To the Love of My Life

Steve Burton’s face grew even more somber, and his tone bitingly sharp, “Just drink it when I tell you to! Why so much backtalk?!”

In the past, whenever Burton took such a tone with her, she experienced nothing but unpleasantness. Now his words filled her with increasing fear, so much so she couldn’t even make further excuses. With complete terror on her face, she prepared herself to drink the soup.

Burton was the one feeding her the soup. Ruby Gregory tried her hardest to mask her unwillingness, but the thought of Burton watching her take a sip, coupled with his bad mood, made it taste almost repulsive. After only managing two spoonfuls, she couldn’t take any more and started to choke. Her face turning red with embarrassment, she turned away from Burton and started coughing.

“I feed you the soup, and you find it this hard to swallow!” Burton’s voice was icy cold.

Ruby hurriedly shook her head, too scared to even cough any longer.

Burton just sneered, didn’t even bother to look at her, turned away, holding her hand and placed the porcelain bowl on the table. However, he didn’t show any signs of letting go of her hand.

Ruby, who usually couldn’t stand being around Burton, became even more terrified seeing his current gloomy disposition. A cold sweat broke out across her back.

Ruby’s heart was pounding heavily. Unable to repress herself, she finally whispered, “I need to go to the restroom.”

Burton outright ignored her, as he took a cup of alcohol in his other hand and elegantly started to sip it, whilst chatting with guests seated at their table. Ruby feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles, was unsure if Burton had even heard her. She mustered up courage and repeated, after Burton had finished his drink, in a soft voice, “I need to use the restroom.’

With a smile still present on his face as he was talking to a client, Burton paused slightly yet casually. He gestured to the waiter to fill his glass with alcohol and continued to ignore Ruby’s pleading.

Ruby could not muster the courage to speak for the third time. Her hand that was held by Burton stiffened. She swallowed hard and turned to face

Madeleine, whispering, “Madeleine, do you want to use the restroom?”

The conversation between Ruby and Burton held in hushed whispers, had been inaudible to the others.

Madeleine, having only seen Burton holding Ruby’s hand and feeding her soup, did not suspect anything and assumed Ruby wanted her company. She stood and agreed, “ok.”

Accompanied by Madeleine, Ruby felt a bit more courageous and turned to Burton once more to softly utter, “Madeleine and I are going to the restroom.” Burton heard every word of the conversation between Ruby and Madeleine..