Just then, someone pushed the door open. Norah turned to look, and saw Sam Noah and Marco entering. Upon seeing the two, Norah rushed over like she had found a savior, throwing herself into Marco’s arms, both aggrieved and furious, “Brother, she hit me! She’s crazy, she actually hit me.”
Marco glanced at Thelma and then at Sam Noah. He patted her head but said nothing.
Thelma put the golf club back, as if everything she had done was perfectly reasonable, and said to Marco, “Marco, your sister needs to be properly disciplined; otherwise, there will be plenty of people to discipline her when she goes out.”
Marco said, “I’m sorry, I haven’t disciplined Norah well. I promise she won’t come here to disturb you again.”
Norah couldn’t believe her ears, “Brother, what are you saying? She just hit me! Look at what she did to me!”
“Enough!” Marco sternly interrupted her, glancing at Sam Noah, forcing a smile, “I’ll take Norah home now.”
After saying that, he pulled Norah away.
The room was left with only Sam Noah and Thelma. Sam Noah stepped forward and asked, “I heard Norah came here, so I rushed over. Are you alright?”
Thelma did not want to talk to him and turned to go upstairs.
When Sam Noah came in, Thelma was packing her things. Seeing this, Sam Noah hurriedly asked, “Where are you going?”
Thelma replied, “Back to school. The new semester is starting soon, I need to hurry back to catch up on my classes.”
“The child is still in the breastfeeding period, why are you in such a hurry?”
“The child can drink formula during the breastfeeding period. I don’t believe that your son, Sam Noah, has no formula to drink.”
After Thelma finished packing her luggage, she zipped it up. As she was pulling her suitcase towards the door, Sam Noah blocked her way.
“I’m also very sorry about your mother coming to take Tyler away. It was my failure to protect you both. I will make it up to you and your child in the future. I will be more vigilant, and those unrelated people will no longer disturb your peace. You haven’t even finished your confinement yet; you should rest at home for a while before going back to school.”
Thelma stood her ground, “You said you wouldn’t restrict my freedom.”
“What about the child? Are you not going to care for him at all?”
Thelma turned her head away, looking elsewhere. “The child is yours; it has nothing to do with me. From the very beginning, I never intended to have him.”
Thelma bypassed him and walked towards the door, but Sam Noah took a few big steps to block the entrance. Thelma didn’t look at him and coldly said, “Move aside.”
“What about me?” His tone suddenly dropped, sounding hoarse, “If you’re not going to care for the child, then what about me? Do you not want me either?”
Thelma felt a pang in her heart. Although Norah’s words were not pleasant, she thought there was some truth in what she said. She mentioned that their country has always emphasized matching social status in marriage, and there was a significant gap between her and Sam Noah’s family conditions. If she were truly outstanding, she might consider being with him, but the current her was no longer the excellent Thelma.
No matter how she looked at it, she felt unworthy of him. Standing next to him made her feel ashamed, which is why she had never appeared with him in public since their marriage. Whenever Sam Noah wanted to take her out, she was reluctant to go and did not want him to publicly acknowledge her identity. She was afraid of standing beside him; she didn’t want others to know that Sam Noah’s wife was like this.
She didn’t understand why he wouldn’t divorce her, so she had the self-awareness to keep her distance. Perhaps one day he would come to his senses.
So she closed her eyes and said in a tone that was as if she didn’t recognize her own kin, “I don’t want you either.”
He didn’t say a word, just stood stiffly in front of her. After a long while, he finally opened the door, and Thelma pushed her luggage out.
She moved into the dormitory and officially applied for a retake of her courses, rarely going back. However, Sam Noah often came to see her, sometimes alone, sometimes with the child. Each time he came, he would buy her a lot of things—food, necessities, clothes, jewelry—so much that even after she refused many times, he still insisted on giving them to her. She had no choice but to accept. The food and necessities she shared with her dorm mates, while the clothes and jewelry she gave to her sister.
