Chapter 5 He Had Never Seen Elisa Get Sick

Hamish's body was emitting chilliness. The two were only a few centimeters apart, and Elisa was chilled awake in an instant, facing the sinister gaze of the man. She didn't know where to dart her eyes.

Suddenly, a bony finger pinched her chin, forcing Elisa to raise her head and look up in panic.

"Hamish, when did you come back?"

"I can come back whenever I want. Do I need to report to you?" Hamish knelt on the bed, forcibly pressing down on Elisa despite her resistance. He moved forcefully, pinching Elisa's wrists without an ounce of mercy.

Feeling the woman in his arms go from relaxed to stiff, finally struggling and resisting, but having her legs suppressed.

Elisa was panic-stricken. She had never seen Hamish like this before, like a vicious wolf about to shred and devour her. She was very afraid of him like this. The gentle and refined Hamish in her memories was becoming more and more blurred.

She instinctively started begging for mercy: "Hamish, it hurts so much."

"Elisa, you really disgust me. Both your face and your body repulse me. A woman like Elisa doesn't deserve to be treated well or patiently. It's all excessive."

Elisa's body stiffened. She clenched her teeth tightly, her face as dull as old paper under the dim light, without a hint of color.

She should have been used to Hamish's insulting words, but for some reason, her heart still ached as if it was being crushed in someone's palm little by little.

Hamish rarely came back. He treated her like a prostitute, coming back to lie down when he was bored before leaving again, as if to fulfill her "marital duty."

Today Lila was injured. Logically, he should have been with the love of his life at the hospital. But now, in the middle of the night, he appeared in her bedroom. With a little thought, Elisa understood—he must have had a disagreement with Lila. Otherwise, how could it be her turn?

But tonight she really didn't have the extra energy to deal with him. Elisa pushed against the man's firm chest, looking for a chance to escape. Her body had just straightened up when her long hair was seized from behind.

"Ah--" Elisa let out a cry of pain as her neck leaned back. "Hamish, it's late today. I don't want to have sex with you."

She didn't know what it was about those words that angered him. Hamish's gloomy face looked particularly terrifying in the light and shadow. He grabbed Elisa's hand forcefully and pressed her face into the pillow.

"Elisa, who are you pretending to be innocent for? Do you think I don't know if you want to do it or not? Threatening me to get married, and now you want to act indifferent?"

It was too unpleasant to hear. Elisa's breathing shuddered. She stared at the ceiling with tears swirling in her eyes before finally being unable to hold back, wetting the pillow.

This was the man she had insisted on marrying, using the cruelest words to injure her all over.

Seeing her moist eyes, Hamish's heart tightened for a moment. He untied his tie from his neck in irritation and tied Elisa's hands to the headboard.

Elisa endured the pain brought by stomach cancer. Her tongue pressed against her teeth as she suppressed her voice, desperately swallowing back the bloody taste in her throat. She was on the verge of begging for death, in excruciating pain.

Watching the woman curled up like a cat in the bedding, trembling finely, she looked a bit pitiful to Hamish.

Of course Hamish didn't care about her, let alone have her in his heart. Elisa's health had always been good. Working overnight and still being able to go to work on time was common. In all the time with her, it seemed like he had never seen her get sick.

Her long hair was messy on the bed. Her back was very slender. When she bent over, her two shoulder blades were like butterflies about to spread their wings.

He couldn't help reaching out to touch them. His fingertips had just made contact when the woman recoiled as if frightened, quickly moving sideways. Hamish's eyes flashed with fierceness, extremely displeased in his heart.

"Usually like a dead fish, and now you want to play hard to get? But I'm telling you it's useless!" For some inexplicable reason, a surge of irritation rose in Hamish's heart. Even he didn't know how to quell this emotion.

He was unwilling to admit this feeling came from Elisa. He could only think of Lila—thinking of what Lila had said to him at the hospital, asking when he would divorce Elisa—his mood instantly slipped downward.

Hamish gritted his back molars. What was there about Elisa that was worth arguing with Lila over?

Elisa hugged herself, like a turtle shrinking into its shell, presenting a state of self-protection. She felt so cold, even though she had turned on the AC and was under a quilt. She still couldn't withstand the chill.

It was as if a gash had been sliced open in her chest, infected and rotting her internal organs.

She had always endured pain well. She would swallow broken teeth and think nothing of it. But this time, she really couldn't stand it anymore. Once the thought of divorce stabbed into her heart, it would spread wildly.

When she had the strength, she would talk to Hamish about divorce. She was going to die soon. She didn't have time to appease him anymore.

When Elisa passed out from the pain, she heard Hamish say his last words.

"If it wasn't for you having the same blood type as Lila in your body, do you think I would look twice at you? But soon you won't have any use left."

When Elisa woke up, Hamish was long gone. She weakly propped herself up. The quilt slid off, exposing the hideous wounds on her neck and shoulders.

Elisa got out of bed. Her feet had just touched the ground when her mind spun into brief darkness. Elisa staggered into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror.

The battered body covered in injuries made one feel pitiful upon seeing it. Elisa was no exception. She pitied herself. Her heart was so small, yet it was completely filled with Hamish. She had tried her best to please him for four years, but in the end still couldn't escape a goodbye.

If feelings could be obtained through effort, how wonderful would that be?

She stood in front of the sink washing her face and brushing her teeth. Her already painful throat, after last night's begging and sobbing, had become even more painful. As she was brushing her teeth, a gag reflex occurred in response to irritation in her throat. Her body convulsed as she retched. What she spit out was toothpaste foam stained with blood.

Elisa had always adapted well. Even vomiting blood was something she could get used to and pay no mind. She turned on the faucet and rinsed away the bloody foam in the basin.

After cleaning up and coming out, it was past 7:30. She couldn't eat anything, but thinking of the deformed stomach inside her, she still heated up a cup of milk to drink.

At the company, Elisa processed documents and looked over Powell Group's profits for the past few months. The data was declining. It was as if Elisa had already seen the day Powell Group would fall into decline.

She had long known about Hamish secretly sabotaging Powell Group out of spite, in order to get back at her. He could be said to stop at nothing.

Hamish had always been the vengeful type. He acted decisively and in a flash had pulled the once strongest company in Heise, Powell Group, down from its status in the business world.

In the end she was no match for him. Hamish's vicious methods were something she could probably never learn in her lifetime.

After flipping through a ledger, Elisa leaned back in her chair, picked up the now cold coffee on her desk and took a sip. The coffee's bitter taste slowly diluted the bloody sweetness in her throat.

A skinny camel is still bigger than a horse. Elisa got up and went to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the high-rises before her. It was time to prepare for the end.

But who should manage this massive corporation after her death?

Her dad? Or her brother? Those two only knew how to enjoy the fruits of others' labor. She feared that if Powell Group was handed to them, it would be squandered in a matter of years.

The more Elisa thought about it, the more she realized the most suitable person to take over Powell Group was actually her legal husband who was bent on bankrupting Powell Group—Hamish.

Elisa's brows were shrouded in gloom. Her eyes looking out the window had become very deep, like a drop of ink dissolving into them, an undiluted black. She raised her left hand and pressed it against the cold window, her fingertips turning cold white. Her fingers tapped rhythmically on the glass.

The office was very quiet, making those soft taps especially clear. Elisa rarely had moments of absentmindedness. She liked spacing out, sinking into a fleeting state of loss of awareness, as if only this could make her temporarily forget the pain reality brought her.

The phone on the desk suddenly vibrated. Elisa snapped back to her senses and looked over. From three meters away, she could still clearly see "Father" on the screen.

Father should have been one of the closest words in the world, but to Elisa it was just a cold appellation. She went over and answered the phone.

"Elisa, transfer 200,000 to my account." Koby Powell's voice was slightly low, his tone cold and detached.

Elisa's hand holding the phone tightened: "Dad, are you only calling me for money?"

Koby sounded a little impatient: "It's only right for a daughter to give her father money. If you weren't in charge of the Powell family, do you think I'd want money from you? If you don't want to give money then sign Powell Group over to me."

Elisa carefully savored the appellation "daughter." It was admirable her dad still remembered she was his daughter, not just a cold, impersonal money printer.

He remembered she was his daughter, but why did he never care about her? She didn't expect Koby to treat her very well, she just wanted him to ask her normal questions every so often—have you eaten? How are you feeling lately? Are you tired from work? Things like that would be enough. She was actually very easy to satisfy, just needing a tiny bit of care.

"Did you hear me or not!" Koby snapped over the phone.

Elisa suppressed her emotions: "Didn't I just transfer one hundred thousand to you last week? It's only been a few days. Did you use it all up already?"

"That little bit of money can't do much," Koby said somewhat guiltily. But thinking of Elisa controlling this massive corporation, sometimes taking in over a million a day, he felt some confidence again.

"Hurry up and transfer the money, or I'll go straight to your company for it. Let's see if it's more embarrassing for me or for you then."

"I can give the money, but you have to tell me what you're using it for. 200,000 is no small amount."

Seeing Elisa relent, Koby also lowered his tone: "I've got my eye on an investment project recently, just lacking 200,000. Once I make money from it I won't need to ask you anymore."