SOME THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE

CHAPTER 53

“Please... don’t go.” She reached out with the other hand and held onto his pants firmly with both hands. Could he give her one more chance and not marry another?

Could he stop hurting her? She really has nothing to lose.

Big droplets of tears started falling from her eyes as she looked up. They were filled with agony. The rows of tears finally formed a line as they flowed from her already red and swollen eyes.

“I repeat. Let go.” Diego spat the words as he clenched his teeth.

Julianna was still shaking her head.

A sudden look of cruelty flashed in Diego ’s eyes. He stomped down hard with his other leg.

“Ahh...” Julianna looked at her fingers in pain. His big foot had not only stomped on her fingers, but it had also broken her heart.

“Ah Diego, please don’t go.” Julianna raised her head and looked up with a gentle smile filled with sadness and pain. She could still smile. She had used every last ounce of her energy to make that smile appear.

Diego’s expression turned more ruthless. “Who do you think you are? You think I will listen to you?” He exerted more force on his foot as he asked. He seemed intent on breaking her fingers. The pain caused beads of sweat to break out on Julianna ’s forehead, and her face turned white like paper.

Diego lifted his leg and kicked Julianna hard below her shoulders. “Don’t touch me, you filthy woman. It disgusts me.”

Julianna curled herself into a fetal position; every part of her body screamed with pain. She looked up as she heard the sound of the door slammed.

Did you hear it?

What was that sound?

Something was broken. Was it her?

She reached out with her bruised and swollen hands, wanting to grab at something. However, her fingers could not tighten.

Besides the air, she didn’t know what else she could catch.

He said she was filthy; she disgusted him.

What could she do? She felt tainted, looking at herself in dirty clothes. She held her head in agony as she tried to suppress the cry that were coming out from her mouth.

Pain. It was so painful. Could anyone tell her why it hurt like this? What must she do to stop the pain, to not lose what they had?

Was there any way to go back to what they had before?

No one knew that a woman was crying her heart out in the room where the wedding portrait remained hanging on the wall. The man’s smile was gentle, and so was the woman.

Here she was, crying. She kept crying.

...

Ruby sat anxiously in a chair by the window. She seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive as she glanced at the entrance from time to time, fidgeting and clutching at the purse in her hands, until she saw a slender silhouette appeared.

She had come.

Ruby sat up straight which may be because of her status as she was always conscious of herself. After all, she was the one to break up a family even if he had told her there was no love between them, only hatred.

She found herself to be in a predicament; one that was not overboard and straightforward.

“Miss Ruby?” A soft and plain voice asked; it made one feel helpless. Julianna sat at the side as she reached out with her left hand and caressed the hair at her forehead. She had intentionally cut her hair into bangs to hide the wound on her forehead, to make it more ‘less obvious’.

As she placed her right hand on her lap, she could feel a pang of pain in her heart as it moved.

“Yes. I am Ruby.” It felt as if the mistress was answering to the legally-wedded wife, which was exactly what they were.

Ruby eyed Julianna cautiously as she arranged her bangs. She could vaguely see the white bandage which was the result of being injured by Diego in his office previously.

The woman was definitely a mess before her. Her dark eyes were dull without life, and her face, colorless. Even if she had intentionally put on light make-up, it did not hide the look of sickness.

Despite everything, she realized this woman was still beautiful, especially the pathetic quality about her which was unpretentious. It had been forced from within her.

She was obviously in a pitiful and fragile state, but she remained stubborn and dignified as she sat, willing to forge her way through—without a care for the pain that she was bearing. Ruby finally understood the saying of ‘a flying moth that darts into the fire’.

Its destruction was indeed beautiful in that instant. It was so amazing that one would never forget its beauty.

As Ruby looked at Julianna , it put her in shame. She was a highly educated individual with good family background. She had been pampered since young, but now, she had become a home wrecker. It was really a test of her morals.

“I’m sorry.” Ruby lowered her head, unsure of how she should face all this. As for Julianna , she was still Diego’s wife. Regardless of whether he had any feelings for her, she was his legally wedded wife. By law, she was still his wife.

“Sorry? What can you do with being sorry?” Julianna smiled mournfully. That caused Ruby to have mixed feelings. It became so unbearable that she wished she was somewhere else.

“Miss, what Diego and I had was not what you thought it was.” As she said it, she had no idea what she should say next... because she did not know how to explain it. She and Diego might be in love, but out of respect for her, he had not been intimate with her physically. As lovers, they might have already had s*x.

To try and explain that they haven’t was the same as slapping herself.

Julianna shook her head gently. In fact, she needed not to say or do anything. Diego had said everything very clearly.

“Miss Ruby, can... you leave him?” Julianna asked her softly. That kind of grace and prestigious family background was something that she could not be compared with.

Ruby turned pale abruptly. “I-I...” She groaned for a long time. Although she knew that Julianna had sought her out to ask this question, she had no idea Julianna would be this straightforward. She had not thought that this would be an incisive question.

“Miss Ruby, you have everything: a good family, looks, and education. Your future is limitless. Without Diego , you are still you. But me? I am nothing without him.” Julianna gripped at her now-misshapen hand. She sounded harsh. “He is the only one I have. Tell me how I should survive if I were to leave him.”

She looked away, and the exterior light fell on her face. She looked up, dismayed. “You have no idea as to what extent is a woman’s love for her man.” Decades. She had waited for him and loved him for decades. “My love for him has not changed even when he loves another woman. I still loved him when I knew that he married me with a motive. I love him with all I have, to the extent of losing myself and losing everything. Yes, I love him. Because of him, I slept on another man’s bed and allow him to abuse me.

“Miss Ruby, do you think this kind of woman is pathetic?” She looked at her as rows of crystal-like tears finally fell from her eyes and hit Ruby hard.