Rachel felt unhappy as she stood outside the private room. She could hear her husband talk to Lydia inside. Although they rarely spoke to each other, today they were chatting with each other affectionately like old friends. Feeling hurt, she stood motionless for a long time. She then turned around and walked towards Carl who was waiting for her.
"Rachel, stop. Don't drink so much. You are almost fully drunk now."
Carl helplessly watched Rachel rapidly downing one glass of red wine after the other. Concern furrowed his brows. 'This is very unusual for Rachel. She seldom drinks alcohol. She's not herself today. What's the matter with her, I wonder?' he thought to himself.
Rachel swayed as she let out a loud burp. She drunkenly hiccupped as she gulped the rest of the wine in her glass. Then she said,"I'm okay. Let's leave now!"
"Rachel, watch out! Watch your step. Here, hold my arm." Carl walked her carefully to the car and then drove her to her house.
In the private room at the restaurant
Lydia took a sip of the wine she was holding. Before meeting Hiram, she had assumed he would blame her for submitting evidence to the police. This had caused Rachel's mother to be imprisoned. However, Hiram didn't blame her. Instead, he just chatted with her casually and generally. He didn't once mention the murder case.
Lydia and Hiram kept on drinking steadily. Enjoying his company, Lydia drank much more alcohol than she usually did.
Gradually she became a little drunk. Propping her head on her hand, she gazed at Hiram with her big, beautiful eyes. Drunk, she said,"Hiram, we haven't spent time alone like this in a long time, right? I remember... I remember the last time we both had a meal together was when I was a freshman in college.
I miss that life. A life when we lived carefree and I could always be with you and spend time with you. But time flies so fast that there is no time to enjoy the happy moments. I now have only memories of the past happy times."
Glancing at a drunk Lydia with hooded eyes, Hiram picked up her glass and refilled it. "Don't be so melancholy. No matter what has happened in the past, we are still family. We have all the future years before us. We can have more meals together from now on," he said.
"Really?" Lydia raised her glass of red wine. She looked at Hiram's blurred face through the glass. Then she raised her head and downed half the wine in the glass in one large gulp.
Soon, Lydia was totally drunk. She put her head down on the table and was soon unconscious.
However, Hiram was fully sober.
He slowly placed his glass on the table and snapped his fingers. Chad walked in at this agreed signal.
Hiram stood up. He put on his coat. Glancing coldly at Lydia, who was still unconscious with her head resting on the table, he said,"Feed her the drug and question her carefully about the case. I want to know the smallest detail. Then have someone drop her at her house."
"Yes, Hiram. You don't worry. I'll do whatever is needed to extract the information," responded Chad, confidently nodding his head.
—
In Tulip Palace
It was dark in the night. The moonlight was barely enough to throw some brightness into the deep blackness.
The light in the bedroom was also dim. A woman curled like a cat, sat on the carpet. She leaned lazily against the bed. She held a half bottle of wine in her unsteady hand. The bottle had been full sometime back. She was fully drunk. With partially open eyes, she squinted at the crescent moon outside her window.
She was barefoot and her skin was soft as silk and glowing. After some time, she lay down flat on the carpet. A random tune, probably her own, fell from her lips.
Suddenly, she burped loudly and turned to squint in the direction of the door.
Someone came in. In the darkness she could barely make out
that it was a man.
The man was built like Hiram and looked like him.
When he saw the drunk woman lying on the carpet, Hiram frowned. There was a strong smell of alcohol in the room. It told him that she was fully drunk on too much wine.
"You… Who are you?" Rachel burped and asked. She still held the bottle in her unsteady hand and drank directly from it. Drunkenly she looked at the tall, handsome man who had just walked in.
Hiram raised his eyebrows but made no answer. He took off his coat and shirt. Then he put on a comfortable linen shirt and exchanged his leather shoes for his slippers. Calmly he proceeded toward the bathroom.
Rachel laughed drunkenly at his reaction. "Better hear me loud and clear, Hiram. I'm going to divorce you! I'll no longer live with you, you bastard! Since I married you, I have only known misery and unhappiness. Huh? I have had enough." Rachel scolded Hiram in a slurred voice. Then she grabbed his collar and continued,"Now with my mother imprisoned …. I am clearly telling you that I'll no longer live with you. If you want to marry another woman, then you are free to marry her!"
She raised her chin and stared into his eyes. Hopeless, she continued,"But my children, Jonny and Joyce, will stay with me. If you want to have kids, then your other women can give birth to them! I'll take my mom and my children to a place far away from you!
Fuck you, you bastard, you cheat! I won't live with you any longer! Goddamn you. I hate you!"
Rachel spat out the last sentence with venom and anger. But as soon as she was done, she burst out crying.
The cool evening breeze blew in from the open window, making the curtains sway gently.
Hiram frowned as he looked at his drunk wife. The bottle in her hand fell from her nerveless fingers and the red wine spilt on the carpet. The entire room was filled with the fumes of alcohol.
"Fine! If you don't want to live with me, I'll live with you,"
said Hiram as he stepped forward. He looked at Rachel who was staring at him unblinkingly.
"I know that since you married me, you haven't lived a peaceful life. Unfortunately, you can't leave me as you are my wife. You have no choice because I will hold you to it my whole life. So no matter what happens, I'll never let you go...
never ever!"
Rachel gazed at him. Although her senses were still dulled with wine, she could feel his determination. Hiram easily lifted her and carried her up to their room.
There he deposited her on the bed. As soon as Rachel touched the bed, she felt drowsy. She just couldn't prevent her eyes from shutting.
"I heard that you went to the castle today. So what do you think of it?"
Hiram asked as he caressed her cheek with gentle fingers. Chason's phone call had come to him today.
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