Magee had never triumphed over Jacob in their long-running rivalry, be it business or private life. Now he had been gifted with an opportunity of a lifetime. For the very first time in his life, he had the chance to best Jacob and he would be a fool to let go of this golden chance.
Magee knew that he was taking advantage of his privilege as Jacob was in an unfavorable position. But he couldn't allow such a great opportunity to slip through his fingers. If he didn't take his revenge now for all the humiliation Jacob had subjected him to, he would regret it for the rest of his life when Jacob would regain his memory.
The commotion in the front yard caught Emily's attention. She rushed out from her room when she sensed that something was wrong. What she saw when she entered shocked her: overturned table, broken teapots, water spilled all over the floor and broken fragments scattered around.
"What the hell happened here? Did you two have a fight?" Emily was desperately scrambling to make sense of it all.
Meanwhile, Jacob and Magee had their eyes locked at each other, desperately demanding a release in the form of a fight. Silence enveloped the room, as neither uttered a word to Emily.
Their eyes fashioned like sharp knives, begging to draw first blood.
Emily walked to Jacob's side and held his hands, hoping to ease his anger. She asked Jacob gently, "What happened? Tell me. I am worried about you."
"It's not a big deal." Jacob stopped short. His eyes were still spitting flames of fury, but his tone softened when he spoke to Emily.
Having realized Emily's disquiet at their dispute, Magee shrugged his shoulders and said to her, "Well, I am afraid Jacob and I will have to call an end to our personal squabble. Don't worry, Emily. It's really nothing. I just rubbed him the wrong way."
"Get out of the house now!" Jacob said to Magee coldly.
Although Emily had no idea of how things ended up this way, she was going to be on Jacob's side no matter what had happened. "Maybe this isn't the right time for you two to continue talking. Why not give each other some time to calm down and talk it out another day?" she said to Magee, trying to mediate the dispute between them.
Magee regretted the fact that he wasn't able to seize the opportunity to settle the score with Jacob, but he knew it well that he was the first to instigate the fight and overdoing it could come back to bite him someday. He nodded in agreement to Emily and said, "Okay. We will talk it out later."
Then Magee turned around and walked out of the room.
Jacob looked at the mess around him and then bent down to clean the broken fragments on the ground silently, falling into his own thoughts. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot up his hand. All the while, he failed to notice that a broken shard of porcelain had left a big cut in his palm from which blood was gushing out profusely.
Looking at the blood dripping down Jacob's hand, Emily turned to him with a frown and persuaded him, "Jacob, that's a big cut. Leave these fragments now. I will help you to clean the cut."
Jacob, however, continued to pick the broken pieces with his bleeding hand as though he hadn't heard what she was saying.
Exasperated by his ignorance, Emily rushed to stop him by holding his wounded hand. "Can't you hear me? I am asking you to stop. If you carry on like this instead of caring for your hand, I will start clean this mess with you and have myself cut as well."
Jacob paused and he finally gave in because he didn't want Emily to get hurt by the broken shards.
Emily had mixed feelings. On one hand, she was worried about his wound, but on the other, she was frustrated by his stubborn attitude and carelessness. "Come here. Let me clean the cut for you," she insisted.
Jacob pursed his lips tightly and didn't respond to her. He picked up a piece of cloth from the floor and roughly wrapped it around his cut and then went on to decoct the medicinal herbs for her.
Emily finally realized Jacob was giving her the silent treatment.
Did Jacob want to start a "cold war" between them?
Puzzled, Emily couldn't figure out why Jacob was acting so immature and that made her even more angrier. For all she knew, she hadn't done anything to deserve such a treatment. Any misunderstanding between them could easily be cleared away just as long as Jacob was open to having an adult discussion.
Sadly, he didn't. Jacob just kept everything bottled inside and refused to speak his mind which made things harder for the both of them.
This was far from how Jacob would handle things in the past. Had this been in the past, he would have laid his cards on the table.
The past Jacob had a strong desire to possess her and he wouldn't allow anyone to take her away from him. Moreover, he would deal with their conflicts in his own way: direct, quick and decisive. But now Jacob was escaping from reality. He was far from the his past self.
Emily was not very enthusiastic about keeping up with this cold war. It was the source of a potential difficulty and discord between them, which far from solving any problems could only makes things worse.
However, Emily didn't realize that Jacob had no intentions of ignoring her. In truth, the real reason behind him behaving like that was that he didn't know how to face her at that moment.
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