Alex looked at her. “I wanted to talk to you every time I came here, but you always pushed my buttons every single time. Why do you have to push me like this, Mom? She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved-the only one! Don’t worry, I’m already ashamed to go looking for her again. I wouldn’t dare to marry her with someone vicious like you as her mother-in-law,” he said in a cold voice before trying to break free of Stefanie’s grasp. “Let go of me.”
Furious, Stefanie tugged at his arm again with all her might. She questioned, “Me? Vicious?” Not wanting to keep on arguing with her, Alex stretched out his hand to push hers away, only to notice that a corner of the ‘scar’ on her wrist had curled up. Getting suspicious, he reached out in an attempt to take a closer look…
Stefanie noticed that, too. Her heart pounding wildly, she instantly retracted her hand and hid it behind her back. “Fine, just get out of here if you want. I’m a vicious mother-in-law, anyway. Don’t come back here anymore unless you have to!” she said resolutely while turning back.
Alex got even more suspicious, though. He hadn’t had a good look at it just now, but now that he thought about this, he realized that something was fishy. How could the scar possibly curl up? Also, why had she never let him see her wound for such a long time? He strode up to her and grabbed her wounded wrist right away.
Struggling desperately, Stefanie deliberately yelled, “What are you doing? Ouch! It hurts!” Alex turned a deaf ear to her, though. The moment he clutched her wrist and saw the fake scar on it, he flew into a rage. After removing the curled fake scar at once, he looked at her, asking, “Is this how you tried to kill yourself by slitting your wrist?”
Stefanie’s guilt was overwhelming her. Who would’ve known that the fake scar would get touched while they were struggling just now? She anxiously explained, “I just want to keep you from going out with her.”
Alex burst into a guffaw, not knowing whether to laugh at his own foolishness or to laugh because he was too grief-stricken to know what to do. He looked at Stefanie with his eyes full of disappointment. “So, you never cared about how regretful I was, how much I blamed myself, and how much it pained me when I saw you lying on your sickbed? Did you know I wished I could kill myself when I saw the bathtub full of blood when I came back to get your clothes? Who would’ve thought… you’d be such a great actor?”
Stefanie replied, “But you did break my heart by saying those words! Isn’t it a good thing that I’m fine? Would you rather that I slitted my wrist for real?”
Alex looked at Stefanie. In an instant, tears sprang to his eyes as he felt particularly hurt. “You’re still quibbling even now! How could you justify yourself like that? Did I ever say I wanted you to slit your wrist? Could you lie to me just because you’re heartbroken? Do you know how many orders my company has lost because I have to take care of you? Do you know what my life has been like over the past few days? Do you know how distressed I was and how much I blamed myself? How could you waste my feelings for you like this?”
Stefanie was terrified at this point. She walked a few steps toward him while trying to appease him, saying, “I’m sorry, Alex. I just didn’t know what to do, so I came up with such a trick to scare you-
Alex wiped the tears from his eyes. “You’re my mother, so I won’t abandon you no matter what, but don’t even think about poking your nose into my business anymore. I’m already 30, not three years old. You don’t have to worry about how I do things. Just live out the rest of your life in peace by watching TV and playing cards every day!” he said before immediately turning around to leave.
Panicked, Stefanie shouted at him from behind, “You can’t go out with Jewel!* There wasn’t a pause in Alex’s footsteps. “The matter between her and me is none of your business!”
Stefanie trotted a few steps after him. Then, she said, “If you really go out with her, I’ll kill myself for real!”
“Quit trying to scare me with the same trick again!” “No, I mean it! Jewel is that woman’s daughter… Stefanie said while crouching down in anguish as tears gushed from her eyes. “How could you let me watch you marry her daughter?!”
