OH PLEASE, MY EX-WIFE

"Is John okay? Thank you for taking care of the children. Once I finish this, I'll go back." Alice understates the situation as she doesn't want Rupert and her children to get worried.

But Rupert is cleverer than she thinks he is. He knows what happened at the wedding venue and says anxiously, "John has been worried about you. He can move his fingers, though he can't talk. Your children are looking after him well." Relief sweeps through Alice as she hears that John's hands can move. "I'm fine. I'll go to find him as soon as I get things done here. Please tell John I'm really sorry for the wedding. I..."

"I know you didn't mean it. I believe that John also hopes you can live a happy life." Rupert gets sympathetic as he thinks of the bitterness in John's eyes, together with a fleeting compromise when Alice was brought away.

He has been John's best friends since their childhood. No one knows better about John than he does, so he can't help but to ask Alice, "Do you still want to marry John?"

Alice pauses a beat and answers, "I just want to look after him."

To look after...which is not to marry John.

Rupert seems to understand her and holds back his unspoken words. "Fine. I'll tell him what you tell me."

"Thanks."

The call gets Alice relieved a lot as John and her children are safe. Before hanging up, Rupert says, "Something weird also happened on that day."

""What?" Alice is confused.

"The boss of the Night Group came to the wedding venue and asked about you. His expression got strained as he knew that you were brought away by Edward Smith. Then he left." The Night Group?

Randall Collins?

Why was he at the wedding venue? Alice freezes as she thinks of something before lowering her eyelids. "I've got it. Keep me updated."

---

It has been triple days since Alice last saw Edward.

Finally, she hears his voice from the study at the end of the second floor. It sounds like he's on the phone.

"...I know. I'll handle it. And Hale family..."Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Hale family?

Alice stops in her tracks as she thinks of the wedding day when Edward left his own wedding party and took her away from her wedding. Edward abandoned Joanna Hale on their wedding. Hale family won't let it go easily.

Alice takes a deep breath and pushes the door open, taking in Edward sitting behind the desk with closed eyes, brows tightly furrowed anxiously.

Her heart skips a beat as he's drowning in so deep sorrow that she has no idea whether to leave or not.

Magically, Edward happens to open his eyes and looks at her direction. Their gazes meet, driving Alice to run away as Edward stands up, moving toward her.

He notices a fleeting pity in her eyes and feels stung. "I'm fine."

"Are you fretting over me?"

"No. I just want to know when will you let go of me," Alice cuts Edward out and stares at him calmly, "We're not engaged, and I'm the last one in the world cares about you." Edward's eyes darken after hearing her words. He flashes a self-taunting smile as he looks at her unwavering gaze. "Yep, I'm a nobody to you."

Speechless, she shifts her eyes away

Silence spills between them.

Until there comes his deep and magnetic voice, "Every time I think about you, I just looks at the sea and wonders the feelings of jumping into it. I wonder if you'll shed a tear for me." Alice's fingers are trembling, "You're kidding, right?"

"What do you say?"

The corners of his lips lift upward, but he seems to cry out. The lump in Alice's throat grows so tight that she can barely say anything.

Finally, she shouts out loud, "Never shall I shed a tear if you jump into the sea."

"Never shall I imagine you hate me to this point." He smiles, holding out his hands to move her hair behind her ear.

She takes a step back, leaving his hand hanging in the air. "Now that you know I don't love you, why don't you set me free and marry Joanna?"

"Set you free?" He asks, chuckling under his breath. "Who can set me free if I let you go? I allowed your leaving me five years ago, which got my life a living hell. This time, in no way will I set you free even if you hate my guts." Alice freezes with her frown and takes a deep breath. "You can't lock me in forever without seeing anyone."

"It depends on the day you love me again," Edward frankly says with a smirk.

Alice chokes up and stares at smiling Edward, feeling riled up, "You believed what the photos showed you five years ago, and you chose to stay with Joanna instead of me. Now you want to hurt me again by captivity?" Hearing her words, Edward's face suddenly turns pale, with pain filling his eyes. "If I don't captive you, you'll marry other guys. I just don't know how to keep you with me, Alice..."

---

In the evening, Alice can't swallow any food as she is busy missing her children.

She feels desperate as she thinks of Edward's words. Does she really marry Edward to see her children and John?

No. She can't marry the monster.

Alice curls herself into the soft comforter and flips back and forth, trying to sleep. Suddenly, the door clicks open. Nobody can enter her room except Edward.

She closes her eyes, pretending to sleep soundly.

Step by step, Edward gets close to her, which makes her heart race. Edward stops as he is near her, and Alice feels relieved. However, she can feel his hands caressing her cheeks. From her eye brows, eyes, nose, to lips.

Her tactile sense gets more sensitive as she loses her sight. She can clearly feel his finger lingers between her lips. Scratchy and itchy, she just can't bear it any more.

When she is about to lose control, the touch on her lips disappears. When she gets relaxed, something wet and soft presses on her lips.

He's kissing her!

She hastily comes to herself and opens her eyes as Edward slides his tongue in, fervent and furious, which makes her to push him away. "Stop your acting?"

She bites her lips and figures out that he has found her fake sleeping.

He finishes his words before bending down his body. This time, the target isn't the lips as his kiss trails down from her neck, giving Alice sexual shivers.000