The Seventh Miserable Bride

Chapter 195

Sebastian's tone was still filled with flirtation. Yasmine Taylor crudely shoved his hand away, hurled an insult towards him, and walked into her apartment without looking back.

Late at night, Yasmine lay on her bed and was increasingly bothered by her thoughts. As the next day was Saturday, Yasmine did not have to go to work. She texted Lily Adams to meet her at a coffee shop.

Lily did not have Yasmine's new number saved in her contacts, so she didn't know who the sender of the message was. Nonetheless, Lily still decided to show up on time.

Yasmine wore a white hat, a white neck scarf, and a pair of sunglasses. When Yasmine showed up, it took Lily an entire minute to recognize her.

Yasmine slowly took off her sunglasses and pulled her neck scarf halfway down, revealing more than half of her face. Lily immediately stood up in shock, "Yasmine—"

"Shh," Yasmine shushed her and gave Lily a knowing look, indicating that she did not want to draw any attention to her.

Lily could not withhold herself and immediately dragged her to a table. Amid her astonishment and excitement, she asked, "It's really you! I could not believe in my own eyes. Am I actually dreaming?"

"No, you're not." Yasmine pinched Lily's face and said, "It hurts, doesn't it? Then it proves I'm truly your best friend, none other than Yasmine Taylor."

Lily could barely contain her excitement. She gave Yasmine a tight hug and was close to sobbing. She said, "Yasmine, I have missed you so much. You heartless soul, where the h*ll have you been two for the past two years?"

"It's a long story. Let go of me first, and I'll slowly explain everything to you."

Yasmine reminisced her life over the past two years in detail. Lily raised her eyebrows in surprise and said, "So, does that mean you've been living with your Uncle and Aunt all these while?"

"Yes."

"How are they treating you?"

In Lily's impression, Chuck Lorris and his wife had always treated their niece either as an ATM or a crisis manager.

"Actually, they have been treating me well. They've changed for the better and are no longer the troublemakers they used to be, which is why I've been living a decent life over the past two years."

Lily could feel a spectrum of mixed emotions welling up within her. She held Yasmine by her hand and nodded, "If that's the case, then it's great. As long as you're okay, I'm happy for you. In fact, you look so much better now than in the past."

"By the way, I have a question for you."

That question was the main reason behind Yasmine's appointment with Lily. "What's the problem?"

"Sebastian... is he married?"

"What do you mean? Who is he married to?" Lily asked in surprise.

"Abigail Tanner."

"Heh, their relationship was long gone."

Yasmine's heart skipped a beat, "Why?"

"That woman basically turned their entire family upside down. Ever since you'd left, Sebastian has resorted to drinking his sorrows away every day and even entangled himself with countless women. Of course, Abigail could not tolerate it and made a huge fuss at home every single day. Eventually, she lost her child and hence her only ticket to remain in the Simons family. She then resorted to pushing herself down the stairs and blamed her miscarriage on your mother-in-law. However, her scheme was later exposed and she was kicked out of the family."

"Where did you hear this story from?"

"I met your mother-in-law on the street once, so I chatted with her and heard it all from her."

Yasmine stared out the window blankly and was speechless for a long time. This story was completely out of her expectation. She thought that Sebastian and Abigail were still married and had a lovely child together, but she never would have thought that the child was gone and they were already long separated. Perhaps she should have felt happy at the news, but why did she feel the opposite?

She could not help but ask herself, "Are you actually happy seeing him in a worse state than you?"

Evidently, she wasn't. In fact, she hoped that Sebastian would go on to live a happy life, even if it was not a life that was spent with her.

"Sebastian has changed a lot over the past two years. I've met him on different occasions, but he had always nodded at me without saying a word. By the way, after Abigail left, he moved out soon too. Rumors had it that his relationship with his father was strained, and he had even gone on to establish his own company."

"I know."

Yasmine nodded in disappointment.

"You know about this? How did you know?"

"I'm working in his company now." This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .

"What?"

Lily's eyes widened in disbelief.

It was after listening to Yasmine's explanation that Lily finally understood the context. She carefully asked, "Now that you know Sebastian is single, are you going to get back with him?"

"No."

Yasmine answered without hesitation.

"Why?"

"Just because Sebastian and Abigail are no longer together, it doesn't mean that we could just return to where we were. I had been just as exhausted before Abigail was even involved. I couldn't satisfy his family's demands for me to bear a child for them, and I will still face the same problem if I return. I only tolerated back then because I was reluctant to ditch our relationship, but now that I'm free, I don't see any need of turning back anymore. Otherwise, I'm basically a person with no dignity."

Lily understood how Yasmine felt, so she did not probe any further. The duo caught up with each other's lives and chatted the entire afternoon away. When they parted, Yasmine made a request to Lily, "Please don't tell anyone that I am in B City. After my work is done, I will probably leave this place and may never return here again, so please just act as if I was never here in the first place, okay?"

"Of course!"

Lily nodded heavily and said, "But please don't lose contact with me again. After all, we are best friends and will be forever."

"Okay."

They both embraced each other before they reluctantly parted ways with each other.

Although Yasmine had now known what truly unfolded between Sebastian and Abigail, she decided to not reveal her feelings and acted as if everything were normal.

On Wednesday, Yasmine's period came. When the day was about to end, she had terrible cramps and felt that she was soaked underneath. She could only remain seated and tolerate her own discomfort.

Tragically, she had worn a pair of white trousers to work. There was no overtime work on that day. It was five o'clock when her colleagues began to pack up and get ready to leave. Yasmine did not move a single inch away from her seat. The project team leader asked, "Are you not getting off work?"

"Yes I am, I'll be leaving soon."

Yasmine was about to call out the only female colleague for help. Unfortunately, her female colleague had immediately vanished into nowhere before Yasmine could even call for her.

'Fine, I'll just endure it and leave when it turns dark and when everyone had left. No one will be able to figure what's wrong by then,' Yasmine thought.

However, Yasmine's body was not on her side. As time went by, her pain grew more intense to a point where her face had turned pale and she was sweating profusely. At some point, her pain was so intolerable that she felt as if a knife had pierced and twisted around in her stomach.

Yasmine tolerated each passing second with agony. Suddenly, the door to her office opened and Sebastian stuck his head in. He asked, "Why are you still not off work yet?"

The special project office was just opposite the President's office. Each time their member got off work, they would walk past Sebastian's room. As his room was only separated by a sheet of transparent glass wall from the hallway, Sebastian could clearly see everyone in the project team who walked past as they left their office.

On that day, Sebastian noticed that he had not seen Yasmine walking past his office, which was why he decided to check the special project office when he was about to leave. Indeed, Yasmine had not left at all. Yasmine wriggled out his hands and said weakly, "I can take care of myself from here."

Sebastian nodded and drove away without a word.

Yasmine stared as Sebastian's car slowly disappeared into the distance. She sighed sadly. She unlocked the door to her apartment, took a warm bath, changed into a clean set of clothes before collapsing onto her bed.

Her stomach was still aching. She curled up and covered herself in a quilt. About ten minutes later, she heard the doorbell ringing.

She got out of bed, opened the door and was shocked by who she saw, "Why didn't you leave yet?"

Sebastian was carrying a shopping bag in his hand. He went straight into the living room and got an electric heating pad from the bag, "Go and lie on the bed."

Sebastian slowly supported a dazed Yasmine into her bedroom. After covering her with the quilt, he powered the heating pad and immediately went into the living room.

Soon, Yasmine could hear the sound of the gas stove being turned on, "Puff, puff, puff..."

Five minutes later, Sebastian came in carrying a bowl of chicken soup, "Drink this."

Yasmine was stunned for a moment before she got up and received the bowl from Sebastian. She drank the soup in small sips and could feel that her body was gradually recovering its energy. It was unclear whether she felt that way because it was a nutritious soup or because it was a soup made by Sebastian himself.

When the heating pad was fully charged, Sebastian wrapped the pad in a towel, lifted the quilt and placed it on Yasmine's abdomen.

His care for her made Yasmine feel a strange sense of familiarity. The chicken soup tasted more delicious.

"What did you put in there?"

"I've included celeries, carrots and some onions."

Ah, she smiled bitterly and said, "You really know how to take care of a woman."

She finished the remaining soup in one gulp and handed the bowl to him, "Thank you."

After Sebastian cleaned the bowl in the kitchen, he turned back to Yasmine's bedroom and said, "I'm leaving now. You can call me if you need anything."

Just when he was about to leave, Yasmine suddenly grabbed his wrist and said pitifully, "Can you stay for a while? Maybe leave after I fall asleep."

Sebastian looked at her for a while before he nodded his head, "Okay."

He sat down on the sofa and read a magazine. Yasmine stared at him as she lay on her bed. She was still wrestling with the mixed emotions in her heart.

"If you keep looking at me like this, how are you going to fall asleep?"

Sebastian did not raise his head, but he knew that Yasmine was looking at him as if he had a pair of eyes behind his head. Yasmine turned over, closed her eyes, and shed a single tear...

Half an hour later, Yasmine's stomach was feeling better. She saw that Sebastian was still on the sofa and she cast her quilt aside.

"What are you doing?" Sebastian asked in surprise.

"My stomach is no longer in pain, but I'm a little hungry. I guess you're hungry too, let me make something for the both of us."

Sebastian did not decline. Yasmine went to the kitchen and made two plates of carbonara pasta.

She wanted to remind him of something with the pasta. When Sebastian came to the living room and saw the pasta, a fit of sadness appeared in his eyes.

Sebastian would never forget that wintry day that year, Yasmine had said the happiest moment she could have was to enjoy a plate of carbonara pasta with the person she loved most.

"There's not much left in the refrigerator, so I thought to just prepare some instant pasta. Let's eat together."

"Okay."

They sat across each other. Sebastian took a bite of the pasta. Indeed, it was exactly how he remembered it to be. Like Yasmine, some things never changed throughout the years.

"I already know," Yasmine paused for a moment, "...about you and Abigail."

All of a sudden, Sebastian's hand froze. He was about to take another bite before he stopped himself, "So what?"

"Why didn't you tell me the truth when I asked about it?"

"Because I don't intend to get back together with you, so why should I tell you this?"

It was heart- wrenching for Yasmine. She said, "Neither do I. Even if you had that intention, an infertile woman like me have had enough of the way your family had treated me."

"That's great then. We shall go our separate ways."

He got up and said with a side glance, "Gabriel is a good man, and he has a brother in his family. If you're interested in him, you probably won't receive the same treatment in their family."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm considering it!"

Yasmine's tears swirled in her eyes, but she was stubborn and refused to let it out. She insisted that she would not shed another tear for a heartless man ever again.

"I'm leaving. You should rest early."

Watching Sebastian slowly leaving her sight, Yasmine suddenly lost control and cried, "Why? Why did you name your company Yaslor Corporation?"

Sebastian stopped, but he did not look back. "Maybe I had loved you at that time, but it's no longer the case. I'm already used to the freedom I now enjoy and no longer crave to be restricted by any person."

"Since you don't love me, why do you still care so much about me?" "I would do the same for any employees under my care. What's more, you're my partner's

representative, I have an obligation to make sure you're cared well for in my territory."

Yasmine was fuming. She rushed towards Sebastian, squeezed his arm, and roared, "Look into my eyes and tell me the truth. Tell me that you did so much only because I'm your partner's representative and not because I am Yasmine Taylor!"