To the Love of My Life

Ruby hadn’t mentioned this morning, and the moment she did, Steve felt a surge of heat creeping up the sides of his ears, causing his entire face to become hot.

He sprang up from his chair like a frightened animal, not even looking at Ruby, and rushed towards the door of the study.

Ruby instinctively stopped Steve.

Steve frowned and tried to go around Ruby.

Without thinking, Ruby reached out and grabbed Steve’s clothes. “You’ve scolded me for so long, isn’t that enough…”

Bringing up the morning again… A deep blush climbed up Steve’s face as he interrupted Ruby: “You deserved it!”

The five words from Steve came out instinctively and harshly, even with a bit of viciousness. His entire body seemed to emit an intimidating aura, which scared Ruby. Her fingers trembled, and she instinctively let go of his clothes, taking a step back.

Steve had already stopped being angry at Ruby after scolding her earlier. However, he was embarrassed to have unintentionally spoken what he truly thought about her. Now that she kept bringing up the morning incident, he couldn’t help but get annoyed.

Seeing her look scared, he realized he hadn’t controlled his emotions well. He opened his mouth to say sorry but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he walked over to her, picked her up, and carried her back to their bedroom. After placing her on the bed and covering her with a blanket, he finally said, “Go to sleep early.”

His tone was much gentler than when he scolded her, but it still carried a hint of coldness.

Unaware of Steve’s embarrassment about his candid comments, Ruby assumed that he was still angry and hadn’t let go of his resentment.

So when Steve turned around to leave, she reached out again and grabbed his hand.

Steve turned his head and looked at Ruby.

Making eye contact with him, her grip on Steve’s hand tightened, her fingertips trembling slightly as if she were nervous.

She bit the corner of her lip, struggled for a long time with her eyes downcast, and finally said hesitantly, “I don’t want to take the painkillers either.”

Steve never expected that Ruby would hold his hand and say something like this. For a moment, he felt as if he’d been struck, frozen in place like his acupoints were hit.

Ruby had never explained herself to Steve. Opening up now, she felt extremely anxious, her heart racing, as if it would burst out of her chest. She took a deep, silent breath, stared at Steve with wide eyes, and continued softly, “But I’m afraid of the pain. Whenever you touch me, I feel pain, and my whole body can’t help but tense up… Then you get unhappy, and the pain gets worse…”

At this point, Ruby bit her lip hard. “That’s why I took the medicine.”