Chapter 79: Do Not Insult My Intelligence
REAGAN POV
For a minute all I could do was stare at the closed door, fighting the urge to go after her and demand her to tell me exactly what’s bothering her. She had asked me if I didn’t care and I had told her I didn’t, I had lashed out at her which made me so angry. I had tried to keep my cool and be as nonchalant as I could but she just infuriated me.
She dared to show up here, trying to play the victim in all of this. Her voice had trembled with emotion as she stared at me and asked that gods damned question.
Care? Of course, I cared. The intensity of how much I cared for her made me feel my chest would collapse because of its heaviness. My care soon became poisonous because of her deceptive behavior and dishonest words along with all the secrets she attempted to hide using fabricated smiles and empty promises.
So when she had asked me, I had lashed out at her which I hated myself for because it was proof that I did care, showing the tiniest bit of emotion to her was just enough proof that I did.
Dahlia might have betrayed me and I might stay in my room and try to tell myself I didn’t care but the truth was that I did. Immediately she entered the dining hall the first thing I had noticed was how thin she had become, she had worn a pink puffy dress to perhaps hide the fact that she had lost weight but it didn’t for once fool me.
Before she brought energy to every space she inhabited, the once vibrant Dahlia that knew has lost her luster and became nothing more than a faint shadow of her former self. Whatever weight she seemed to be carrying seemed heavy which caused her to slouch forward and the normal brightness in her eyes turned to emptiness, one she couldn’t quite mask.
I also noticed the tense atmosphere in the air and the way her attitude towards my mother had now changed. She seemed to now respect her more, gone was the woman who had stood her ground and commanded respect, in its place was now a more subdued version of her, one who welcomed insults and avoided confrontation at all cost.
Even though I had kept my head down and not interfered with whatever it was they were saying, it was still a little bit unsettling to see her more docile, the woman who was quick to defend herself had now reduced to a shadow of who she once was. The woman who normally hit my cutting words with her own cutting responses remained silent as she watched her plate as if fearing to look elsewhere.
I had tried to convince myself that it was none of my business, that I wouldn’t interfere with karma doing its work on her but when I couldn’t take it anymore, I had decided to call her in my study under the guise of wanting to talk to her.
But like the coward I was, when her scent enveloped the air in my study, I had kept my gaze on the window unable to look at her which made things even more difficult for me. So I had gotten angry with her and somehow I had managed to bring back the fiery part of her.