Betrayed by My Trash Husband, Surrender Myself to the Devil-Chapter 25: A Cage that I Built

Ray POV

With so many documents I had to go through tonight, I thought I could get my mind off Claudia’s reaction after I told her about her "cage."

After all, I had long prepared everything, including how this apartment was decorated and arranged in a certain way to make sure that Claudia would see this as a beautiful cage, just to ensure she wouldn’t think about escaping.

After all, if you had a pet, you had to take care of her carefully and give her the best of everything, right?

But as I kept reading one document after another, the words printed on them somehow changed into the same sentence over and over, as if Claudia had cast a spell on me, making me unable to move on from her words.

"I broke up with you back then because I realized that you have no heart, and now you just made it clearer, Ray."

I knew that Claudia said it just to get back at me. Maybe she was frustrated over my arrangement and wanted to make her point about how much of a "heartless monster" I was.

But somehow I couldn’t move on from those words, and I ruffled my hair out of frustration as I couldn’t concentrate on my work at all.

I had always taken care of my appearance meticulously, since appearance was one of the things I could fully control. So, ruffling my hair just because she said something petty was truly out of character for me.

I just couldn’t help it. Her words stung back then, and they still stung even after a decade had passed.

"God, what is wrong with me?"

I finally put down the document in my hand because my concentration was not on my work, but on the woman who had just insulted me.

After taking off my glasses, I got up and walked toward the huge window overlooking downtown Los Angeles.

Claudia told me back then that she liked this view, so I made sure her cage had the same scenery, so she wouldn’t get bored.

So why would she curse me as if I had done something wrong?

"What else could we possibly become if not master and pet? You hate me, Claudia, and I’m more than willing to hate you back," I muttered, my eyes fixed on the view she loved. "So why do you curse me as if I’ve wronged you when I gave you a fair contract?"

Besides, I made sure she could buy anything online using my card. Wasn’t that enough to keep her around?

Or was I doing something wrong?

My mind began to recall all the insults others had said to me: my mother, father, stepmother, grandparents, and... Claudia.

To me, they were all the same bastards who hated my existence.

The words "heartless" or "cold-hearted bastard" had always been branded into my head ever since I was young. And for each person who called me that, I felt a sting that made me want revenge.

However, Claudia was the biggest perpetrator of them all. Her words stung me the most, and that sting hadn’t healed even now.

My heart had always seemed like a calm lake—cold, dead, and untouchable.

Yet she could create a ripple with just a small stone.

"I’m just showing others what they think of me. They think that I am a heartless bastard, and I’ll show them how much of a bastard I can be."

At first, I was thinking about how to make her happy. Yet, knowing Claudia, she would never be happy with anything I did because she hated me. So what I could do was bind her to my side by force.

"Since I can’t make her happy, then I’ll just make her comply," I said to myself as I returned to my desk and grabbed my phone.

Then I made a call to a woman who would never decline my call. Just as I expected, she picked up immediately.

"Aww, babe, honey, you finally called me again. I was getting bored having to take care of these two useless little bitchlings."

As usual, Clarissa’s voice was grating to my ears. But everyone’s voice had always been annoying to me, as I preferred everyone to keep their mouths shut—with the exception of Claudia. Her voice was beautiful and soft, yet her words were sharp like a knife. She truly wasted her voice just to insult me with her nonsensical words.

"Go take a picture of Aurora and send it to Claudia at midnight," I ordered.

"Oh? What’s with that weird request, honey baby?" Clarissa complained "cutely," or at least I knew she was trying to act cute. It would never work on me nevertheless, because I despised everyone equally anyway. "But alright~ I’ll do that for you. Though, Claudia is probably holed up in a shabby motel somewhere—oh, what if she gets raped by a hobo on her way? That would be funny~."

"Can you shut up, or do you need me to rip your mouth off?"

"Wha—! H-honey baby, don’t say something so scary. Didn’t I tell you that you sound even scarier when I talk shit about Claudia? You make it sound like you’re in love with her or something," Clarissa complained. "Oh well, I know that you only love me, since I’m prettier and have bigger boobs~!"

"Just do as I said," I cut off her stupid rambling immediately. The more I listened to her, the more I couldn’t ignore how unhinged this woman was.

"Do you want me to beat the girl up to make it more dramatic?" she asked.

"No, I’d kill you if you lay your hand on that girl," I replied calmly, yet firmly, making sure this insane woman understood the command. "Do exactly as I said, Clarissa."

"No fun~ but alright, I’ll take a picture of Aurora and send it to her," Clarissa said. "What about my daughter? Do you want a picture of Lara too, since you’ll be her stepdaddy sooner or later? Ugh, she looks so much like Miles, so you must hate her. What if we make a new one—the one that looks like you? Oh, our child would look gorgeous! I hope they inherit your green eyes and—"

Beep.

"Crazy bitch," I muttered as I put my phone on silent and resumed my work by reading through the documents.