They were in a standoff. As Tony didn’t want to continue to waste his time with Heather here, he gently carried the asleep Myra into his arms. Heather quickly took a towel and covered her with it. Judging from her actions, it was obvious that she really cared for Myra, so she probably had her reasons for hiding the truth from them.
Heather seemed natural under Tony’s firm gaze. Since she was able to say aloud in front of Matthias that she shouldn’t be held fully responsible for the incident that happened years ago, there was no need for her to feel guilty toward Myra.
She watched as Tony left with Myra. Their initially wonderful trip at the hot spring resort had been ruined, and the culprit was none other than Matthias. She intended to go and look for him, but the latter beat her to it.
It had been strange for Heather to stay at the pregnant women’s zone to begin with, but Matthias’ appearance made things worse. It was fortunate that there were no other pregnant women present at that time.
“I don’t want to see you,” she stated firmly with a furious tone.
Matthias came with a bottle of red wine and two glasses on the tray. As he poured some wine into the glasses and held the tray in front of her, he remained quiet throughout the process, resembling a puppet.
However, Heather pushed the tray back to him while coldly peering at him, refusing to have a drink with him again. When Matthias disappeared back then, Myra had fallen sick for a very long time. He had hurt Myra deeply despite the fact that it was Heather’s fault.
Heather genuinely felt that Matthias would not be able to give Myra happiness. Instead, he would only wound Myra further, so she was reluctant for him to get in touch with Myra again.
“Anger harms your health.” Matthias approached her, but she immediately avoided him.
The corner of his lips curved upward into a smirk; he even extended his hand in an attempt to touch her but she avoided him.
“Are you jealous of her?” He looked into her eyes playfully. Her eyes had reddened due to anger, which was especially enchanting.
A beauty was stunning even when she was angry. Heather was still as beautiful as she had been when he first met her. Suddenly, he grabbed her arm so quickly that she did not manage to react in time. Repulsed by his touch, she glared at him with a look of disgust.
Matthias’ complexion that was as smooth as a woman’s gave her a slithery sensation. As she did not want anyone to notice her awkwardness, she warned him in a low voice, “Let go of me. Your touch disgusts me.”
“Can’t you look me in the eye?” he growled, disgruntled.
She hated how he was behaving, how he took advantage of his taller and stronger build and lifted her chin with force.
“Look at me. Take a proper look at me. I don’t know what happened earlier, but I certainly read something from Myra’s eyes.” He started to explain to Heather about his previous actions in a commanding tone, but the latter had no intention to listen to him. All she had in her mind now was to figure out a way to escape his grip.
Upon being ignored, he carried on with his explanation. “I could tell from her gaze that she recognizes me. The way she looked at me was as if she remembered our past.”
Heather’s body stiffened at his words and a chill ran down her spine. There would be a day when Myra regained her memories, but it must never happen now when she was pregnant, for fear that she couldn’t accept it.
“Don’t ever let her remember the past, and don’t ever appear before her again,” she warned him cruelly. She seemed to realize something—the more Matthias appeared in front of Myra, the more the latter remembered.
“Don’t tell me what to do. Why should I agree to your requests?” He was considering if he should strike a deal with her as he had really given up on Myra—his unusual behavior earlier was merely due to the reminiscences of the past.
“If you are truly concerned about Myra, don’t ever make her remember the unpleasant past. You know that your disappearance had given her a devastating blow.” Heather spoke the truth. Myra must never recall Matthias at this time; it would definitely trigger her.
“Both of us know who caused my disappearance. You are merely afraid that I will tell her the truth about what exactly happened back then and destroy your relationship with her. A freak like you only has one true friend since young, and that is Myra. You are afraid to lose your pathetic friendship.” His every word agitated her and caused green veins to protrude at her temple as she glared at him in resentment.
Nobody had ever dared to say those words to her. In reality, Heather was a woman with an unpleasant character, a pathetic worm who lacked friends and families. She even seemed to have no luck in romance.
With all the strength in every fiber of her being, she shoved him away and slapped him hard on his right cheek. Soon, his face became red and swollen, and just like that, the two glared at each other in indignance.
“Don’t you insult me.” To a prideful woman like Heather, his words poked her heart like a needle.
“Don’t do things that will make me look down on you, then. From the surface, you seem to be bursting with confidence, but you are, in fact, a pathetic worm with an inferiority complex.” Yet again, he used the term ‘pathetic worm’ to describe her, an insult that hurt her deeply.
“You dared not accept my feelings because you are afraid that the person I love is still Myra and that I have other motives for pursuing you. You thought about it a lot, yet you refused to believe that I love you. It’s your inferior self that made you believe an enemy like me will never fall in love with you. You don’t believe that you have what it takes to make me fall for you.” While Matthias emphasized his point, it sounded as though he was saying that to himself as well. They were both similar in character—if it wasn’t for their inferiority complex, the three of them would probably have been in different circumstances.
“Why can’t you believe that I have fallen in love with you the moment I lay my eyes on you? I have loved you for so many years. Despite so, I have been trying to persuade myself to give up on my feelings for you because I resented you a lot at the same time.” With both hands on her shoulder, he shook her body as he tried to talk some sense into her while ignoring the fact that his currently swollen face looked hideous. All he cared about at the moment was that he couldn’t get his feelings through to her.
“You should make it clear who you truly love deep down before saying all that to me. Ask yourself whether the person who you have set your heart on since the very beginning is me or Myra. Do you swear that you have never been charmed by her or liked her? If you told me that she was the one you loved in the first place but you then fell in love with me, I might find it more believable. However, you told me that the person you have loved since the very beginning is me and that Myra was the second choice because you thought that you were not a good match for me. Let me tell you this—you make a worse match for Myra.” Heather wantonly expressed her indignance. The more Matthias tried to explain, the further he pushed her away from him.
“I don’t know. Maybe I was too young and naïve. Now that I think about it, the person who made my heart race is undoubtedly you. It feels different to love you and to love her. At that time, I just thought that as long as I stayed with her, she could keep making me feel warm in my heart.” He seemed lost; he was searching for an answer as well, but nobody could give him one, and nobody could tell him if being charmed and liking someone were the same.
“I like Myra platonically, just like how you like her. Doesn’t she make you feel warm inside too?” he rebuked. He had taken relationships too lightly. Now that he reflected on his past, he realized that he had made a huge mistake.
“I like Myra, but I know that she will one day find the love of her life, and that person will hold a more important place in her heart than me. These are two different kinds of love—love between best friends and love between a man and a woman. Don’t mix them up.” Heather stood firm on her views, stubbornly thinking that Myra was the person whom Matthias truly loved and that all his confessions were baseless nonsense.
“Your stubbornness leaves me speechless.” He gave up on persuading her as she almost talked him into believing her words instead.
“Please leave now. You are disturbing me.” She pointed in the direction of the door. His action only made her find him more wicked and childish.
Left with no choice, Matthias scoffed and took his leave. It seemed like Heather would not be changing her mind, which instantly dispirited him. He had received kind treatment from the Langstons and gone to the gallery with Heather the other day, so he thought that they had a fresh and pleasant start in their relationship, but it turned out that he had made a fool of himself.
Looking at Matthias from the back, she coldly added, “Matthias, no matter when you started to fall in love with me, your actions make me look down on you. You claimed that Myra was the one you loved before this, but now you totally disregard her well-being. You don’t love anyone at all. What you call love is nothing but possession.” Having been through all that, she had seen through him—he was someone she would never fall in love with, someone who did not deserve her love.
With that, Heather clambered up from the hot spring and wrapped herself in a towel. Her expression was indifferent, devoid of any warmth. If it wasn’t for the fact that Myra was now pregnant, she would have confessed the past to her. If Matthias continued to force her any further, she would have a breakdown.
There were private lounges in the resort. Heather found out where Myra’s lounge was and directly headed over. Her footsteps stopped in front of the door before she knocked on it and said, “It’s me, Heather.”
Tony soon answered the door, and then she went in. The room was heated to an optimal temperature. As Myra was sound asleep, Heather and Tony sat on the couch and looked at each other quietly.
The two of them silently waited for Myra to wake up; Tony pursed his lips with a solemn look on his face, and Heather’s expression wasn’t any better than him. Her cold expression seemed to make the temperature in the room drop by a few degrees.
With similar freezing air around them, they resembled two icebergs. Then, Heather averted her gaze and looked at some other place, while Tony did the same as well.
The atmosphere became awkward, with an invisible gap between them. He did not understand why she wouldn’t tell the truth, but she really couldn’t tell him. Therefore, at that moment, there was only silence between them.
The clock ticked away. Sometimes, one minute seemed like an instant; at other times, one minute seemed like an eternity. Currently, Heather and Tony couldn’t wait for the time to pass by. When Myra finally woke up, they inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.
