Chapter 236

"Get away from me!" Evelyn struggled desperately, but couldn't break free from Adrian's iron grip.

"You'll never escape me." His arms tightened around her.

Evelyn let out a bitter laugh, her nails digging into her palms.

"Don't touch me with those filthy hands that have been all over another woman."

Adrian's expression darkened, remembering the disgust on her face when he'd last kissed her.

"Did you forget everything I just said?" His voice was low, eyes burning.

"Till death do us part? Never letting go?" Her lips curled in mockery. "Adrian Valentine, you don't deserve that."

"Remember that slap you gave me for your grandmother's shares?"

"That slap shattered my heart."

A sharp pain shot through Adrian's chest, spreading through his entire body.

He watched her silently, throat working.

That moment of impulse still haunted him—the scar from the chopstick piercing his palm hadn't even healed.

Seizing his distraction, Evelyn shoved him away hard.

The sudden emptiness in his arms made Adrian's eyes flash dangerously. "Come back here."

"Like hell!" She swung her handbag at him. "Who do you think you are? Calling every woman 'wife'?"

"To me, you're just pathetic."

"Dumping me then crawling back—are you insane?"

"Ganging up with your precious first love to bully me—I must've been blind!"

"Stay away. The stench of trash makes me sick."

Her rage boiled over as she kept hitting him with the bag.

Adrian had never seen this fiery side of her—and found it strangely captivating.

The knot in his chest suddenly loosened.

"Stop." He dodged with a frown. "That bag hurts."

"Hurts?" Her eyes reddened. "Did you care when you hit me?"

"Looked down on me for being an orphan? Did I ever take a penny from you?"

"No dowry at our wedding. Every deal I closed on my own. What right did you have to treat me like that?"

The bag struck his back with a thud. He grunted, his unhealed wound throbbing.

Her words made him freeze.

"You refused my money... because you never loved me?" His gaze turned icy.

Evelyn's arm ached from swinging. His question struck her as absurd.

She staggered back, confusion clouding her eyes.

"What counts as love? If none of that was enough..."

"Then maybe I really don't know how to love."

Tears blurred her vision as she met his intense stare.

She'd given everything to this marriage.

Quick to master any skill, yet love remained the one lesson she couldn't learn.

"I'm sorry." Her voice trembled. "If that wasn't love..."

"Perhaps I was never meant to understand it."

With those final words, she turned and walked away, her unsteady figure disappearing into the distance.