It was already noon when she drove back to the office. Putting down the car key, Lori received a text message that came in daily at meal hours. Slightly soothed, she put down the phone and picked up the files from the table to review.

Work was her best approach to cool down.

However...

As the door of her office was suddenly shoved open, Lori raised her head and saw a black shadow dashing to the front of her desk. Her chin ached the next second, and Lori couldn't help but frown!

Clifford pinched her chin fiercely with his index finger and thumb, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"I didn't see that coming! You look reserved but are so good at seducing men!"

His source told him that Lori hadn't been back to Sterling's house nor her own apartment recently!

Hadn't she been home? Where did she go? Remembering her words at the parking lot of the hospital, he was fuming with anger. If she didn't go home, she should have been in a man's house!

In his slanted eyes, the back pupils were filled with threats. Under the V-shaped scar around his eyebrow, blue veins were popping out. Lori was confused. Didn't he pick up the woman from the hospital? What was he mad for now?

She should feel scared, but somehow there was a little joy in her heart.

During their four years of marriage, he had been avoiding her like the plague and couldn't bear to stay at the same places with her. Whenever he saw her coming up, he would withdraw as fast as he could or kept those lovers around him to provoke her, trampling on her self-esteem over and over again.

It was her first time to face his direct anger today.

His grip on her chin sent a sharp pain through her, but she didn't try to dodge because his fingertips' temperature could warm her frozen heart a bit.

"What, are you mad, Mr. Gates?"

Detecting a hint of a smile at the corners of Lori's mouth, Clifford narrowed his eyes and snorted.

"You are shameless. What, how do you feel to accompany my woman to have an abortion today?"

Her heart was wrenched immediately.

The provocative smile on her delicate face stiffened, and she instantly put on her usual arrogance. As a flicker of dismay flashed across her bright cat's eyes, Clifford was stunned. Narrowing his eyes, he got an inexplicable feeling.

Could this woman also have such kind of facial expression?

But before Clifford could see it clearly, her eyes were tinted with provocation again, and he began to believe it was his hallucination just now.

"You have so many women, and I am too busy to remember them. But honestly, Clifford, your taste is getting worse. As far as I can remember, the actress in the newspaper looks much prettier. What, are you dumped?

Before her voice died away, Lori felt her neck was jerked sideways by force.

The force came from his fingertips to her chin. After a moment of numbness, blood circulated again. It really hurt.

"I tell you what; this is the marriage you wanted! So, stay in your grave obediently. You want a divorce?" Clifford snorted, "Don't even think about it!"

With a smile, she slowly turned to the man whose eyes were filled with provocation. This was the answer she needed. Even so, her tone didn't soften.

"Clifford, what are you afraid of? Since you don't want the marriage, what's the big deal that we divorce? After our divorce, you can find other women, and no one will restrain you anymore. I also can be set free!"

The office door's slamming sound and the muffled noise of the door frame was the only reply.

The smile at the corner of her mouth still lingered, but her cat's eyes gradually became misty.

Her stomach churned painfully. With one hand, Lori covered her stomach, gritted her teeth, and took out the medicine from a drawer with the other hand. Without water, she swallowed the pills and gripped the white vial tightly.

Her fighting spirit was reduced to gasps by the pain. Her heart was like gripped by a hand, but she could do nothing about it!