CHAPTER 20: CHAPTER 20: STAY WITH ME, I FEEL AWFUL

"What do you mean?" The man’s breath brushed against her ear, making Zinnia Lawrence’s mind go fuzzy.

"Are you blind? Figure it out yourself," Jenson Forrest snapped, pushing her away.

Zinnia stumbled back a step, nearly falling. She glanced at Jenson Forrest. "I’ll go get the medicine."

She quickly returned with warm water and medicine, helping him sit up.

"Did you take the fever reducer?"

Jenson Forrest nodded.

It was too soon to take another dose, so Zinnia set the fever medicine aside. After watching him swallow the anti-inflammatory pills, she touched his forehead again. "You took the fever reducer, so why are you still this hot?"

Jenson Forrest lowered his eyes, saying nothing.

He hadn’t taken any medicine at all. He had only lied because he was afraid that as soon as his fever went down, the little ingrate would run off again.

"Lie down properly. I’ll get you an ice pack to cool you down."

As Zinnia tried to get up, Jenson Forrest grabbed her wrist. He gave a sharp tug, and she tumbled onto the bed, where he immediately pulled her into his arms.

His forehead pressed against the back of her neck from behind, his arms wrapped around her waist, and his voice was soft. "No need. You’re so cold-hearted and cool to the touch, you have a built-in cooling effect. Just sleeping like this for a while will be fine."

Zinnia was speechless.

It was true; her constitution was naturally on the colder side. Even in the summer, her skin was cool, as if her body temperature was slightly lower than most people’s. When they were children, whenever Jenson Forrest was sick with a fever, he loved to hold her hand as a personal cooling pack. In the winter, Zinnia loved to snuggle into his embrace; his natural warmth was better than any hot water bottle.

Lying there quietly, time itself seemed to slow down, becoming peaceful and serene.

Thinking of his earlier words, the image of a gleaming knife blade from the dangerous incident at the hospital flashed before her eyes.

She asked softly, "You blocked the knife for me, didn’t you?"

She held her breath. After a long moment, the man behind her finally gave an arrogant snort.

"Yeah."

Zinnia felt a wave of relief, and the corners of her lips couldn’t help but curve up. It had been so chaotic at the time. She never would have expected that Crystal Sutton would dare to spout such nonsense right in front of Jenson Forrest.

"Now that you know you’re an ungrateful brat, aren’t you going to show some appreciation?"

She didn’t answer for a moment. Jenson Forrest’s thin lips moved slightly. He was pressed against her neck, and his lips brushed against her skin, a touch that was both ticklish and tantalizing. Zinnia felt her own body temperature begin to rise.

She pursed her lips, fighting the tingling sensation that spread through her heart. "But you spent Crystal Sutton’s birthday with her. You gave her all those gifts..."

She bit her tongue, cutting her words short. There were too many grievances, and fighting for his affection felt pathetic. Saying such things out loud only made her feel ashamed.

Jenson Forrest’s voice was laced with exasperation. "What did I give her? Didn’t I come home to be with you that day? You’re so young, but your memory is already failing you. Don’t you even remember where your gifts are?"

Zinnia froze. A memory suddenly surfaced, and she struggled to get up and confirm it.

Jenson Forrest’s arms tightened, holding her so close it felt as if he wanted to meld her into his chest. "Don’t move. The gifts are there; they’re not going anywhere. Just stay with me for a while. I feel awful..."

Zinnia’s eyes couldn’t help but moisten. So he really had prepared gifts for her; not everything was for Crystal Sutton. Her heart tingled with a fragile, sweet happiness. But the thought of Crystal Sutton’s pregnancy immediately soured the moment, replacing all the sweetness with a familiar bitterness.

Her throat felt tight, and it took her a moment to compose herself before she could speak. "I know you don’t love me and that you were forced to marry me. That’s why for the past two years, I could endure the neglect, swallow my anger, and accept the hardship without a single complaint.

"We can get a divorce, but you shouldn’t have trampled on our broken marriage with infidelity, making me lose all face and become a laughingstock!"

She waited for Jenson Forrest’s reply, a tiny sliver of hope still flickering in her heart. She hoped he would tell her himself that Crystal Sutton’s child wasn’t his.

But a long silence stretched on behind her. The man didn’t say a word.

Tears streamed down Zinnia’s face. After what felt like an eternity, her heart grew cold. She pried Jenson Forrest’s hand off and sat up, only to discover that he had fallen asleep. She didn’t know if he hadn’t heard her or simply had no response, and at that moment, she was too exhausted to find out.

She pulled the blanket up for him, left the bedroom, and went to the activity room on the third floor.

As she pushed the door open, she was met with the sight of a giant claw machine. It had been there for many years, its colors faded, looking somewhat out of place with the rest of the high-end room. Jenson Forrest had brought it home when she was nine. Zinnia couldn’t quite remember why she had been upset that day, only that he had taken her to an arcade to play the claw game. The two of them had spent over two hundred tokens and failed to catch a single thing. Zinnia had teased her brother for his terrible skills, but he stubbornly argued that the machine’s win probability was set too low and had nothing to do with technique. The next day, her fiercely competitive brother hauled this very claw machine home, now with its prize-drop rate set to one hundred percent. He had caught her an entire sofa’s worth of toys in no time. Though delighted, she had pouted and complained that her stinky brother had made her favorite game boring. Later, Jenson Forrest even created a small program on his phone that allowed him to change the probability at will. From then on, the claw machine became Zinnia’s personal Doraemon.

When she was sad, she would try her luck, and it might offer a small comfort. When she was happy, she would try again, and perhaps a little surprise would fall out. As her birthday approached, she would circle the machine excitedly every day, anticipating what might appear.

After their marriage, when she moved from the old family estate to Sovereign Court, the claw machine was the only thing she brought with her. But after her relationship with Jenson Forrest had soured four years ago, she hadn’t gotten a single gift from the machine. Because of this, it had never occurred to Zinnia that he might have secretly hidden this year’s presents here.

She crouched down and felt around the bottom of the machine, and sure enough, she found about a dozen specially minted game tokens.

Half an hour later, gift boxes were piled at Zinnia’s feet. She opened all of them, but only four had anything inside. There was a wedding ring and a pair of earrings, likely placed inside by Jenson Forrest within the last couple of days. The other two were her birthday and wedding anniversary gifts: an expensive diamond-studded watch and a miniature camera. Zinnia turned on the camera and found a recorded birthday message.

It was from her idol, the musical master Cash from M Country, offering her words of encouragement and his blessing. The master was seventy-eight years old and hadn’t made a public appearance in a very long time.

For Jenson Forrest to have acquired this birthday message, he must have gone to a great deal of trouble. Zinnia hugged the small camera to her chest, thrilled by her idol’s encouragement and overcome by a deep, lingering emotion that made her tremble. It was like a feather dropped onto the still lake of her heart, stirring the surface so quietly yet creating an unbearable tickle. An uncontrollable sweetness bloomed within her.

She decided that, for the sake of the gifts, she would temporarily forgive Jenson Forrest’s reprehensible behavior and take good care of him.

Carrying the gifts, she returned to the bedroom with a light step. She was about to check if his fever had subsided when a rustling sound came from the dressing room.

A thief? Unlikely. The security at Sovereign Court is top-notch. Could it be Aunt Kramer? Did she find out Jenson Forrest is sick?

Zinnia walked toward the dressing room, grabbing a feather duster from a low cabinet as she passed.

When she stepped inside, however, she saw the last person she ever expected to see.

It was Crystal Sutton.

She had a drawer open and was holding a pair of men’s underwear. Hearing the noise, she turned around. When her eyes met Zinnia’s, her face registered surprise.

"Sister? Why are you here? Jenson told me you’d already moved out and asked me to come take care of him... I’m so sorry. If I had known you were back, I wouldn’t have come."

Zinnia’s blood ran cold, and the hand gripping the feather duster trembled.

Jenson Forrest’s mistress had brazenly entered their home. The sight of her, at a moment when Zinnia was utterly unprepared and even feeling a sliver of joy, was like a bucket of ice water dumped on her glowing heart, tearing open a bleeding wound.

"How did you get in?!" she demanded.

Crystal Sutton smiled. "How else could I get in? Someone told me the password, of course. I have to say, I was surprised to find out it was my birthday."

This was the marital home Zinnia shared with Jenson Forrest. He had set the security code, and Zinnia had always assumed it was a combination of her birthday and their anniversary. But now, hearing Crystal Sutton’s words, she realized with a sickening lurch that it could just as easily have been Crystal’s birthday. Disgust churned in Zinnia’s stomach, and her mind began to buzz.

As if that wasn’t enough, Crystal Sutton continued, "Oh, by the way, Sister, Jenson doesn’t really like this brand of condoms. He says they aren’t thin enough, so the experience isn’t as good. But have you two been using contraception this whole time? You have quite a stockpile here."

As she spoke, Crystal Sutton pulled a box of condoms from the drawer and waved it at Zinnia.