Chapter 88: The Gilded Cage She Built For Me
Sarin stared at Klaus as though she couldn’t understand what he was saying.
"I don’t know those names," she said, then her expression twisted into sorrow and anger as she added, "And what did you just say?"
She leaned further on the table, her eyes sharp. "You dated three women after ’our breakup’? What breakup? You don’t expect me to accept a random call as your true feelings and decision, do you?"
’I knew she wasn’t going to let it go,’ he mumbled inwardly.
He stared at her with a flat expression and said, "I don’t care what you think or expect. The call was serious and so were my words."
Her face turned pitiful, and her eyes trembled as she mumbled, "Five years. We have been together for five years, and you think I am not even worthy of hearing that directly instead of a call?"
He sighed inwardly.
"It had nothing to do with you being worthy or not. It was simply the only possible method."
She lowered her head.
For a long while, both of them stayed silent, and the room was filled with the noise from the outside and their breathing.
Sarin slowly raised her head and looked at his face as she said, "You could have waited for me..."
"Ha?" His eyes widened at the sheer entitlement in her tone, and he blinked a few times.
"Wait? You want me to wait three years to tell you that I no longer want to be with you?"
"That’s not what I meant..." she mumbled before her tone became slightly stricter. "We could have worked out the problem and continued living like the cute lovey-dovey couple as before."
Klaus chuckled.
He tapped the table with the tips of his fingers and shook his left foot up and down while looking at her with a baffled smile on his face.
"It was a good time."
It truly was. Back then, Sarin was already receiving offers from local channels to perform, and because of that, she had enough money that she didn’t have to think twice before spending.
At that time, Klaus used to live in her house, and he didn’t have a job. He wanted to get one, but she stopped him because, according to her, everything he was doing was to make his life as easy and comfortable as possible.
And he, too, didn’t give much consideration to it and simply agreed to her demands. But then one day she told him that she had to leave for the idol tour.
The tour included various big cities across the continents and had the guarantee to increase her popularity beyond bounds.
During her childhood, Sarin only had her mother, who used to be out at work most of the time, so her days were spent watching idols dance and making others feel better about life.
Since then, she had dreamed of becoming a famous idol herself, and when the opportunity came, she took it.
"Then let’s go back to that time," she said while moving her hand closer to his.
He glanced at her hand and asked, "Do you remember the one time I got a job invitation from Demdona Group?"
Sarin’s hand froze, and she answered right away, "I do."
He shifted his eyes to her face and pressed, "Why did you stop me from taking it?"
She furrowed her brows and folded her fingers into a loose fist before she answered, "Because you didn’t need to do a job. I was already earning enough for both of us."
"I needed that job," He said firmly.
She shook her head and replied in a sharp tone, "No, you didn’t."
"You didn’t need to do this three-year tour either," he said, his tone flat and utterly serious.
She was left stunned by the comment; then she muttered, "I wanted to live my dream."
Unknowingly, the answer struck his nerves like a bullet and slammed his other fist into the table, breaking it.
"I also wanted that job, but you stopped me from accepting because I didn’t ’need’ it. The only worth I had came from our relationship. You never allowed me to grow beyond that," he muttered, his expression somber and furious.
Sarin’s mouth opened wide, and she placed her hands on her face as she stared at the table parted into two in disbelief.
She raised her eyes to him, and her lips trembled upon finding him staring at her as though he was looking at some enemy.
Her heart sank.
"I didn—"
Before she could finish her words, Klaus interjected, "Jena, Risha, and Mila. All of them left me within two months of dating. You must be aware of that, aren’t you?"
She lowered her hands and her expression darkened, but she said nothing.
"Why did you do it?" He asked, his voice as serious as it could get.
"Do what?" She feigned ignorance, and that finally broke the dam, and he said what he had been holding back.
"You know I no longer meet my university friends because you turned them into your little spies."
He leaned back in his chair and chuckled somberly.
"To think you had them spy on me from the day you left... You never trusted me, did you?"
She lowered her head.
"Whenever I got into a relationship with anyone, they started to receive threats and harassment from anonymous accounts. And you want me to believe that you weren’t behind that?"
"You drove them to madness because you didn’t want me to escape your little prison."
"I never caged you."
"But you did," he said.
"You kept me from dreaming, achieving, and seeing beyond you. You built a gilded cage that gave me everything I needed, but not once did you care about what I wanted. I too have my dreams, but you pushed them aside."
He leaned forward and added, "You know dreams and ambition are the uppermost values for me... and you kept me from having both of them."
Her shoulders trembled.
"If that’s not a cage, then what is?"