They feared Meilei spiraling back to a place where medication and counseling barely got her through. She was recovering from harming herself and was so broken by life that she had no fight left. That day, finding her on her grandmother’s bedroom floor traumatized them both… So sure she was dead even as they waited on the paramedics and watched over her lifeless body. That was before they knew of her pregnancy before she had a reason to continue living.
Meilei didn’t want to recall that moment. The humiliation of sobbing at the doors of their huge house, being made to stand in the stormy rain for an hour before she would finally see her. Meilei had tried to prove her innocence with her soggy paper copy of the police statement, which covered everything, including San’s constant harassment for the past weeks. She had taken one look at it, then Meilei’s weeping pathetic figure, and threw it at her. She had told her that if she ever darkened their door with her lies again, she would use all in her power to wipe Meilei and her family from the earth’s face. The funeral was the last time she saw Kai. He left the country the next day.
“I have a day off tomorrow.. let me take Yue out and distract her. Don’t worry about her. I’ll make sure she has a fun-packed day.” Suying had been leaving Yue to Ling a lot these past days due to working double shifts, and she, too, missed time with her princess. If she could take Yue’s mind off her mom’s absence for one day, she knew it would greatly lift Meilei’s spirit.
“Baby!” Meilei rushed to her and scooped her up, hugging her half to death and pressing her little body against her so that she almost squeezed her breath out entirely. She had missed this so much that picking her up and holding her this way felt immense. It formed a huge rock in her heart and a lump in her throat.
Ling nodded, and Suying sank onto the couch to watch her go.
“I love you, Mommy.” Yue yawned, finally happy to be in her favorite person’s arms, and Meilei carried her back to their room.
“You cannot be serious?” Meilei was close to losing her temper, stopping before the mall entrance and sinking back on her throbbing feet.
Meilei clamped her mouth shut and screwed it up to pull insulting faces at his back as he strolled ahead. Hating him with a vengeance for this. Her legs were already so sore from endless standing and walking all day, and her arms were tired from carrying everything he dumped on her earlier.
She had witnessed several interactions with Anna and Kai working beside him; there was definite intimacy and a closer-than-work relationship that wasn’t hard to see. Anna looked at him the way Meilei used to. Watching him being softer and pleasant, even sometimes attentive to her, made Meilei’s soul crumble, and she had to push so many unwanted memories out of her mind that brought up the pain of how he used to be with her. Spearing her heart with a barbed knife every time she had to endure them together. The boy who treated her like a princess as opposed to this man who treated her like dirt. She felt like gouging out her eyes anytime the other woman walked into his office.
Meilei followed, stomping her feet, glaring at his wide shoulders, and almost walked into him when he stopped at the first designer boutique they reached.
“Women like this, right?” he nodded to the high fashion clothes shop where nothing she could see was under a month’s salary to buy.
“If you know her size and clothing preferences, I guess.” Meilei didn’t care either way. Nor did she want to acknowledge he was about to spend a fortune on his lady.
She wanted to go home and checked her cell for the hundredth time, realizing her battery had completely died. Last night, she had been so tired and focused on Yue that she had forgotten to charge it. She had one stolen video call when she used the ladies’ room at the golf course, which drained its last bar. The last time she talked to Yue, Suying, and Ling, they were at the amusement park, and she was having the time of her life. That had been a couple of hours ago. Meilei wished so hard she could have been there with them and not trailing Satan to do his bidding.
“Pick something.. that’s why you’re here.” Kai seemed disinterested, and Meilei gritted her teeth before wandering into the overpriced shop, eyeing the clothes Ling liked buying and seeing nothing she liked. Meilei was a girly girl who loved floaty clothes and earth momma vibes. This was all modern and bold high fashion and geared toward career women. This seemed like Anna’s style from what she had seen of her these past weeks, but it made her angry again that she was the one picking out gifts for her.
“This.” Meilei pointed to the first thing hanging on the rack, hoping he would let her go home if she got this over and done with.
Kai eyed up the dress and then at her; unimpressed was written on his face.
“Put some effort into it.” He could tell she wasn’t even trying. It only added to his smugness that she hated him for making her do this, and he intended to drag it out.
Kai and the word girlfriend was not a sentence she ever imagined she would say about another woman back then. She thought he would be hers forever, and it dragged her already pissy mood down to the floor. Even being the jerk of the past weeks hadn’t changed the internal pain of never fully letting him go.
Kai watched her walk off and smirked to himself. He had made sure not to correct that fact since she first said it and wandered after her leisurely. He wanted her brewing over the girlfriend thing, hoping it stung. Her chance at a man with money was thwarted, and someone else was reaping the benefits.
That’s what she deserved.
“This.” Meilei turned to him with a basic two-piece cream suit that looked exactly like something Anna had worn the day before, and he raised a brow.
“Why clothes? Most women prefer to buy their own.” It was a snarky remark concerning the outfits he had bought on Meilei’s behalf to wear at work, and he found amusement in her displeasure. That day had been entertaining and fuelled by overhearing floor staff mocking her dress on the first day. Somehow, he preferred seeing her dressed in an opposite style to how she always did. It was easier to separate her from the past if she no longer looked the same.