He pulled my hand and pouted, “Oh, I was just careless while walking. It hurts so much; I really want to drink the soup you make.”
I suppressed the ache in my chest and forced a smile. “Alright, I’ll go home and make you soup. How about pigeon soup?”
Jonathon smiled contentedly. “Great! Hurry back! I’m waiting for the soup and for you. I’m feeling weak; I don’t want to be away from you for a moment.”
I smiled and agreed, not knowing that this would be our last meeting.
As I returned to the community, I saw Ben leaning against his Cayenne, smoking, as if he had been waiting for me for a long time.
I was holding a newly bought soup bowl and, without hesitation, smashed it against his forehead.
Blood immediately streamed down his face.
I resisted the urge to pick up the shards and slice his throat. “This is for Jonathon! You crazy man, you did this, didn’t you?”
Ben didn’t even blink at my attack. He tossed the cigarette aside and pinned me against the car.
“Sherlyn, don’t say things I don’t want to hear. What is he? How can he be your lover?”
With that, he leaned down and savagely bit my lip. I bit back hard and tasted blood.
After a long time, Ben finally let go of me, shrugging. “You’re talking about the accident? I’m innocent; he got hit today because he was just unlucky.”
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my flesh as overwhelming despair crushed me.
“Ben, what will it take for you to leave me alone?”
Ben’s hand gently caressed my face, his icy touch sending shivers down my spine.
“Sherlyn, what exactly am I letting you go from? I’m not locking you up like before, am I?”
“Jonathon is really unlucky; this time it’s just a leg. What if next time, he loses his life due to carelessness?”
It was June, yet standing under the sun, I felt a bone-chilling cold.
I suddenly recalled the day many years ago when I reunited with Ben at university.
I looked at his flawless face and asked if his brothers would bully him again.
He laughed nonchalantly. “Of course not. My brothers aren’t very lucky. The eldest got into a car accident and became a vegetable, and the second one mysteriously disappeared while traveling abroad; they only found his body.”
I closed my eyes, my mind filled with images of Jonathon.
“Ben, I was wrong back then. I shouldn’t have… left.”
Ben said he would leave today. I stared at the direction of the room, feeling like my feet had rooted to the ground.
Ben smiled in a way that seemed both amused and sarcastic. “What’s wrong? Are you reluctant? Oh, should you say goodbye to Jonathon?”
“I’ll go with you.”
I jolted, finally snapping out of my thoughts. “No need! There’s nothing to say goodbye for!”
If it was Ben, I couldn’t guarantee what he might say or do next.
Ben was always prepared; he was confident that I would eventually follow him, so he had my passport ready long ago.
Before boarding, messages from Jonathon came in one after another. -Sherlyn, why aren’t you back yet? -Just make any soup; I just like seeing you worry about me. -It’s been four hours; do you know I miss you so much it makes my leg hurt more?
I clutched my phone, tears falling onto the screen, smudging it.
I remembered how I met Jonathon at the racetrack.
After he lost to me, he always found excuses to challenge me.
Until I got fed up and decisively defeated him again, telling him not to bother me.
He looked so dejected. “Sherlyn, I’m really useless; it’s been so long, and I still couldn’t make you notice I’m pursuing you.”
At that time, no one thought we would end up like this, so abruptly.
I turned off my phone and, after four years, stepped back into that cage that had imprisoned me.