“Why don’t we talk about it? I’ve been remembering this for years, how come you won’t let me talk about it?”
Once again she reached out to try and pick him off, but couldn’t and Yolanda Taylor stopped trying to get him off.
Yolanda Taylor looked down at him with laughter and tears under her eyes, and then suddenly, her face went cold and she didn’t give him any more leeway, “After all those years, Gwen Fox, I’d like to know who the hell gave me the confidence to think that you loved me in the first place.”
“Gwen Fox, you know what? The truth is that even when you were engaged to Xenia Davis, even when I knew it was all your revenge, I never hated you. But you shouldn’t have, you shouldn’t have killed my mom! You shouldn’t have!”
“I know you didn’t love me, but you should have liked me more or less or you wouldn’t have come tonight.”
“Yolanda Taylor, who gave you that confidence?”
“It was you! You gave it to me!”
“Is that the kind of irrelevant crap you’re going to tell me tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Gwen Fox, I’m going to make you remember for the rest of your life that I hate you! I hate you!”
It’s been four years and Gwen Fox still remembers what she said back then.
In fact, he had never forgotten it, he just didn’t dare to think about it and didn’t have the courage to think about it.
It was the fire that made him realize how cruel he was, and it was also the fire that made him realize how much he loved her.
Now that Yolanda Taylor brought it up again, she, the person involved, didn’t half fear it, but he, the bystander, ached.
“Dear–”
He looked at her pleadingly, “I was wrong, I know I was wrong.”
However Yolanda Taylor just laughed and lifted her hand to wave his away, “So you haven’t forgotten.”
She said, pushing him away and taking two steps back, “This is supposed to be the anniversary of my death, isn’t it? I’m not in the mood to eat and drink on the anniversary of my own death, if you want to eat Christmas dinner, go eat by yourself, don’t bring me along.”
She kept saying that today was the anniversary of her death, as if she was already a dead person.
Gwen Fox looked at her back and thought back to that day when he got out of his car and ran back to the house and saw the blazing fire.
The fire was so big that he tried his best to get in and save her, but he collapsed before he could get to the third floor and woke up with nothing but a charred corpse.
Despair and pain were like an endless sea, he was thrown in the middle and couldn’t swim out.
“You don’t talk nonsense, Yolanda Taylor, don’t talk nonsense!”
He suddenly caught up with her, reaching down and pulling her by the hand, looking down at her with a cold face, “Spit it out and rehash what you just said, it’s Christmas Eve, not some jubilee!”
Yolanda Taylor looked at him, her eyebrows moving slightly, “You’re right, that day really wasn’t the anniversary of my death, it should have been the day my mom died, you killed me, you killed Yolanda Taylor, you killed Yolanda Taylor with your own hands!”
“I didn’t!”
He gritted his teeth, refusing to admit it.
“Admit it or not, but I did have my heart dead that day, and I do today.”
With that, she paused, “You can’t have forgotten what I came back to Borden City for this time, can you? I’m here to get back at you, Gwen Fox!”
At that moment, there was a sudden bang, and in the darkness of the night, a bunch of fireworks burst into the night sky.
Yolanda Taylor inclined her head to look at it for two seconds before she withdrew her gaze, “You don’t just owe my mom your life, you killed that baby too.”
“Not me!”
“It wasn’t you? It wasn’t you who was engaged to Xenia Davis? Wasn’t it you who acquiesced to Xenia Davis catching me behind my back?”
She said, smiling coolly, “What a shame, if that child was still alive, she would be calling you father by now, wouldn’t she?”
Thinking about that child, Yolanda Taylor felt like her heart was being held tightly by something, it hurt like her organs were being hidden tightly by a rope, even breathing became difficult.
She huffed, “My dad got a DUI and was paralyzed for over a decade, and he died without resting in peace because you told him that you treated his daughter like a plaything! I don’t blame you for that, my dad got a DUI, he killed your mom and dad, he deserved it, I don’t blame you!”
“But what did my mom do wrong, what did she do wrong? You let someone make a game to lure her to gamble, let her get addicted and then set up a pit for her to fall into again and again, I don’t blame you for that either, it’s my mom’s greed, it’s my mom who didn’t have a good control over herself! But why, why did you find someone to run her over, why?!”
“And me, I don’t blame you for lying to me, for playing me, I don’t blame you for that, it was my naivety, it was my lack of knowledge, it was my love that wasn’t worth anything, I don’t blame you, really, I don’t, Gwen Fox!!! but why, why did you let Xenia Davis get someone to set me up, why, why?!!!”
“Do you think it’s funny when you say you love me? How did you love me? Pissing off my dad, getting my mom killed, dragging me to hell! You claim to love me, is that how you love someone, Gwen Fox?!”
“You say you’re wrong, I say I’m wrong, we’re all wrong, so who’s wrong? I admit I was wrong, I admit I was wrong can I have my eighteen years over again, can I have everything over again?”
“The answer is no, Gwen Fox! No!” She raised her hand and wiped the tears from her eyes, her scarlet eyes looking straight at him, “Then why should I forgive you if you admit you were wrong! Why should I treat you like I used to if you admit you’re wrong?!”
Her accusations weighed him down, hitting him sentence by sentence, and Gwen Fox had no comeback at all.
He lifted his hand over her mouth, “Dear, don’t say anything, I beg you, don’t say anything.”
“Ummm…!”
Yolanda Taylor’s mouth was covered by him, she couldn’t say a word, she was only able to stare at him with a death glare.
There was another rattle of fireworks outside the window and she inclined her head to look over, the night sky was bright with them, reminding her of the fire four years ago today.
She was dead, she had died long ago, inside the despair that Gwen Fox had given her.
Gwen Fox watched her, saw her looking out the window, and half-dragged the person back to the couch.
It was then that he slowly let go, “You don’t like Christmas dinner, we won’t eat it.”
When he finished, he sat there, his body feeling as if it had been drained of its strength.
Gwen Fox wasn’t just drained of strength, Yolanda Taylor’s words were a reminder of what happened back then.
Every word in every accusation was her remorse and hate, she regretted having been with him, she hated him.
But he couldn’t handle it, just the thought of her regretting that they were ever together made his heart feel like a knife.
Yolanda Taylor had been held by him for a while and had calmed down.
She looked at the glass of water sitting on the table, “It would have been so nice if I hadn’t said yes that year.”
After saying that, she closed her eyes.
A tear ran down the corner of her eye and dripped onto the back of Gwen Fox’s hand, as if it were a drop of boiling oil, scalding his hand and making it tremble.