Chapter 222: Mother-in-law and son-in-law's little chat
Chapter 222: Mother-in-law and son-in-law's little chat
With Jinhai’s every step closing in, Yu Ichika felt a suffocating pressure building in the air. She looked small in front of his towering frame. Even though just a moment ago, she lashed out at Nana, her mouth was now tightly shut, sensing his commanding aura.
She couldn’t show him the same attitude with which she shoved Nana away from her. Even though she was older to him as similar to his mother, her mental strength couldn’t withstand his strong presence.
She ducked away like a frightened rabbit. And why wouldn’t she?
His gaze had a mocking look in it that told her that she was nothing more than an ant to him who he can crush under his feet anytime and anywhere he wants.
Jinhai slowly bent down and put his hands on the bed.
She was getting more and more agitated. She wanted to run away from here, away from this man. She was already trembling and twitching in fear.
She was about to open her mouth and call one of the nurses.
“Quiet.” He said in a dangerously low voice.
She immediately retreated.
He smiled. “Better. And I’m not going to take much of your time anyway. It’s just a five-minute talk between a son-in-law and his mother-in-law, setting some things straight.”
He took a knife that was on the fruit basket and was playfully twirling in his hand.
Her shoulders were slightly quivering.
He took her hand for which she tried to protest and shake off, but he didn’t let her.
He opened her hand and pressed it on the table, and pointed the tip of the knife on top of the gaps in between the fingers. He would hit the tip of the sharp knife in between her index and middle finger and then between the middle and ring finger and so forth in a clockwise direction.
Her eyes widened in horror.
“You remember that I said that I love Nana and will always take care of her, right? It was hardly five minutes back when I was paying my respects to you.”
She said nothing. She was timidly darting her gaze from one finger to another. Her mouth went dry as she kept on feeling that she would surely be hit the next time.
She was scared shitless.
“Nod your head when I ask a question. You are supposed to answer, not keep mum.”
She frantically nodded her head.
He was satisfied. “So, you see mother-in-law, as a husband who loves his wife and who can’t see his wife getting hurt, how you behaved today was unacceptable.”
She gulped.
His cold gaze shrouded in darkness.
“As an irresponsible woman and a mother who abandoned her ten-year-old daughter who was molested by her adoptive father, and at the time when she needed your support the most, you don’t have any right even to utter a word against her.”
Every word was a thorn that stabbed her heart.
“Look at me.” He ordered.
She raised her head in a conditioned reflex.
He was now hitting the knife, looking at her, not at the knife. She became even more terrified.
His attention wasn’t on the knife, and she thought she would definitely get stabbed now that he didn’t look where he was hitting. Sweat trickled from the sides of her head.
“Get one thing straight in that mentally ill brain of yours. Your marriage ended that night when your husband tried to lay his filthy hands on Nana.”
Tears formed at the corner of her eyes.
“Your relationship with the twins also ended that night the moment you slapped Nana.”
She bit her lips hard.
“What did you say? Did Nana seduce her father? Does any ten-year-old girl even know what seducing means?”
He gripped her jaw hard, and she gasped.
“Do you think that only you lost your husband? They didn’t lose their father?”
He increased his pace of hitting the knife. It wasn’t even visible now when the knife moved.
“Your marriage was broken, but you could have still lived a happy life with your children in a warm home instead of in this institution. But you made a wrong choice and destroyed everything with your own hands. And you got the nerve to blame my wife.”
“Even the five-year-old twins at that time knew on which side they must stand. But you didn’t.”
She was sobbing hard. She didn’t know whether it was because of fear or the realization of her guilt.
“But look how kind my Nana is.” He smiled. “You gave her only suffering and misery, but she is still here doing her filial duties, handling your expenses, and taking care of you when she doesn’t need to do this. Any other daughter wouldn’t have even spared a glance at such a cruel mother.”
She was feeling utterly embarrassed.
“But what did she get in return? Your insult that said that she doesn’t deserve to be a mother?”
He tightened his grip on her wrist, and her already frail hand was now hurting as if a boulder has crashed on it.
“If a kind, gentle, and such a lovely woman doesn’t deserve to be a mother, then who does?” He sneered. “You?”
“Nana was the girl who gave you the joy of motherhood, who made your family complete, and maybe because of her presence, God blessed you with your twin sons. But you kicked that very girl out of your lives? Humiliated her in front of everybody?”
“You adopted her, and then you made her an orphan again.”
He remembered her words on that stormy night when she told him about her past. Every word, her every expression was burned into his memory.
“From Nana to Yu Nana, to eventually becoming just Nana once again…”
The truth was a brutal jab to her.
He came back from his daze and said in a deep voice. “Which hand was it that slapped her that night?”
He stopped hitting the knife in between her fingers and turned her hand to face her palm towards him.
She was gasping heavily and she felt as if her breath was stuck at her throat.
He slightly pressed the tip of the knife at the edge where the palm and wrist met.
“You have hurt my Nana too much. She had to live a life without a family because of your stupidity and blind love for your husband. She had to hear insults like home wrecker, b*tch, sl*t, third party, and what, not all her life.”
He pressed the knife a little more, and it punctured her skin, a drop of blood oozing out.
Yu Ichika wanted to scream, but it was as if she had lost her voice. His voice, his gaze, his expression held a madness in them.
It clearly said that she had crossed the line.
He started to slide the knife diagonally upwards, leaving a red trail of blood behind it. It was excruciating as she felt her skin slowly tear apart. Blood was trickling down in a thin stream.
“But, now Nana doesn’t have to suffer. I am with her. Now she doesn’t need the Yu family name. Because now she has the Liu family name behind her.”
His gaze turned affectionate.
“She is Mrs. Liu Nana, and nobody will take that name away from her. Never.”
He now reached the middle of her palm and slowed down his pace until she felt her every cell rupture in agony. Yu Ichika finally pleaded in a low voice, crying and begging him. “Please…let go…i-it’s hurting…”
He tilted his head. “My Nana has suffered much more hurt than this, mentally and emotionally. But, she always remained strong. She didn’t give up on her kindness. And here you are already pleading me? You are really too weak.”
He finally reached the end of her little finger and stopped. A thin line, bloody line looked as if it was a division in the palm, separated into two triangular parts.
He released her wrist, and she quickly took it back, still in disbelief about what just happened.
Jinhai wiped the blood off the knife and kept it back in the fruit basket.
He smiled at her. “So, mother-in-law, now that you have understood my temper, you should also understand that I can make your life heaven or hell at the snap of my finger. You see, Nana’s husband is really very capable.”
She didn’t dare to raise her head.
“But, you wouldn’t want to make it any worse, now do you? I mean, you are already living in a mental institution.”
“Look at me.” He once again ordered in a deep voice that cannot be ignored.
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. She just wanted this to end now.
“Listen to me very carefully. Whenever Nana would come to meet you from next time, I want my mother-in-law to be at her best behavior and talk very politely and respectfully to her. My Nana deserves that after what has and is still doing for you even after bearing your shitty behavior.”
She said nothing.
“Nod your head.”
She frantically did as told.
“Irrespective of whether I’m with her or not, you will never lash out at her, never accuse her ever again and never insult her.”
She nodded her head again.
“And don’t misunderstand me. Don’t force yourself to love her. My Nana doesn’t need your pitiful motherly love. She has my family and me to give her unlimited of it. I’m only saying to be civil to her.”
She lowered her head.
“You wish to get out of this place now, don’t you? I will see to it that you get the best treatment and discharge from here.”
She looked at him in shock.
“I’m only doing this for Nana. It will make Nana happy if you can live a normal life again, free of this place.”
He stood up to leave.
“My Nana is waiting for me. I hope you always remember our little chat. See you later, mother-in-law.”