It was at this time that Jeremy, with Leah, walked proudly through the gates of the manor.
While over there, the door was locked and the lovers were making love, here Annie was tightly clutching the hand of a nurse, her deep, grey-tinted eyes staring fixedly upwards.
Regret?
Despair?
At this moment, she felt as if she no longer felt anything.
Even the pain seemed so insignificant.
After the baby was born, Annie calmly sat up in bed, leaning against the headboard. She was covered in cold sweat, weak and pale, as if a few strands of her soul had fallen out.
Fawn, who had been spoiled and confused, jumped into the room from outside, ran excitedly to Annie, looked at the beautiful baby with gray eyes in the bed, and asked, “Mother, is it a brother?”
“Yes,”
Annie smiled faintly at her.
“That’s great, I have a brother!”
Fawn lowered her head happily, afraid to touch such a soft and small baby, so she kissed it through the blanket that wrapped the baby.
Annie lifted her hand to caress her bright little face, “Enrico.”
“What?” Fawn raised her little face and looked at her blankly.
“I hope that my child will be able to have whatever he wants, and will never be denied,” Annie asked her softly, ‘shall we name your brother this?”
“Yes, Enrico, it’s a nice name, Mother,”
Fawn beamed, ‘my brother will definitely be able to have whatever he wants in the future!”
“Fawn, I want to rest for a while. Can you take your brother back to your room and let the nurses stay with you? Okay?” Annie asked again.
“Okay,” Fawn nodded obediently and followed the nurses away.
Before leaving, as if she had a hunch, Fawn glanced back at Annie, suddenly feeling uneasy. Annie, however, leaned against the bed and smiled tenderly at her.
Fawn then let go and left.
“No matter what happens, don’t let her out,”
Annie instructed.
After doing all this, she waited calmly for Jeremy to appear in the doorway expressionlessly.
When Fawn was born, he was full of panic, fearing the worst for her; this time, however, Jeremy came with the scent of a woman all over him.
He walked up to her step by step, looking down at her, “You’re done giving birth?”
This seemed to be the first time since they met that he had spoken to her in such a cold tone.
Annie lifted the quilt, and her pale feet touched the floor. She had changed into a loose-fitting long skirt, which made her look particularly delicate, like a rose that had been hit by rain, its petals still pretending to bloom despite the silent withering.
She sat in front of him, smelling the scent on his body, and raised her hand to button up his shirt, which was a little open.
Halfway through, she saw a trace of lipstick on it.
Jeremy looked down at her movements, reached out to stop her, and said in a low voice, “Someone will do these things, so you should get some rest.”
“Did you love me?”
Annie looked up into his eyes and asked calmly, word for word, “From the beginning, were you just using me?”
“…”
“All these years, every meal you cooked for me, every tear you shed for me, wasn’t to win my favor, but to use me to help you get to where you are today?”
she asked him.
“You shouldn’t try to control me.”
At this point, Jeremy didn’t bother to hide it anymore. “In the past, I thought you were kind. A kind person is easier to manipulate, no matter how smart they are. But you’re not. You have the AS schizophrenia gene. You have the gene for evil. You want to control everything about me. I’ve said it before, I hate the feeling of being controlled.”
Annie listened, her eyes unchanging. She just looked at him, stubbornly asking her question, “So, you never loved me? Not even a little?”
How could she have failed so miserably.
Her calm voice was like a sharp knife slowly slicing his body. He breathed heavily and looked down at her accusingly, “Was there not even the slightest impurity in your love?”
“…”
“You could clearly devise a plot to overthrow a country in an instant, but you stayed with me and struggled slowly for so many years. What did you hope to achieve? That you were bored and clever, high above it all, and that I was a pawn to be manipulated at will? Was there not even a hint of amusement in your so-called love for me?”
“…”
“I have been controlled for so many years, and I have finally made it to where I am today. I will not allow anyone to strangle me, not even you!”
He growled, his eyes full of anger.
“…”
Annie looked at him blankly, and suddenly laughed softly.
So that’s it.
It turned out that he had never truly believed in her love for even a moment.
How could she have forgotten that he was born into a family of cold-hearted people, where she had seen nothing but bloodshed and suspicion, where interests and self-preservation came before emotions.
She laughed, a bitter laugh that brought tears to her eyes.
Seeing her like this, Jeremy sat down by the bed, took her arms in his hands, and stared at her intently. “Annie, you’ve lost this time. Just admit it. Go crazy. After you’re crazy, I won’t have to worry about how many spies you’ve planted around me, or watch what I say when I talk to female colleagues, or be afraid of when you’ll get bored with me and stab me in the back.”
As he spoke, a kind of hysterical distortion, madness, and… excitement suddenly appeared in his eyes.
Annie listened to every word he said, continued to smile, and her tears continued to fall.
It turned out that he was so afraid.
In his eyes, was she more terrifying than his parents?
Jeremy cupped her face, wiped away her tears, and pressed her into his arms. His fingers buried themselves in her sweat-soaked hair as he said urgently, “I’ll be good to you after you get better. I’ll throw that woman out, and you’ll stay at home every day waiting for me. I’ll come back from work and take care of you. I’ll cook for you, bathe you, and dress you. At night, I’ll sleep with you in my arms. Okay? Hmm? Okay?”
He spoke urgently, kissing her ear over and over, “Okay? Annie, okay?”
Annie leaned weakly against his chest, listening to him say it over and over again, and tears fell again, “Why did I fall in love with someone like you?”
“…”
Jeremy’s body stiffened.
“Why did you refuse to climb out of the swamp and take a look after all these years of me saving you?”
She raised her face to look at him, trembling her lips to kiss his chin, “You climb out and take a look, and see how much I, Annie, love Jeremy.”
Jeremy trembled inexplicably at her kiss. He looked down at her eyes, filled with tears, and something in his body stirred, his heart suddenly wracked with pain.
Suddenly, Annie opened her lips and bit his chin, biting down hard.
Jeremy winced in pain and, without thinking, pushed her away forcefully.
Annie had just given birth and had no strength at all; she fell heavily onto the bed, like a fragile rag doll.
Jeremy stood up, shocked, and touched his sharp, throbbing chin. “I have made arrangements for the people at the manor today. Without your people, even if you are not crazy, you should not even think about going out again from today onwards, and manipulating me again!”