Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ novel Chapter 71

Fight I woke up sitting on the floor by Aren’s bed, my hand stretched to hold his while he slept, my upper body twisted in a weird, uncomfortable position. It took me a while to stand as my stiffened muscles refused to work, punishing me for my awkward way of falling asleep. It was four in the morning when I swayed back to my bedroom to lie down in bed and try to relax. I couldn’t. The image of Aren, desperate and mortified in his sleep, haunted me each time I closed my eyes. What could cause him such pain? Was it something from his past? “Lanfen…” I muttered, staring blankly at the ceiling. It was probably a Chinese name. I wondered if it was his family member, but I had never heard him mention that name before. And what was it that he was calling? “Buyao zou”? I wondered what it could mean. Should I ask him in the morning? Would he answer? For the first time, I wasn’t sure that he’d tell me the truth…

I was scared. I couldn’t explain it, but something fragile had broken between us. I hoped that I was exaggerating, but my instincts were telling me otherwise. He was the only one who could clear the air between us, and he needed to do it willingly without me pushing, but was he going to? I lay with my eyes open for the next two hours. By the time the sound of the alarm clock spread loudly across the room, I just numbly pressed the switch off and got up from the bed, resembling a robot or a robotic zombie. I could have seemed indifferent on the outside, but on the inside, I was trembling with anxiety. I took a quick shower, corrected my face color with some BB cream, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

To my surprise, Aren was already up, greeting me with a smile and acting as if nothing had happened. That wiped all the anxiety from my system in a flash. I was no longer restless-I was seriously pissed.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, hoping that he would mention having a nightmare himself. He smiled briefly before turning his attention to making an omelet. “Um… good, I think” I knew that I told myself that I wasn’t going to push him, but his carefree mood was making me itch a bit too much. “Do you want to talk about what happened last night?” I asked, pretending to be calm.

He turned around, looking at me as if he didn’t know what I was talking about. Then he looked up, trying to remember, and then said, “You came to my bedroom… You said something about a nightmare.”

I gave him a suspicious glance. “You sounded like you were in pain, traumatized over something… or someone called Lanfen.”

I registered a minor change in his expression as I mentioned the name. A heartbeat later, his poker face remained in place, but for a split second, a form of restlessness intruded into his confident expression. “I don’t remember having a nightmare,” he said lightly. “I only remember you waking me up and telling me that I had one.”

I didn’t fail to notice the way he avoided telling me anything about that Lanfen. I also couldn’t help but wonder if he truly didn’t remember anything from his nightmare or if he simply didn’t want to tell me. It started to bother me more and more. What if his yesterday’s burst out in the car and that nightmare were somehow connected? Something in my gut kept telling me that it wasn’t the kind of a problem that was going to disappear or solve itself as time went by.

“Do you really don’t know anything, or do you not trust me enough to tell me?” I knew that it was a low move, but enough bad things were happening around us already, and I had no time to be gentle. He glared at me. “Don’t start, Cora.” His harsh tone surprised me, making me take a step back “I have never promised you full disclosure of my private life. This doesn’t concern you. It isn’t about you. I have a slight problem, and I will deal with it on my own.”

My chest began to hurt as if it was crushed under a pile of stones. “Wow…” I muttered as a bitter smile twisted my lips. “And yet I was stupid enough to believe that I was your private life…” I turned around and left the kitchen.

“Cora!” Aren went after me, grabbing my arm as I stepped on the stairs. “Don’t be this way. I only ask you to stay out of it this time, all right?”