the kitchen and fried two eggs. She also cooked some oat porridge and some side dishes.
When the breakfast was served onto the table, Marley was reading the newspaper. He was holding a newspaper in his hand, he flipped through another page with a rustle sound.
“Let’s eat!” Sylvie shouted.
“Yes!” Marley put down the newspaper and walked there. After sitting down, he said, “My parents will be going back to their house and they will not be staying here!”
“Oh!” Sylvie nodded because she thought that his parents were going to stay there!
He saw her standing there and slightly smiled, “Why are you standing? Don’t you want to eat?”
His expression was completely different to his expression when he left the bedroom last night. It seemed like nothing had happened to him and his ignorance would make others sigh.
“After having a meal, we go to pick them up. Then, we eat our lunch at the old house!” said Marley.
“Oh!” She sat down and listened only because she could only obey his instructions!
She lowered her head and looked at the fried eggs. The moderately yellow color was very beautiful. It was so attractive to be eaten.
“Nothing to say?” He asked.
“No!” She was calm and continued focusing on her egg.
Marley did not continue talking and did not take the chopsticks. The time passed seconds by seconds.
Sylvie felt that her neck was sore so she raised her head and looked into Marley’s eyes coincidentally.
He put one of his hands around his chest and his other hand was supporting his chin. He looked closely at Sylvie and his eyes were turning from her head to her chest. Since she was sitting in front of the dining table, he could not see her legs. If not, he would definitely examine her from head to toes.
Eventually, he looked at her face and stared at her eyes.
After a long while, he picked up the chopsticks, then said, “Sylvie, you don’t need to say something to me?”
The duration from his last sentence was not too long but his voice was dull and lazy as if he did not speak for a long time.
“What do you want to hear?” Sylvie was slightly astonished then lowered her head again.
“What do you think?” Marley asked gently.
“Let’s eat!” Sylvie said.
Suddenly, Marley laughed with a sense of chilliness. Even though his smile was vague, Sylvie could feel his emotion.
When he smiled it was even scarier than when he did not smile at all!
Suddenly, they were getting further from each other because he seemed to be unsatisfied with her answer.
He turned his eyes away, “Let’s eat!”
Then, he never spoke.
Nine o’ clock.
Marley and she went to the hospital.
The morning sun was shining but not dazzling. When the sunshine was appearing in the car, Sylvie turned her head and saw Marley’s profile. Even though he was bathed under the sun, there was not any warmness on his face.
The car was stopped at the car park. When they got out of the car, they met Ernie Hughes and his father, Kasper Hughes.
“Kasper, why are both of you here?”
“Of course we are bringing Aiden back from the hospital!” Ernie was saying playfully. When he saw Sylvie’s face inadvertently, “Oh yo! Sylvie seems spiritless. Didn’t you sleep well last night?”
Sylvie was shocked because Ernie was truly hateful and he seemed to appear everywhere like a ghost. Not even that, he would say something to her every time. But when Sylvie listened to Ernie’s words, she was not angry. She just looked at him indifferently but did not answer his question. She turned to face Kasper. “Hello, Kasper!”
Kasper slightly nodded and looked at Sylvie from top to bottom without any expression in his eyes. Then, he slightly raised his head.
Marley looked at Sylvie and he seemed to be satisfied with her reaction to Ernie.
“Marley, come over here. Let’s talk about something while walking!” Kasper said.
“Err!” Marley slightly frowned and looked at Sylvie. His eyes were like warning her for keeping a distance from Ernie. Even though it was a wordless conversation, Sylvie understood him so she slightly nodded.
Then, Marley walked towards Kasper, “Kasper, anything?”
“Marley, Aiden was recovering quite well and I truly didn’t consider too much while doing things previously. But since we are a family, I hope that you can lead the Hughes family to a new success!” Kasper said.
“Yes!” Marley nodded.
“Teddie has a bad temper so I won’t let him come here. But, his wife has the intention to come over to visit your parents. However, due to Teddie and Ernie’s gambling debt nowadays, she dodged and did not dare to appear there. She wanted me to express her gratitude to you because you think of that for the sake of her and your cousins!”
Marley nodded, “This is Sylvie’s idea and it’s really not my thoughts!”
Marley did not take the credit. Sylvie’s idea was really good and even he could not find any problems with it.
“Sylvie is a good woman and thanks to her, our Hughes family will not collapse!” Kasper sighed and a sense of gratefulness was expressed from his eyes. Also, thanks to the woman, he was able to know that Marley was not as useless as he thought.