Five Years of Marriage to Mr. Bradford (by Koi Fish) novel Chapter 548

Chapter 548

“Does Anna know about fits? Rebecca mocked him. “You’re weird. Do you have some kind of obsession with your exes?” Vance glanced at her and gave a bitter smile. “She knows. I haven’t hidden anything from her.”

“Of course. You’ve always been shamelessly open about your affairs. Back when you were with Catherine, you didn’t hide anything from me either.” She stood up, ready to go inside.

“Rebecca.”

“What else?”

“Do you still hate me?”

That question struck like a sudden tornado, stirring up 12 years of buried memories. Sweetness, bitterness, joy, and pain all surged together.

If this had been in the past, she would have looked him in the eye and said coldly, “I dori’t.”

She would have told him and herself that they were now strangers. True release meant feeling neither love nor hate, because even hate required energy.

She turned back, her voice as clear and light as the summer wind across the ranch. “I don’t hate you anymore.”

It was true. And it took no effort at all. The past had become as light as drifting clouds.

He nodded. “Good. But you did hate me once, right?”

If he hadn’t proposed, none of what followed would have happened. When she saved him, it might have been because she loved him, but it might also have simply been instinct..

Her voice carried a misty softness. “Actually, I thought about it later. If it had been a child, an old person, or any stranger on the street, I probably would have pushed them out of the way, too. It just happened to be you.”

“So, what you hated wasn’t that you paid such a huge price. It was what I did,” he said.

“Yes.” She was candid. “I could have accepted that you didn’t love me. Six years ago, if you hadn’t proposed, I wouldn’t have hated you, because marriage isn’t repayment. If during our five years of marriage, at any point, you had told me the truth, I wouldn’t have blamed you. At least, we both tried. Marriage isn’t something you force.”

She paused and added, “When Catherine came back, if you had told me your true love had returned and you wanted a divorce, I might have been sad for a while, but I wouldn’t have hated you. After all, marriage isn’t bondage.

“We could have parted peacefully and wished each other well. Isn’t that what people say? People marry for happiness, and they divorce for happiness, too. Both of us had the right to end it.”

She sighed. “Marriage is about living happily together. What I hated was that you trampled on what I cherished. You lied to me, hurt me, and belittled me just so another woman could gloat.”