Reborn Through Fire

 

The man‘s action and the woman‘s struggles stopped at once.

 

Kisa stared in panic at the blood stained on her nails, trembling involuntarily.

 

Gilbert reached for the painful scratch marks on his neck and then raised his hand to slap her.

 

Kisa felt something shatter inside her, accompanied by that loud slap. That something shattered into pieces and there was no way to put it back together again. She smiled and looked into his scarlet eyes. “You are just not as good as him.”

 

Perhaps because of his anger or something, the hand that he hit her with kept shaking. He pulled her to the floor and roared in a suppressed voice, “Get out!”

 

Kisa stood up, gritting her teeth against the excruciating pain in her body. She pulled her tattered clothes to cover her body with tears bursting from her eyes. “Gilbert, I hate you.” She walked slowly outside without looking back.

Until Kisa was out of the door, Gilbert suddenly and furiously swept all the papers off the table. He propped up one hand on the table, one hand on the waist, and sneered. ‘She said she regretted it, regretting climbing into my bed. She was the one who set me up, who made everything turn out this way, who ruined our relationship and brought us to this point. And who is she to say she regrets it?‘

 

As soon as Kisa returned to her room, she hastily locked the door. Before she could turn around, she vomited a mouthful of blood and then slumped, sitting helplessly against the door on the floor, then covered her mouth and whimpered in pain. She still felt hot and sore on her face from the slap, and her body hurt like it was falling apart. Kisa asked herself repeatedly in her mind what she had done wrong for that man to do this to her. But it would never be answered because that man never needed a reason to humiliate her.

 

Her whimpers were suppressed in the dark and silent room. After a short period of crying, Kisa regained her usual indifference and calmness. She quietly looked at the puddle of blood she had just vomited and let out a self–deprecating and sometimes bitter smile. She felt it fortunate that Gilbert did not see her vomit blood, or else he would have suspected her of carrying a blood bag and ridiculed her. It was just that the condition of her body was getting harder and harder to control, and the medication she usually took was no longer effective. She knew she had to find a way to stabilize her condition for the time being. Otherwise, she could do nothing with a body that would fail at any moment. She did not want her condition to deteriorate in front of Gilbert. She wanted zero possibility of that happening. The next day, Kelvin looked at the cold–faced woman in front of him and smiled playfully.” You are coming to say hello to me, are you?” Kisa took a look at the house, which was a duplex villa, not as grand as the Kooper residence, but it was cozy all over. A woman came over with pastries and drinks. The woman‘s name was Gracie Bennett, Kelvin‘s woman. She had long hair, a delicate face, and a sweet, lovely smile, just like her name. She put the pastry and drink in front of Kisa. “I made this myself. Try it.” She was friendly. It had been a long time since Kisa had been treated so gently, so she said, “Thank you.”

 

“You‘re welcome. I will leave you guys to it.” Gracie smiled. She was understanding and went

out to the garden Kisa looked at the woman as she went, and then at Kelvin‘s blissful face, thinking, ‘This is about what falling in love looks like, warm and serene, to the point of envy.‘

 

Kelvin looked at her for a while and smiled. “You didn‘t come here today to beg me to heal you, did you? Actually,”

 

“No.”

 

Kisa interrupted him before Kelvin could finish. “I‘m here to ask you for a favor, but not to heal me.”