Chapter 4
1365 Words
“Dad, you dare to slap me just to defend that blind woman?" Dante Romano stared at his father in disbelief.
“Watch your mouth, Dante! The woman you think is useless is your wife. She is blind because of your own actions!" Gerald answered, putting heavy emphasis on his last words.
Dante’s eyes narrowed. What did his father mean by that? Was his suspicion correct that the woman he hit back then was Valerie? But that was impossible, because his assistant said the woman had died. Meanwhile, Celine could only close her eyes in resignation.
Valerie herself was shocked to hear her father-in-law say that Dante was the cause of her blindness. Did she want to be angry? Who was she to even dare to be angry? Valerie only bowed her head. A weak woman like her wouldn't be able to do anything.
Dante laughed softly. “What kind of drama is this, Old Man? Are you trying to fool me? That woman is dead, there's no way she is alive again."
“Enough, Dante! Do you think Mommy made this arranged marriage for no reason? Mom intentionally went to Ares and asked for his daughter named May. But as Mom expected, Ares refused and replaced her with Valerie. Mommy was very happy and immediately agreed. Mom also considered his debt to our company paid off. But who would have thought that greedy Ares would actually ask Mom to buy Valerie," Celine explained.
Celine's breathing was heavy. She had to tell Dante everything so that her son would realize his mistake.
“Mommy immediately agreed to the price Ares gave. Mom wanted to make up for your irresponsible mistake. After hitting her, you just left her like that! Luckily Zian arrived just in time and took her to the hospital," Celine continued, telling the whole story.
Dante fell silent. He glanced at his wife, who was bowing her head with her shoulders trembling. Dante was sure Valerie was crying right now.
“Never mind, there's no need to explain. Your favorite son won't understand or feel guilty anyway. Besides, he said earlier that he doesn't like women, right? Fine then, just marry him off to a man, get it over with! We will take Valerie home, who knows, maybe Noah..."
“Don't you dare try to take back the item you've already given me, Old Man!" Dante interrupted. He didn't want what was already in his hands to become Noah's.
Gerald raised an eyebrow. “An item? She is a human being, Mr. Dante Romano, not an item! Besides, you don't like women, right? And how unfortunate is Valerie's fate to have to live in the middle of a forest like this. Your Mommy and I can still afford to provide a proper place and nutritious food," Gerald replied, intentionally provoking his son's anger.
“Whatever, I don't care! Just don't take away what's already in my house. Starting tonight, she will live in the main house and sleep in my room. Are you satisfied, Mr. Gerald and Mrs. Celine?" Dante snapped in annoyance. No matter how cruel he was, he would still lose completely when facing his parents.
Gerald glanced at his wife. “Hmm, we will see how you treat Valerie. If you dare to hurt her again, Noah will take over your role as a husband."
Dante rolled his eyes in annoyance. His mother was always threatening him with that. Celine knew very well that Dante hated it most when his brother took what belonged to him.
**
That night, Dante really brought Valerie to the main house and slept in the same room with her. However, Dante had been grumbling in annoyance because Valerie kept tripping over.
“M-Master..."
“I am not your Master, Valerie. Like that old man said, call me by my name properly, don't make me even more annoyed!" Dante interrupted while glaring sharply at Valerie. But a second later he shook his head in amusement; it was useless to glare, since Valerie couldn't see it anyway.
“Sorry... where do I sleep?" Valerie asked, her voice trembling as she held back her fear. She had been listening to the cruel man's grumbling the whole time. Her legs were also sore since entering Dante's room, while the man didn't show her where she was supposed to sleep at all.
“The roof," Dante answered thoughtlessly.
“Huh?" Did Valerie hear that right? Or was there something wrong with her hearing?
“You're not deaf, are you, Val?" Dante stared at Valerie, who remained still, seemingly busy processing her husband's words.
“How do I get up to the roof?" Valerie murmured softly, but Dante could still hear it.
Dante rubbed his face roughly. This was the reason why he didn't like women and tended to hate them; because in his opinion, women were truly troublesome.
“Damn it. You sleep on the floor or on the sofa! Just don't sleep in the same bed with me," Dante said crossly.
Valerie nodded slowly. “If it's on the floor, where is the mat, Dante? And if it's on the sofa... could you show me which side it is?"
My god, why was Valerie so talkative? “There is no mat, and find the sofa yourself! If you ask one more time, I will throw you out!" he threatened. Without paying any more attention to Valerie, Dante immediately lay down his exhausted body.
Valerie, who was scared by her husband's threat, didn't dare to ask anymore. She was about to grope around the floor surface, but bad luck seemed to be on her side. Suddenly, her hand groped part of the bed and...
Grep.
Both Dante and Valerie froze instantly. Dante's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets, while Valerie froze because she felt like she was holding something strange.
Her hand kept moving to grope until Dante snapped at her harshly, “Get your hand off me, Valerie!"
The beautiful woman quickly raised both of her hands. “Dante, be careful... it seems like there is a bug on your bed?" she said in fear.
Dante clenched his jaw. What Valerie meant turned out to be his 'little brother'. “Damn it! What do you mean by a bug?!"
“I felt like I was holding something strange. The longer it went... the bigger it got like this," Valerie replied while showing her pinky finger.
Dante's eyes widened. He looked down at his pants, then looked back at Valerie's pinky finger. An insult that instantly shattered his pride!
“Damn it!" he cursed in annoyance, then immediately got up and stepped off the bed. Dante glared at Valerie in frustration, then walked out of the room and slammed the door quite hard, making Valerie startle in surprise.
Dante walked toward his study. He called Daniel, his friend since their days at the training camp who now worked as his personal assistant.
“What's wrong? Is there any work I need to do?" Daniel asked.
Dante glanced briefly. “Hmm. Investigate Valerie's background again. Is she really the woman we hit that night?" he said.
Daniel frowned. He had seen with his own eyes that the woman they accidentally hit that night died on the spot. “I saw it myself, that woman died on the spot. So it's impossible for her to be alive again," Daniel replied.
Dante shook his head. “You only saw it, but you didn't confirm it directly because we left immediately that night. Uncle Zian saved her and took her to the hospital, my Mommy told me herself," Dante said. Even though his Mommy wouldn't lie to him, Dante still needed to confirm the truth for himself.
“Alright, I will investigate it again. Valerie Zionathan..." Daniel murmured softly. His fingers immediately moved nimbly, typing away on his laptop keyboard.
To be continued...
- Writer
