Surely he must have been upset when the child was suddenly gone just like that, right?
His brows were pinched into a deep furrow. “This matter is already in the past!”
“I know. I’m just asking.” I nodded, but I couldn’t help wanting to add to that. More words rolled off my tongue in a mumble, “I’m just wondering if I ever have a miscarriage, will you feel upset?”
“Scarlett!” he raised his voice. My arm was beginning to hurt under his tightened grip. The look on his face was gloomy. “Who did you meet today?”
My head was full on throbbing in pain by now. I rested my skull against his chest, devoid of energy to say anything else. “It doesn’t matter. As you said, It’s all in the past.”
The tension in the atmosphere went up a notch while the temperature felt like it had dropped several degrees. I knew he was angered. But there was no point in talking about this anymore. I closed my eyes as I leaned against him.
Just then, a buzz sounded, followed by a ringtone that came from his phone. I tried to withdraw myself from his embrace at the thought of letting him pick up the call, but before I could, I was pressed tighter against his body as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. With his other arm, he fumbled for his phone and made a quick swipe across the screen.
“What is it?” he answered. He had turned on the speaker.
“Ash, I recently took up the job at my mother’s company in J City. I’ll be coming over tomorrow. Are you free to pick me up at the airport?” Rebecca’s voice echoed from the other end of the call.
I nuzzled my head and burrowed myself into a more comfortable position in his embrace.
“I’ve got something to do at work tomorrow. I’ll send Joe over to pick you up,” Ashton replied flatly.
A brief pause came before her voice sounded through the phone again. There was a hint of disappointment in it this time. “Ash… Can’t we even be friends with each other now?”
Ashton took a deep breath and held it for a second. I could tell he was probably feeling uneasy.
I tilted my head and looked up at him. Seeing that he had no intention of answering the woman’s question, I said towards the phone, “He’s accompanying me on my pregnancy checkup tomorrow. I hope you’ll understand and not put my husband in a tight spot, Ms. Larson.”
The arm around my shoulders exerted a faint squeeze. He let out a helpless sigh and added, “Send your flight details to Joe. He’ll be there to pick you up tomorrow.”
At that, he hung up on Rebecca and rested his chin on my face. My skin burned a little as his stubble scrapped against my cheek, but he wouldn’t let me pull away. “Was that a declaration of ownership over your man?” He gazed down upon my wincing face.
“Can’t I?”
Wriggling myself off as soon as his grip relaxed a little, I got up and walked out of the bedroom.
When I entered the living room, a waft of aroma that came from a bowl of noodles sitting on the dining table entered my nose. Ashton had cooked it and it looked delicious.
As I stared at the home-cooked dish prepared by my husband, he came up from behind and cuddled me. “I read a book saying that a pregnant woman shouldn’t eat something too rich, so I didn’t put a lot of spices in it. Won’t you give it a try?”
I could only gaze at him blankly in response. I felt like I was living a dream… A dream where Rebecca and I had switched places.
Ashton had never been so gentle and caring in the past two years of our marriage.
It felt as if all the care he had for Rebecca was transferred onto me. The whole situation was surreal to me, and for some reason, I was a tad bit displeased about it.
He led me towards the table and sat me down. The noodles tasted great, but my heart was burdened with too many things at the moment. As such, I couldn’t bring myself to eat more after a few slurps.
Upon seeing that I was uninterested in the food he made, he frowned. “It doesn’t suit your taste?”
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