04
Seeing me remain silent, Cody assumed I was pleased. In his mind, someone like me, who wore a 9.9 dollars engagement ring for three years, should be content with a jade bracelet worth ten thousand.
Cody poured a glass of white liquor and handed it to me, “Drink this and it’ll count as your apology to Brittany. We’ll consider your rude behavior at her birthday party resolved.” So, this was what he meant by letting it go?
The last shred of hope I had for him completely crumbled. I raised my hand and knocked the glass out of his hand, looking at him coldly, “Apologize to Brittany? Don’t even think about it. Cody, we’re done.”
His friends, eager to fan the flames, chimed in, “Cody, you can’t spoil her. Give her an inch and she’ll forget who
she is.”
“Exactly! She used to follow you around like a lapdog. Today, you’re throwing her a birthday party and giving her gifts and she dares to threaten you with a breakup?”
“Cody, if you don’t put her in her place today, she’ll walk all over you in the future.”
Provoked by their words, Cody grabbed a bottle of white liquor from the table and strode toward me.
An uneasy feeling crept into my heart and I instinctively stepped back, “Cody, what are you doing?”
He reached me in a few steps, gripping my chin tightly. His voice was vicious, “Elise, you’re drinking this whether you like it or not!”
“No, I…” The fiery liquor was forced into my mouth. I struggled desperately, but I couldn’t fight his strength.
The liquor I couldn’t swallow dripped down my chin and soaked into my clothes. Only when the entire bottle was emptied did he release me. I collapsed to the ground, disheveled and humiliated.
Cody glanced at me indifferently and said, “Elise, stop pretending. I know one bottle of liquor is nothing to you.”
I looked at him with hatred. A sharp pain radiated from my lower abdomen, so intense I couldn’t form a coherent
sentence.
Suddenly, someone nearby screamed, “Blood! She’s bleeding!”
Warm blood seeped from beneath me and I could feel the life inside me slipping away.
Cody finally realized I wasn’t faking. In panic, he picked me up and asked, “Elise, what’s wrong? Why are you bleeding so much all of a sudden?”
Using the last of my strength, I said, “Cody … you … killed … your own … child …”
C05
I was rushed to the hospital, where they performed an emergency D&C procedure. This child had caught me off guard when it came and left me powerless to save it.
I had met Cody during our second year of university. A classmate’s diamond necklace went missing and everyone accused me of stealing it.
As an orphan and a poor student, they believed I had both the need and the motive to steal. No matter how much
I explained, no one believed me.
They even started cyberbullying me, spreading rumors and judging me behind my back. With poverty weighing on me and a tarnished reputation, I climbed to the rooftop, ready to end my miserable life. It was Cody who saved
- me.
He said that if I died then, people would only see it as an admission of guilt and I’d carry the stain of being a thief
even in death. If I hadn’t done it, I should find the truth and clear my name.
With his encouragement and help, I eventually uncovered the real thief and restored my reputation.
Since then, Cody had been the light of my life and I willingly chased after him.
But now I understood that someone else’s light could never truly illuminate me. Because when they withdrew
their light, I would be left in a darkness even deeper than before.
