Chapter 8

That evening, Dominic Thorne, utterly drunk, was brought to my place by his driver.

The moment he entered, he pulled me into his arms, carefully cradling my face.

“Aria Blackwood, is this really you? Is this really you?”

His fingertips brushed over the fading red marks on my face, asking, “Does it hurt? Does it still hurt?”

I shook my head.

“But I hurt so much. Aria Blackwood, it hurts so much right here.”

He pointed to his chest, and his usually cold eyes were actually misted with tears.

Drunk Dominic was like the Dominic from before we broke up.

His soft hair brushed against my cheek, exposing a side of him I rarely saw.

One moment he was hurt, the next angry, then helpless, then ruthless.

At that moment, our hearts felt closer than ever.

In the middle of the night, he sobered up enough.

He roughly pulled me to him, tormenting me as if in revenge.

He hovered over me, relentlessly mocking me.

“Aria Blackwood, look how pathetic you are now? The former Miss Blackwood, you can’t live without money, can you?”

When the storm passed, he got up and went to the bathroom.

As he left, he didn’t forget to say to me, “Aria Blackwood, you’re so dirty now.”

I took a deep breath, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall.

Wasn’t the current Aria Blackwood indeed someone who couldn’t live without money?

When Dominic left in the morning, he told me, “Don’t come to the office today. Come back when the marks on your face are gone.”

I thought he was concerned about me.

But then I heard him say, “The way you look now, it disgusts me.”

I looked at myself in the mirror and felt disgusted too.

For money, I was sleeping with a man who despised me.

Even though I knew he was doing it to humiliate me, I still had to force a smile.

During this time, I had countless thoughts.

If I had told Dominic the truth back then,

what would we be like now?

Then I shook my head again.

Dominic wasn’t obligated to me. Why should he sink into the mud with me? Just because he loved me?