CHAPTER 141: CHAPTER 141

At that moment, the large doors creaked open, and Samuel finally stepped into the lavish living room, his shoes clicking against the marble floor with each proud stride he took. The cold air from the central cooling system hummed low, but nothing could match the tension that immediately swallowed the room the moment his presence filled it. His eyes, sharp and blazing with disdain, scanned the room until they locked on the woman sitting quietly by the window, Rebecca.

She was seated in the same wheelchair he had custom-ordered from Italy when she first lost her ability to walk. A wheelchair that cost him a fortune then. One that once symbolized his affection and care. Now, it only fueled his growing contempt.

At that moment a slow smirk crawled onto Samuel’s face, not the kind that came from amusement, but the kind that oozed arrogance and cruelty.

"Well, well, well," he drawled sarcastically, dragging each word like it was laced with venom. "Rebecca... look at you. Still sitting in that wheelchair I bought for you. How shameless can one woman be?"

Then he began walking toward her, deliberately slow, arms crossed behind his back like he was inspecting something filthy on the floor.

"You still use my money. My things. My roof. My wheelchair. But you have the nerve, the absolute nerve to open your mouth and ruin my name outside?" Then his tone shifted from mocking to sharp anger. "You ungrateful human being. You sit there acting innocent, but you’re the reason I’m being dragged in the media like a criminal."

However Rebecca didn’t respond. Her hands remained folded on her lap, her eyes calm but piercing, following every movement Samuel made. Her silence, oddly enough, spoke volumes, it irritated him more than any words ever could.

Immediately Samuel scoffed and turned halfway, unable to handle the fact that she wouldn’t speak. "I should’ve known. I should’ve known from the moment you started seeking sympathy everyday, that this was where you were headed. Just because I told you to exercise patience just because I didn’t give you the attention you wanted at every damn minute you decided to go out there and make a mockery of me."

He turned back around, pointing a finger directly at her.

"You think I’m stupid, right? You think I don’t know this is all a performance? What’s next, Rebecca? Are you going to tell the press that I pushed you down the stairs too?"

Still, she said nothing, he chuckled bitterly. "I regret ever knowing you. I regret every second, every coin, every moment I spent trying to build something with you. And now look, just because I refused to play your emotional little games, just because I asked you to wait a little longer... you stabbed me in the back."

Then he moved even closer now, lowering his face toward her as if trying to provoke her further. "Just because your zombie friend started giving you the attention you crave, you saw it as an opportunity to turn the world against me. You think I don’t see it?"

Rebecca’s eyes didn’t blink. She didn’t flinch. She just stared silent, calm, and unreadable.

Samuel straightened up again, clearly agitated that he couldn’t rattle her. Then his voice rose slightly.

"You destroyed everything. You destroyed me."

Still Rebecca’s silence was louder than anything she could’ve said. Her eyes sharp, steady, and filled with quiet resolve, never once wavered, not even as Samuel paced around her like a wolf circling its prey. She looked at him, not with fear, not with anger, but with something far more unsettling to him disappointment.

Samuel could feel it. That weight of judgment without words. That piercing stare that stripped away every layer of pride he had built around himself. And it infuriated him. She wasn’t shouting. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t even fighting back. That stillness... that composure... it was unbearable.

Seeing that Rebecca didn’t so much as blink, still seated quietly in the wheelchair he once prided himself for buying her, Samuel clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. Her silence wasn’t weakness, it was strength. And that strength threatened everything he thought he had power over.

He forced a bitter smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes, and took a slow step closer. Then another. Then another.

"You know what, Rebecca?" he began, his voice suddenly calm too calm, like a storm was hiding behind it. "I don’t understand how we got here. I really don’t."

He turned his gaze to the floor as if trying to summon some trace of vulnerability.

"You know I never wanted things to turn out like this. I told you why I had to do what I did. Why I had to keep you at a distance. It wasn’t because I stopped caring. It wasn’t because I didn’t love you."

He crouched slightly now, just to meet her eye-level, tilting his head with false tenderness.

"I needed to protect our future. That’s all. That’s all this ever was. I sacrificed things us because I was thinking of something bigger. Something long-term. And what did you do?" He chuckled dryly and shook his head. "You turned your back on me the moment I needed you to understand."

Still, Rebecca didn’t respond.

"So what changed, Rebecca?" Samuel’s voice dropped lower, a little rougher now. "What made you decide I wasn’t worth waiting for anymore? You knew the pressure I was under. You knew the deals I had to make. You knew the lies I had to tell to keep everything intact. And you knew... every secret I ever kept was to protect us."

When she remained motionless, her hands calmly folded on her lap, he stood slowly, then walked around to her side, his movements calculated, controlled. And then, carefully, he reached out to take her hand.

But just as his fingers were about to brush hers, Rebecca gently pulled her hand back and placed it in her lap again, never breaking eye contact.

The rejection was so subtle, so quiet, but it shattered something in Samuel.

His nostrils flared slightly. His brows twitched. His smile vanished for a second, but he quickly recovered. His eyes blinked away the flicker of rage that threatened to break loose. He couldn’t explode. Not now. Not yet.

Instead, with his voice suddenly soft again, he said, "I know you’re angry, Rebecca. I know you feel like I’ve hurt you. And maybe... maybe I did. But please... just listen to me."