Her Wicked CEO: How To Seduce A Hikikomori Wife? - Chapter 317

The cold water stings the wound on her face.

Umezaki Rie opens her eyes, parting her lips to take deep breaths as she raises her head and looks at the man she loved as her father once.

Takeuchi Seiji’s overcoat is faded, torn at several places, and covered with dirt. His hair is knotted and messy, dry ends brushing against his shoulders. His stubble barely hides a scar on his jaw. As he sits down, he pulls the chair forward with one hand — and then, clasps his hands together, watching her with disgust in his dark eyes.

She peers at the woman lying on her stomach next to the wall. The dark blood is spreading out from the body slowly. He killed Midori, his wife.

“Why did you kill her?” Umezaki Rie asks him.  Her hands and legs are tied to the chair. There is no hint of fear in her voice. She has gone through worse. Death is the least scary thing in her life. Leaving her loved ones behind is more frightening.

“I didn’t want to kill her,” Takeuchi Seiji says. “It was an accident. When I pushed her, she fell and hit her head. It didn’t take seconds. My wife died.”

“It was an accident.” Umezaki Rie snorts. “Or so you want to tell yourself.”

“I hit your head and she hit her head.” Takeuchi Seiji ignores her contemptuous laugh. He turns around and looks at his ex-wife’s dead body. “But you are alive and she is dead. Do you think that I won’t choke you to death, Rie?”

“Do you even know what death is?” Umezaki Rie’s brown eyes flash with molten rage. “Is losing one’s life the only way to die? You killed a child every day. You should have left me at the orphanage if you hated me that much.”

He stares hard at her. “Why do you not blame that woman? She was the one who took you and then, she left you. She was a cunning fox. She never tried to have my baby. She even lied to me that she couldn’t have children. Until she got pregnant with another man’s child, I had no idea.”

He is still stuck on his first wife. Rie grits her teeth. “You hated her, but you punished me for her sins. Why? What did I ever do to you? You knew that I was getting bullied at the school, but you forced my Grandfather to send me there. Every day was hell. Even now, I wake up in the middle of the night. I couldn’t eat properly for years. They blame Chisa Hashimoto for what happened to me. Your crime is equal. Even if you couldn’t love me as your daughter, why did you have to hate me because of her? I didn’t ask her to leave us. I wanted her to stay. I wanted our family to stay whole!”

Rie’s shoulders shake. She bends down her head as angry hot tears fall from her eyes.

“Why are you acting like this?” Takeuchi Seiji shouts. “Didn’t you find your birth father? He fixed you, didn’t he?”

“People like you can never understand.” Rie squeezes her eyes shut. “Even if the wounds heal, they can leave scars that still ache even after years. Chisa Hashimoto is dead. I sent her to a hellish death by myself. But she still haunts me sometimes. Although I know that she should not be frightening anymore because I am much more than she could ever be, I am afraid that my children will meet someone like Chisa Hashimoto and they will have stains in their childhood memories that should be the happiest memories of their lives. What can I do as a parent or as a person? I don’t want to be what had been to me. I don’t want to be selfish or a coward. I don’t want to run away from my problems anymore or things that make me uncomfortable. I know that the world is full of people like you and Chisa Hashimoto, but I want to be someone I wished I had met when I was younger.”

Rie lifts her head and meets his eyes. “So, I will face you today, Takeuchi Seiji. Do you think that death scares me? I have already been through hell. What do you want to do to me? I dare you. I want to see what you can do. It’s not like you haven’t done enough.”

Takeuchi Seiji looks away from those fiery eyes. He hates her. Seeds of guilt had taken roots long ago, and they have grown into a parasitic tree. Deep down, he regrets. Why did he do that to her? A petty man inside him knew that he couldn’t hurt his first wife, the woman he loved more than his soul. He felt betrayed. And he did love Rie once as his daughter. Their family had everything that a family should have. But that woman cheated on him and then, she became pregnant with another man’s child. Even then, he begged her to stay with her. But she left him with Rie.

He kept Rie because he thought that she might return someday for Rie. He made Rie go through that hell because he hoped that the woman would feel something and beg him to not treat Rie like that. He wanted that woman to apologize to him for lying to him since he met her. He felt abandoned and hurt. And Rie is right. He hurt Rie because he couldn’t hurt that woman.

That woman is long gone from this world. But in the crevices of his heart, she still lives.

“I will convince Touya to leave the restaurant.” Takeuchi Seiji gets up. He can’t sit in front of this girl. Maybe she can face him, but he can’t face her. He mumbles, trying to justify his action, “I cannot let Touya die. He is my son.”

“Son?” Rie exhales. She remembers what she heard before she passed out. “I see. Midori talked about him. I was going to help her. What does Consortium have to do with him? Why are you and your son involved with them?”