Chapter 143 - "You Don't Know What You Have Done"

Name:The Villain Author:tanu_sam
Five hours later

Santiago was driving the car in the direction of his house. In the whole thirty-minute journey, his new wife had not spoken a word to him. She had been staring outside the car window in the darkness for a long time. 

He tried several times initiating the conversation with Persephone but the latter didn't seem to give a face to him at all. Husband or not, she wasn't going to speak if she didn't wish to. Although he had an ego as big and deep as the Pacific Ocean, he still didn't dare to show it in front of his wife, the woman who had to walk beside him for the whole lifetime 

People were right when they said that the wife shouldn't be offended but look at him, just a few hours since they were married and his wife wasn't even willing to look at him. Can there be someone more unfortunate and pitiful than him? 

When he pulled the car brakes in the driveway outside his house, Persephone immediately acted by unlocking the car door and getting out before he could act. 

Santiago sighed when he saw the expected reaction. His wife had a temper that he was very familiar with! Whether it was the eight years old naive girl, or the twenty-five years old manipulative woman, both had similar tempers! 

When he saw that Persephone was throwing glares at the locked door, he let out a smile and got out of the car only to clasp her wrist and make her face him. He gripped her chin with his thumb and index finger and forced her to meet his eyes. 

Only when their eyes met, he realized that their green orbs were glossy as if they had cried silently. This scene caused a sting in his heart but he didn't express it on his face. 

"What's the matter?" He softly asked her. 

Persephone laughed in a mocking manner and then sneered at him. She didn't remove his warm finger and thumb from her chin. "Don't you know what's the matter with me,' husband'?" 

The last word was spoken with utter disgust. 

Even Santiago didn't react when she openly mocked him at his face because he knew his method of marrying her was wrong. As hard and tough she might appear, she still was romantic at heart. If she didn't care about the man who adored her for the past many years just because he was forced on her by her father, how would she react favourably to his method and him? 

Today she might hate him for forcing her to marry him, but there would come a day when she would thank heaven for sending him to save her from that hellhole. Of course, he didn't want her to show any kind of gratitude. 

"No, I don't know what the matter is, wife," Santiago replied softly as he glanced at the woman in front of him. "However, I would love to hear you share your troubles with me. Who knows I might be able to help you out." 

Persephone laughed this time. She didn't laugh at him or even herself but fate. Under the lightbulb outside the door, the fresh tears in her eyes glistened as she stared at him. There was no hate or love in that stare, only certainty. 

"You don't realize what you have done this time," Persephone whispered as she removed his hand from her chin with hers. Without his notice, her other hand caressed her belly. "You have no idea what a calamity you have invited for me and…" 

She didn't complete the last word and he had no interest in knowing it either. His hand clasped her wrist and prevented her from leaving first. 

"Do you disgust me so much?" He sincerely asked her. He needed an answer to this question or she wouldn't be able to sleep in peace. He wanted to know why she was so opposed to this marriage. 

Could it be that after forgetting about him she developed her feelings for that Nico bastard? 

Or that man from her past...the same man whose ring she had been wearing on his finger alongside her previous engagement ring? 

He needed to get these thoughts out of his mind. She was his lawfully wedded wife now. No other man except for himself had any place in his life. It might sound very old school but could he do it…

Persephone shook her head. How could she be disgusted at him when she was no better than him? For years, she had been pretending to be someone she was not. The sweet Marino Princess was her armour as well as the shell that was hiding the real her. She didn't start manipulation just now, but from the time she had only been just a little girl. After visiting her mother's studio yesterday, many suppressed memories came back to her. 

The current her was the most real that she had ever been. The uncertainty about her future, the fear about her child, and the emptiness in her eyes was the real her. 

"Santiago, you don't know what you have done," Persephone whispered once again. 

Santiago still didn't understand what she meant by her words. He looked at her with a puzzled expression. 

Her next words put him in more confusion than he could allow. 

"However, you're not the one to be blamed. Thank you, for pushing Nico. If not for you, he and Sophia wouldn't have been married." 

Without wasting another second, she said, "Should we go inside?" 

Santiago didn't like this version of his Red. He wanted the fiery Red back who would kill him with her words before accepting this forced marriage. He didn't want to see her like this. He couldn't bear to see this fake serenity on her face. He knew better than anyone that she was hiding a storm behind her serene eyes. 

To be honest, she was not faking this serenity. This expression that he was calling serenity was in actuality hopelessness. It was as if she had lost the fight even before participating in it. 

Without saying anything else, he unlocked the door and brought her straight to their bedroom. Since he had ordered both Emmanuel and Romeo not to spend the night at the hotel for a day or two, there was no one to disturb them. 

…. 

In the awkward silence, Santiago was standing under the finely lit ceiling, his gaze had been stuck on the closed bathroom door for a long time now. 

Inside the bathroom, Persephone had been curled up in the overflowing bathtub. Her head was buried in her naked knees and the flowing water was preventing her whimpers from leaving the bathroom. 

She knew that it was not good for her or the baby's health but she really needed a good cry. Only after crying her heart out, she could plan for her uncertain future. 

She would never be able to forget that dead look that her father had given her when he handed her hand into Santiago's hand. As much as she was grateful for Santiago for acting as the catalyst that forced Nico to accept his real feelings for Sophia, and later made Nico accept Sophia as his wife in front of everyone, she still couldn't forget the fact that her papa had most certainly announced the decree. 

By hook or by crook, Don Marino wanted her life. She would be dead within this week and she was sure of it. 

Santiago would never forgive the Marino family for cheating him. He didn't know that the woman he had brought home as his wife was in reality was impregnated with another man's seed. No proud man would ever accept being cuckolded even before marriage.

For the sake of benefits that Santiago had promised to Don Marino, the latter easily gave her hand in marriage to someone who he had never even in his wildest dreams had thought was an enemy in disguise of an ally. 

A sob escaped her throat as the scene where she had been possessed by a mad ghost entered her mind. That day, she would have easily ended her life with her little one's but today, she was even tired of thinking about something like taking her life… 

Even if she was tired of this life...she couldn't take her little angel's right to life away. She had promised her angel that she would always keep her/him safe and she would never break it. 

She stopped crying and wiped her tears as she stood up before eying her face in the mirror. Her hand once again caressed her slightly protruding belly. Although it was protruded, it still looked like fat accumulated more than a baby bump. She was skinny, to begin with and her slighted health was making her even more thin than before. 

Once again, she wiped her face with her palm and vowed to never cry again. 

'Even if I have to play Santiago Vitello for the sake of my Angel, I will.. Let the battle begin.'