'What is wrong with her?' Vernon wondered. 'I'm already in here, far from her sight, and she still eats like she's in so much pain?'
He thought it didn't make sense for her to keep acting like a weak woman when nobody was watching her right now.
Amidst his idle gaze towards her, Chloe suddenly felt sick after consuming both the ginger and pumpkin soup. She could feel the thing she just consumed go up again. She knew that she was going to puke, wasting everything that had been offered to her.
"Urk!" Chloe covered her mouth instantly, thinking she could just gulp the vomit back to her stomach, but it got worse, and she retched for the second time.
Chloe panicked and quickly got up from the chair. She accidentally tripped as she made her way to the bathroom. She fell, and the chair also fell beside her, making a loud noise in the huge penthouse.
Vernon instinctively got up from the sofa, wanting to rush to her side, but Chloe didn't need his help. Because she quickly recovered and scrambled to the bathroom before slamming the bathroom door.
Vernon watched the process in a daze, 'She… vomited everything even if nobody is by her side? I thought she was just disgusted or scared of me….'
While Vernon was standing dazedly, staring at the dining table, Mackie suddenly laughed as she watched a new episode of Spongebob, "Ahahaha! Patrick doesn't know anything! He is so stupid!"
Vernon snapped out of his daze and stared at his little niece, who didn't seem to pay her mother no mind. Obviously, Mackie must've heard the sound of the chair hitting the floor, but she didn't seem to react.
'Either she is too absorbed with the show, or she intentionally ignores it,' Vernon assumed. He sat back on the sofa and asked Mackie;
"Don't you heard the chair that fell just now? Your Mommy tripped and went to the bathroom to vomit," Vernon asked.
"I know," Mackie replied, still with her eyes glued to the screen. She didn't seem to take this at heart.
"Then why don't you help her? You were so adamant about helping her when she was in my room," Vernon continued asking. He wasn't sure if the little girl understood him, but surprisingly, Mackie replied with a disturbing yet mature answer.
"I know, Uncle. Mommy has always been like that since Mackie was little! Mommy would always vomit and be stuck in the bathroom for hours! Sometimes Mackie heard her crying, but whenever I asked, she said it is okay!" Mackie replied, still with a smile on her face.
"Mackie is always sad that Mommy would run away and puke, but whenever I'm worried about Mommy, she'd told me not to worry. She'd also praise me if I ignored what happened to her! That's why I want to be praised by my Mommy!" Mackie said.
Vernon was astonished by what he had just heard. It was so twisted that even he couldn't believe what Mackie said just now.
Based on what his little niece said, Chloe had been in this cycle for years. That was weird… because she definitely didn't lack money, knowing how filthy rich his billionaire Big brother was.
'Isn't that the reason why she marries him? She wants his money, and she got everything she wants now. But why does she have that kind of habit of throwing up?'
Mackie looked at her Uncle, whose mind flew off somewhere, and she poked her cheek, "Uncle, Mommy told me that you should not daydream too much! You should spend your time studying or… working, like Daddy!"
"Hm…" Vernon nodded, but his mind was still disturbed with his niece.
"Do you like your Daddy?"
"Un, of course!" Mackie nodded. "Daddy is the best in the world! He always gives Mackie gifts and tries to spare his time even though he is very, very, veeerryy busy!"
"And your Daddy is good with Mommy?"
"Um…" Mackie seemed to think for a second, remembering all the experiences that had happened within her conscious years as a kid. "Daddy and Mommy never fight in front of Mackie, but they rarely speak to each other at home. Oh, also, Mommy never joined the table with Daddy and me! But Daddy said that's because Mommy is not hungry, and Mommy also said so!"
…
'For a second, I thought it's him who abused her or something—' Vernon thought. It was just a wild guess, but he got the idea that maybe his sister-in-law had been abused by his Big brother.
But it seemed that the relationship between his Big brother and sister-in-law was very similar to his parents.
His Dad was always cheating with a new woman every day, and his Mom turned blind eyes to what he was doing in the next room.
Meanwhile, she got all the money she needed to buy anything. Thus she compensated for all the cheating by buying useless luxury things and getting dead drunk almost daily. Hence, Chloe came to the house as Vincent's girlfriend and naturally became Vernon's caregiver.
Vernon never liked that kind of life. He always thought that when you were settled with one woman, you got to be loyal to her.
But his Big brother adopted a very similar lifestyle to their late Father's.
He cheated on Chloe but still treated her well and gave her all the money he wanted.
'Which makes sense when he was so angry about sister-in-law wanting a divorce….'
…
'But if he hurt her... Then I will… I will…' Vernon felt the burning sensation inside his heart. He knew it was stupid for him to have this kind of protective feelings towards his sister-in-law, the same woman who raised and ditched him because he wasn't good enough.
But when he got the image of his Big brother hurting Chloe, he couldn't help but feel this unknown rage growing inside his heart.
It was far more dangerous than the rage he accumulated for ten years, which was surprising because he thought there was nothing worse than the pain he felt for ten years straight.
Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.co(m) for the b𝘦st novel reading experience